ITEM RESPONSE THEORY ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH STUDIES BASIC EDUCATION CERTIFICATE EXAMINATION IN TARABA STATE, NIGERIA
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12778935Keywords:
Item, Response, Theory, English, studies, BECE, Taraba, state, IRTPROAbstract
This study applied Item Response Theory (IRT) to assess the quality of 2022 English Studies Basic Education Certificate Education (BECE) multiple choice items in Taraba State. The study was guided by 2 research objectives and 2 research questions. The survey research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study comprised of 17,574 students’ responses to English Studies BECE test items from 285 public schools in Taraba state. A sample of 1000 marked-answered scripts was drawn through the multistage sampling procedure using cluster, simple random and systematic sampling techniques. Data was generated through unobtrusive measures from students’ responses in 2022 English Studies BECE Multiple-Choice Questions (MCQs) which was developed by the Education Resource Centre (ERC) and subsequently administered by the Ministry of Education (MOE) to upper basic (JSSIII) students in the state. The data was analysed using the 3PLM of IRTPRO 4.2 to generate item parameter values of difficulty and discrimination. Findings of the study revealed that 41 out of the 60 items are moderately difficulty. Furthermore, 7 items were found difficult and 5 items were found easy. In addition, it was also found that nearly all the items (47) have acceptable a-parameter values. Based on these findings, recommendations were made for the study. It was recommended among others that the Taraba state ERC and MOE should involve test experts to improve the quality of items identified as difficult, easy and those with low a-parameter values so as to create a more balanced and representative set of test items.
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