Determining the psychometric properties of middle school statistical thinking testlet-based assessment tool

Abstract

The majority of students from elementary to tertiary levels have misunderstandings and challenges acquiring various statistical concepts and skills. However, the existing statistics assessment frameworks challenge practice in a classroom setting. The purpose of this research is to develop and validate a statistical thinking assessment tool involving form one (Grade 7) students’ statistical thinking. The SOLO model was applied to develop five testlet tasks. Each testlet task involved four components. This study employed the survey methodology to assess the statistical thinking of 356 form one students. Content validity was determined using the Content Validity Index (CVI). The construct validity was determined using Rasch analysis. The results demonstrated that the instrument for assessing the statistical thinking of the form one students was valid and trustworthy. This finding of the study also revealed new evidence that the instrument allowed the teachers to identify the students’ progress effectively based on the hierarchical manner of item levels in the testlet format. The instrument was useful in identifying students’ statistical thinking levels. The students’ ability to respond appropriately to a task at a particular level reveals their degree of cognitive development. Testlet task was also easy to diagnose the strengths and weaknesses in learning statistics topics.