Examination of map reading skills with orienteering activity: An example of Many Facet Rasch Model

The purpose of the current study is to examine the map reading skills of Social Studies pre-service teachers with orienteering, which is an activity-based and more active practice. To this end, a total of 10 students attending the Department of Social Studies Teaching in the Education Faculty of Burdur Mehmet Akif Ersoy University and taking the course of Map Skills and Applications were selected. An analytical rubric consisting of four criteria and scored in four categories was used to collect data in the study. The content validity of the developed rubric was calculated with the Davis Technique and it was thought that sufficient evidence was obtained for the content validity. During the orienteering activity, the map reading skills of the students were scored by 5 raters with this rubric in terms of four criteria, direction/location, recognizing signs/symbols, using landforms and managing time. They were examined with the many-facet Rasch model (MFRM). Map reading skills were evaluated according to the severity/leniency of the raters and the difficulty of the students in exhibiting the behavior. The results of the analysis showed that the agreement between the raters was found to be good. It was also concluded that the most difficult skill is determining direction/location and the easiest skill is using landforms.