Detecting DIF in the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) commerce examination from form four syllabus
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Date
2007
Authors
Haji T.A. Kunchi Koya, Zaubedah
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Abstract
This study was conducted to detect biased items or items which are unfavorable to
students in terms of their gender and school locations. Respondents consist of form four
students from Pahang state secondary schools. A set of achievement test for Commerce
subject consisting of forty multiple-choice items has been used for the purpose of this
study. The items were from the Form Four Syllabus. Analysis of data has been done
using BIGSTEPS Programme. 95% Confidential Interval diagram is used to detect DIF,
where as a number of items are selected as an anchor for the diagram. 95% Confidential
Interval diagram indicated that the items that are outside of the Two Standard Error line
are considered bias to the group. The findings of the study indicate the existence of
biased items towards gender group and rural students. However, there is no biased
towards urban students. Factors which are likely to affect findings of the study are
Teaching and Learning process, students’ background and students’ different life
experiences. There are five items which are biased towards rural students. These items
were bias to the students possibly because students have no prior experience pertaining to
the situation in the items, terms used in the items were not compatible with the students
and the items require wide reading, calculation and high thinking ability. There were two
items which are biased towards male students. These items were illustrated items,
knowledge-base items that need memorization fact and reading comprehension items that
required thorough understanding. There were five items which are biased towards female
students. Most of these items were those with illustration which require visualization
ability whereby students need to visualize the situations that stated items and solve the
problem that were stated in the items. Another kind of item which is not favorable to the
female students is the ‘facial biases. ‘Facial bias is a type of bias that favors to one
domain group such as male.
Description
Master
Keywords
Education , Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) , Commerce examination , DIF