Developing a discriminant function for streaming students into science and non-science in Acheh

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Date
2007
Authors
Khairul Umam
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Abstract
This research was aimed at developing a discriminant function to stream students into either science, social-science or social stream. This research examined and analyzed the effect of average scores of students’ interest and study time of Mathematics, Sciences (Biology, Physics and Chemistry), Indonesian Language, English Language, Islamic Religious study, Nationality, Social and Culture, and Accountancy (Economy). The influence of students’ interest in study time is also analyzed. The testing is conducted using discriminant analysis method which produces a discriminant function. This function can be used as an indicator to stream students into the proper stream according to their interest and ability. The research data were gathered from the respondents’ performance in all subjects taken at third year after completing first and second year examination. The data include average scores, students’ interest and study time. There are 408 respondents involved, 118 of them are from science stream, 121 from social-science and 169 are from social stream. The result of data which was analyzed using SPSS software (V.11.5), the discriminant functions Y (f(x)) obtained as follows Y1 (Science stream), Y2 (Social-Science stream) and Y3 (Social stream). Each column of SPSS (V.11.5) output contains coefficient estimation for one classification function for each group (stream). The coefficient is also known as Fisher’s linear discriminant function and can be used directly for classification. The coefficients are obtained for each group, and a case is classified into group with the biggest discriminant score. The process of classification of the new data to the discriminant function resulted in different Y1, Y2, and Y3 scores. If the score from one of the functions is higher than the others, then the student can be streamed into the corresponding stream. By using the resulted new function, when students get higher average scores in science and social subjects, they can then be streamed into science. Whereas, students who get lower average scores in science and social subjects can be streamed into social stream.
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Master
Keywords
Art , discriminant , streaming students , science , non-science
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