Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺南大學 === 教育學系課程與教學教學碩士班 === 103 === The main purpose of this study was to analyze the sources of item difficulty on mathematic tests for sixth grade students in elementary schools. This study used a sample of six final tests for 6th graders in six elementary schools in Taiwan. Each test was divided into two major content areas: number and measurement as well as geometry. This study first examined the content validity for each test. Then, for both content areas, a coding framework conceptualized from previous related studies and references was developed to predict the item difficulty parameters. The coding framework then was applied to analyze the cognitive components for the test items in each test. The cognitive components proposed in this study were the complexity of problem solving, the cognitive level, the novelty of context, and the information of graph. The coding data were analyzed through descriptive statistics and multi-regression. The major findings of this study were as follows:
1. For all tests, the scores of regular mathematics assessment maldistributed.
2. In both content areas: “number and measurement” and “geometric”, most of the items were on the application level of the cognitive level.
3. In the content area of “number and measurement”, “complexity of problem solving” significantly and positively predicted item difficulty parameters.
4. In the content area of “geometry”, “complexity of problem solving” and “cognitive level” significantly and positively predicted item difficulty parameters.
|