Analisis Kualitas Soal Try-Out Bahasa Inggris SMP di Kota Makassar Berdasarkan Teori Respon Butir

The aim of this study was to describe the quality of English testing intrument used in Try Out National Exam conducted by 40 Junior High Schools in Makassar-Sulawesi Selatan, using Item Response Theory (IRT) especially based on one (1PL), two (2PL), and three (3PL) parameters models. The data consist of 1.267 student’s answer sheets and the test has 50 multiple choice items. Results showed that the test is preferably good at both item difficulty and item dicrimination as suggest by 1PL and 2PL estimation. But at 3PL estimation, the test unable to discriminate students ability, while 38 % of the items were easy to guess.

Only Cervical Segments C0-C2, Not C3 Are Relevant for Subgrouping Migraine Patients According to Manual Palpation and Pain Provocation

Background and Aims: Subgrouping of migraine patients according to the pain response to manual palpation of the upper cervical spine has been recently described. Based on the neuroanatomy and the convergence of spinal and trigeminal nerves in the trigeminocervical complex, the cervical segments C1 to C3 are potentially relevant. To date it has not been investigated whether palpation results of all upper cervical segments are based on one underlying construct which allows combining the results of several tests.Methods: Seventy-one migraine patients with chronic or frequent episodic migraine diagnosed according to the IHS classification version 3 were examined by one physiotherapist. Manual palpation was performed on the upper three cervical segments unilaterally left and right. The results of the palpation according to the patients’ responses were combined using factor analysis to determine whether results from all three segments form one underlying construct. In addition, item response theory (IRT) was used to investigate the structure of the response pattern as well as item difficulty and discriminationFindings: Factor analysis (principal component) showed that the palpation of C3 loads less onto the underlying construct than the palpation of C1 and C2. Considering a cut-off value >1.0, the eigenvalues of all three segments do not represent one underlying construct. When excluding the results from C3, remaining items form one construct. The internal consistency of the pain response to palpation of C1 and C2 is acceptable with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.69. IRT analysis showed that the rating scale model fits best to the pain response pattern. The discrimination value (1.24) was equal for all 4 items. Item difficulty showed a clear hierarchical structure between the palpation of C1 and C2, indicating that people with a higher impairment are more likely to respond with referred pain during palpation of the segment C2. Conclusion: Statistical analysis confirms that results from the palpation of the cervical segments C1 and C2 in migraine patients can be combined. IRT analysis confirmed the ordinal pattern of the pain response and showed the higher probability of a pain response during palpation of C2. Registration of main Study: German registry of clinical trials (DRKS00015995), Registered 20. December 2018, https://www.drks.de/drks_web/setLocale_EN.do

Providing Validity Evidence for Ignite by Hatch

The authors of this study seek to provide practitioners with evidence to support the instructional value of Ignite by Hatch, a digital learning game designed for preschool children. Analyses were conducted using the entire population of three- and four-year-old children who used Ignite during the 2020-2021 academic year (n = 29,417) and included the use of descriptive statistics to explore patterns of growth and the Rasch measurement model to explore item difficulty. This chapter also features a preliminary crosswalk establishing the alignment between the domains, subdomains, and games presented within the Ignite game environment and the learning goals provided by the North Carolina Foundations for Early Learning and Development framework. Results suggest strong preliminary evidence in support of the instructional value of Ignite by Hatch. Further research is recommended to understand how knowledge and skill acquisition within the game environment translate to developmental growth outside of the gaming environment.

Development of Cognitive Learning Scale to Test the Knowledge Level of Veterinary Students on ICT

In the present study, to test the knowledge level of veterinary students on ICT, one hundred and seventy-one items were initially constructed on the basis of promoting thinking rather than rote memorization. It was designed in a manner that could differentiate the well-informed veterinary students from less informed ones. The scores of the respondents were subjects to item analysis to find the item difficulty index and item discrimination index. In the final selection, a total of 34 items with difficulty index between 30 and 80 and discrimination index ranging from 0.30 to 0.55 were selected. The reliability of the knowledge test developed was tested using split half technique. The coefficient of correlation value in split half test was 0.89, which was found to be significant at 1 per cent level of significance. It was found that, the developed knowledge test scale of Veterinary students on ICT was highly stable and can be used for measurement.

Ice Is Hot and Water Is Dry

To monitor students’ progress and adapt instruction to students’ needs, teachers increasingly use repeated assessments of equivalent tests. The present study investigates whether equivalent reading tests can be successfully developed via rule-based item design. Based on theoretical considerations, we identified 3-item features for reading comprehension at the word, sentence, and text levels, respectively, which should influence the difficulty and time intensity of reading processes. Using optimal design algorithms, a design matrix was calculated, and four equivalent test forms of the German reading test series for second graders (quop-L2) were developed. A total of N = 7,751 students completed the tests. We estimated item difficulty and time intensity parameters as well as person ability and speed parameters using bivariate item response theory (IRT) models, and we investigated the influence of item features on item parameters. Results indicate that all item properties significantly affected either item difficulty or response time. Moreover, as indicated by the IRT-based test information functions and analyses of variance, the four different test forms showed similar levels of difficulty and time-intensity at the word, sentence, and text levels (all η2 < .002). Results were successfully cross-validated using a sample of N = 5,654 students.

Impact of Event Scale-6 (IES-6) for U.S. Adults Who Experienced the COVID-19 Pandemic

Background: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental illness caused by traumatic events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Accurate diagnosis of this disorder is critical to establish effective intervention approaches. The Impact of Event Scale-6 (IES-6) is widely used for PTSD screening, but there has been no research on its psychometric properties with individuals who experienced the COVID-19 pandemic.Methods: A random sample of 600 participants were randomly selected from a COVID-19 survey database (n = 6,391). Rasch analysis was conducted to examine item fit, rating scale structure, construct validity, differential item functioning (DIF), and precision of the IES-6. Results: The principal component analysis of Rasch residuals (54.1% of the raw variance explained) and the average of residual correlations (average r = .19) supported the unidimensionality structure in the IES-6. The rating scale was suitable, and the item difficulty hierarchy was logical. The item fit and the DIF contrast were acceptable, except for item 5. The IES-6’s person reliability was .76, which was also an acceptable level.Conclusions: This study showed that the IES-6 has acceptable item-level psychometrics for screening PTSD in adults in the United States for individuals who have experienced the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings suggested that the IES-6 would be useful for the rapid identification of PTSD and allow clinicians to quickly provide interventions for people with the disorder and their families.

Is Test Item Arrangement a Factor in the Academic Achievement of Undergraduate Pharmacy Students in Chemistry?

Aims: To determine the effect of test item arrangements in ascending, descending and no consistent order of difficulty in multiple choice tests on undergraduate pharmacy students’ academic achievement in a chemistry course. The present study served as an attempt to relate the effect of test item arrangement on undergraduate pharmacy students’ academic achievement in a chemistry course in Nigerian Universities. Study Design: Quasi-experimental research design of pre-test posttest non-equivalent group design was adopted in carrying out this research. Place and Duration of Study: This study was carried out in ten Nigerian Universities between August, 2020 to April, 2021. Methodology: We sampled 200 participants (111 male, 89 females; age range 16 – 27 years) undergraduate pharmacy students drawn from ten (10) Universities in Nigeria. Twenty undergraduate pharmacy students offering Basic Principle of Chemistry (Chem. 101) were randomly selected from each of the selected universities for the study. Results: The mean scores when test items were arranged in ascending, descending, and no consistent orders of item difficulty were 44.38, 37.85 and 40.13 respectively. Their differential mean scores were 6.53, 2.28 and 4.26 in the same order. This implies that pharmacy students obtained higher scores when test items were arranged in ascending order of difficulty, followed by no consistent order and least in descending order of difficulty. The findings further revealed no significant arrangement by gender interaction effect on undergraduate pharmacy students` performance in the three tests. Conclusion: This study will help pharmacy lecturers in determining the most appropriate test item order which will help the students obtain high scores in any pharmaceutical test. The researchers conducted a quasi-experimental study on the topic as part of their undergraduate curriculum to examine the best test item format that will enhance pharmacy students' academic achievement in a chemistry course.

Predicting Medical Fees for Hospitalized Inpatients and the Determination of Inflection Point

Background: Taiwan’s Bureau of National Health Insurance (BNHI) implemented an inpatient DRG payment system scheduled for January 2008. Many hospital managers urgently invent initiatives to decrease the impacts of DRGs. Predicting medical fees for hospitalized inpatients every day and the corresponding inflection points (IPs) are required for investigations. The aims of this study include (1) verifying the efficacy of the exponential growth model on accumulative publications of mobile health research between 1997 and 2016 in the literature; (2) building the model of predicting medical fees for hospitalized inpatients and determining the inflection points; and (3) demonstrating visualizations of the prediction model online in use for hospital physicians.Methods: An exponential growth model was applied to determine the IP and predict the medical fees to help physicians contain the medical fees of a specific patient during hospitalization. The IP is equal to the item difficulty proven using the differential equation in calculus. An online visual display of the medically contained and predicted inpatient hospitalization was demonstrated in this study.Results: We observed (1) a model accuracy (R2 = 0.99) higher than that (R2 = 0.98) in the literature based on identical data; (2) 231 samples of medical fees for inpatients in the study module with a length of days between 6 and 20 and an IPS falling in the range between 1 and 10 (Q1=0.98, Q3=1.00); and (3) online visualization demonstration of medical fees predicted for hospital inpatients and IP determination on ogive curves.Conclusion: The exponential growth model can be applied to a clinical setting to help physicians consecutively predict medical fees for hospitalized inpatients and upgrade the level of hospital management in the future.

Measurement Properties of Canadian Agility and Movement Skill Assessment for Children Aged 9–12 Years Using Rasch Analysis

The Canadian Agility and Movement Skill Assessment (CAMSA) was recently widely used to assess fundamental motor skills in children. Although the CAMSA is reported to be reliable and valid, its measurement properties are not clear. This study aimed to examine the measurement properties of the CAMSA in a sample of Chinese children using Rasch analysis. The study sample was from 1,094 children aged 9–12 years in Zunyi City, Guizhou Province. Descriptive data were analyzed using SPSS 24.0 software, and the dichotomous data were analyzed by Winsteps version 4.5.4 and Facets 3.67.1 software performing Rasch analysis. The present study investigated CAMSA measurement characteristics by Rasch analysis, including the reliability of the rating instrument, unidimensionality, item-fit statistics, and differential item functioning (DIF). Inter-rater reliability and retest reliability showed that the CAMSA had a good internal consistency. Rasch analysis indicated that the CAMSA was unidimensional, locally independent, and had a good item-fit-statistic. Additionally, the CAMSA displayed a good fit for the item separation index (12.50 &gt; 2.0), as well as for item reliability (0.99 &gt; 0.90). However, the item difficulty of the CAMSA did not fit well with personal ability, and a significant DIF was found across genders. In the Chinese children sample test, the CAMSA demonstrated appropriate goodness-of-fit validity and rater reliability. Thus, future research will explore item difficulty and person ability fit, as well as DIF across genders.

Use of Rasch Wright map to understand the quality of Healthcare Workers’ Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices for Uncomplicated Malaria (HKAPIUM)

The present study assessed the dimensionality and item difficulty targeting to person ability of HKAPIUM scale using Rasch Wright map approach. A HKAPIUM instrument (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.71) containing eighteen (18)-items was administered to 121 trained healthcare professionals involved in the management of uncomplicated malaria in 24 selected primary health care (PHC) facilities in Plateau state, Nigeria. The respondents filled and returned the instrument and the data was analyzed using Bond&Fox software®. The Rasch principal components analysis (Rasch-PCA) of the item residuals indicated variance explained values of 52 (knowledge), 41.1 (attitudes), and 55.4 (practices) and eigenvalues of the first contrast as 1.2, 1.8, and 1.5, respectively, which were within acceptable values thatindicated the unidimensionality of the three constructs of the HKAPIUM scale. The result showed moderate items difficulty levels for all the three constructs. The mean person ability levels of respondents with-respect-to knowledge-related items were low, while their mean person ability levels in endorsing the attitudes and practices-related items were good. The study revealed unidimensionality of the 3 constructs of HKAPIUM scale, with observed mismatch between item difficulty levels of the constructs with most of the person ability levels of the respondents.