Journal article
Development of an online test of problem solving ability that minimises the extraneous differential effects of language background and subsequent validation through a large-scale DIF analysis
A Vista, E Care, P Griffin
International Journal of Educational Research | ELSEVIER SCI LTD | Published : 2015
Abstract
This paper presents a test of problem solving ability that is designed to minimise the differential effects of language background. Large-scale data are presented in order to determine the validity of this test through differential item functioning (DIF) analysis. The analysis was conducted on test data from 3527 students from 61 government schools across Victoria, Australia in 2010. The students have diverse linguistic backgrounds and a wide range of English language proficiency.Using both 2PL IRT and logistic regression approaches it is shown that most items are not functioning differentially with respect to language background, providing evidence that the design of the instrument is valid..
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Funding Acknowledgements
The data for this study were collected as part of a broader research project called the Assessment and Learning Partnerships (ALP), which was conducted by the Assessment Research Centre at the University of Melbourne. The collaboration for the data collection process and the development of the research instruments included the contributions of M. Pavlovic, N. Awwal, and P. Robertson as the research team under the supervision of Prof. Patrick Griffin and Assoc. Prof. Esther Care as the principal investigators. The ALP project is funded by the Australian Research Council.