Effect of Test Item arrangement on Learning Outcome in Mathematics among Junior Secondary School Students
Abstract
The research investigated the impact of the sequence of test items on the performance of Junior Secondary School Students. A quasi-experimental research design was utilized for this study. The target population consisted of all Junior Secondary School Students across the three senatorial districts in Ekiti State, Nigeria. A sample of two hundred (200) students was selected from this population through a proportional sampling technique. The participants were categorized into an experimental group designated as A and a control group identified as B. A testing instrument referred to as the “Mathematics Multiple-Choice Test (MMCT) comprising three variants, A-C, was employed. Variant A was organized in ascending order of difficulty, whereas variant B was structured in descending order of difficulty, and variant C was arranged randomly without any specific order. The validity of the instruments was established using a table of specification (TOS), and a general reliability coefficient of 0.96 was calculated through the Kuder Richardson formula 20 (KR20). Mean, standard deviation, and t-test analyses were conducted to compare the means of each group against the control group and the test. The results indicated that arranging items in ascending order of difficulty exerted a positive and significant effect on students' performance in mathematics at a 0.05 alpha level, while the descending order arrangement demonstrated a positive yet insignificant effect on students' performance in mathematics. It was suggested that educators, test developers, and professional examination organizations should prioritize the arrangement of items from simpler to more complex to enhance students' confidence..
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