Universal Journal of Educational Research Vol. 9(4), pp. 862 - 869
DOI: 10.13189/ujer.2021.090420
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Item Analysis of the Science and Technology Components of the 2019 Basic Education Certificate Examination Conducted by National Examinations Council

Maxwell E. Uduafemhe ^1,*, Danladi Uwelo ², Sunday O. John ³, Roseline Y. Karfe ^1
1 Department of Industrial and Technology Education, Federal University of Technology Minna, Niger State, Nigeria
² Department of Educational Foundations, Faculty of Education, Nasarawa State University, Keffi, Nigeria
³ National Open University of Nigeria, Minna Study Centre, Minna, Niger State, Nigeria

ABSTRACT

One of the activities that take place behind the scenes as part of the steps taken by examination bodies to standardized tests is the determination of the psychometric properties of the items in a process referred to as item analysis. This study analysed the adequacy of the basic science and technology test items used for the 2019 Basic Education Certificate Examination in terms of difficulty levels, discriminating powers, guessing, and distracter indices. The study adopted evaluation and descriptive survey research designs. A sample of 976 students was selected from 59 schools across Niger State for the study using a multistage random sampling procedure. A 60-item Basic Science and Technology test administered by the National Examinations Council for the 2019 BECE was used to collect data for the study. The item difficulty levels, discriminating powers, guessing, and distracter indices of the items were generated based on a four-parameter Item Response Theory model using Xcalibre software package. The items adequately satisfied unidimensionality and local independence, when statistically examined using confirmatory factor analysis and tetra–chronic correlation respectively. The findings revealed that all the items satisfied the difficulty, discrimination, distracter and guessing indices criteria to be used for the 2019 BECE. It was recommended among others that school proprietors and the government should endeavour to sponsor teachers to attend item generation workshops to be up-to-date with how to generate test items that meet the criteria for final examinations.

KEYWORDS
Item Analysis, Basic Education Certificate Examination, Difficulty Levels, Discriminating Powers, Guessing, Distracter Indices

Cite This Paper in IEEE or APA Citation Styles
(a). IEEE Format:
[1] Maxwell E. Uduafemhe , Danladi Uwelo , Sunday O. John , Roseline Y. Karfe , "Item Analysis of the Science and Technology Components of the 2019 Basic Education Certificate Examination Conducted by National Examinations Council," Universal Journal of Educational Research, Vol. 9, No. 4, pp. 862 - 869, 2021. DOI: 10.13189/ujer.2021.090420.

(b). APA Format:
Maxwell E. Uduafemhe , Danladi Uwelo , Sunday O. John , Roseline Y. Karfe (2021). Item Analysis of the Science and Technology Components of the 2019 Basic Education Certificate Examination Conducted by National Examinations Council. Universal Journal of Educational Research, 9(4), 862 - 869. DOI: 10.13189/ujer.2021.090420.