Open AccessDIFFERENTIAL ITEM FUNCTIONING ON THE BRAILLE EDITION OF SAT‐M
Author(s) -
Bennett Randy Elliot,
Rock Donald A.,
Novatkoski Inge
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
ets research report series
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.235
H-Index - 5
ISSN - 2330-8516
DOI - 10.1002/j.2330-8516.1988.tb00299.x
Subject(s) - differential item functioning , braille , psychology , population , differential (mechanical device) , meaning (existential) , test (biology) , cognitive psychology , developmental psychology , psychometrics , item response theory , linguistics , paleontology , philosophy , demography , sociology , engineering , psychotherapist , biology , aerospace engineering
This study attempted to pinpoint the causes of differential item difficulty for blind students taking the braille edition of the Scholastic Aptitude Test's Mathematical section (SAT‐M). The study method involved reviewing the literature to identify factors that might cause differential item functioning for these examinees, forming item categories based on these factors, identifying categories that functioned differentially, and assessing the functioning of the items composing deviant categories to determine if the differential effect was pervasive. Results showed an association between selected item categories and differential functioning, particularly for items that included figures in the stimulus, items for which spatial estimation was helpful in eliminating at least two of the options, and items which presented diagrams that were small or medium in size. The precise meaning of this association, however, was unclear because some items from the suspected categories functioned normally, factors other than the hypothesized ones might have caused the observed aberrant item behavior, and the differential difficulty might be related to real population differences.