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Re‐examining Test Item Issues in the TIMSS Mathematics and Science Assessments
Author(s) -
Wang Jianjun
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
school science and mathematics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.135
H-Index - 2
eISSN - 1949-8594
pISSN - 0036-6803
DOI - 10.1111/j.1949-8594.2011.00096.x
Subject(s) - mathematics education , test (biology) , context (archaeology) , ambiguity , item response theory , standardized test , science education , psychology , mathematics , computer science , statistics , psychometrics , geography , paleontology , archaeology , biology , programming language
As the largest international study ever taken in history, the Trend in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) has been held as a benchmark to measure U.S. student performance in the global context. In‐depth analyses of the TIMSS project are conducted in this study to examine key issues of the comparative investigation: (1) item flaws in mathematics and science; (2) inability to reflect item score differences between adjacent grades; (3) ambiguity of the test items behind nonrandom guessing; and (4) unfair comparisons resulted from inconsistent item difficulties across the nations. The TIMSS item checking could help education stakeholders understand more profound assessment issues through the information triangulation.