Open AccessAnalysis of Secondary Grade Mathematics Question Papers of Boards of Intermediate and Secondary Education in Punjab
Author(s) -
M. A. Saeed
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
pakistan journal of education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2413-8517
pISSN - 1818-3344
DOI - 10.30971/pje.v31i1.78
Subject(s) - curriculum , mathematics education , cognition , test (biology) , national curriculum , comprehension , subject (documents) , psychology , quality (philosophy) , pedagogy , computer science , library science , paleontology , philosophy , epistemology , neuroscience , biology , programming language
The purpose of this study was to investigate the quality of mathematics question papers of Boards of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) for grade 9 and 10 (secondary level) as per national curriculum 2006. The BISE question papers in the subject of mathematics of grade IX-X for the two academic years 2012 and 2013 were analyzed in terms of the weightage of different cognitive abilities suggested in the national curriculum. The analysis was made on the basis of the basic principles of test item construction found in literature and the weightage of various cognitive abilities narrated in national curriculum. It was found that question papers were largely assessing students’ lower cognitive abilities (knowledge and comprehension); a few items were assessing higher cognitive abilities (application and analysis). Since the cognitive abilities of synthesis and evaluation were not desired to assess in the national curriculum (2006) of mathematics, so these were ignored. Some of the questions were weak in terms of language and format/style. The study suggests that teachers should be aware of the national curriculum document with special reference to assessment and BISE should organize intensive training for teachers in test item construction, especially those involved in developing mathematics question papers for BISE.