Effect of Three Modes of Ordering Test Items on Students Achievement in Secondary School Mathematics.

Abstract

The achievement of students in Mathematic has been a source of worry to the society at large. Mathematics which is a very important subject is dreadedd by majority of leaners and if given the opportunity, students would be willing to avoid its inclusion in the list of subjects to be offered in schools. Several reasons have been adduced to this low achievement in mathematics by students among which is thc arrangement of test items administered to them at both internal and external examinations. However, doubts have been raised, over the effectiveness of the type of instrument - paper and pencil type - administered by classroom teachers which lack in the major indices of validity, reliability and structure This study therefore waS designed to determined the effect of the three modes of ordering test items on students' achievement in sccondnry school mathematic To carry out the study, four research questions and one hypothesis were formulated. An instrument containing 40 items and arranged in the three modes was developed and administered to a samplc of 120 out of a population of 2514 SS3 student to obtain the data. Mean, Standard Deviation and Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient formulation was used in answering the research questions while the ANOVA was used in testing the hypothesis, at 0.05 level of significance. The study revealed among other things that there is significant difference in the mean achicvement of students on the tests with diferents modes items of assembly. However, the observed difference in the achievement of the students prescnted with test items arranged from least difficult to most difficult or from most difficult to least difficult was not signifycant. The mean score of the students presented with test items arranged from least difficult to most difficult was 47.05, a little higher than the mean score of students presented with test items arranged from most difficult to least difficult which is 45.65. Randomization of the test items recorded a mean score of 36.65, the lowest of the three groups. Specifically, thc mean difference occured when the tcst itcms were randomized. Based on the findings of the study recommendation were made for the various examination bodies like WAEC, NECO and JAMB and State Ministries of Education, to organize workshops and seminars for teaching of mathematics in secondary schools where papers emphasizing the importance and construction of items of these modes of ordering will be presented. Suggestions were also made for further construction of quality test items especially the one used in quality and placement examination at both internal and external levels.