Development and validation of an innovative achievement test in college biology

• Main Author: Rubenecia, Nestor L.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 1990
• Subjects: Biology > Examinations, questions, etc; Achievement tests; Biology > Study and teaching; Biology
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_doctoral/643
• Institution: De La Salle University

A development descriptive research is conducted to develop and validate an innovative achievement test in college biology. Two hundred forty test items were constructed and were printed in three forms containing eighty items each. All the three forms were administered to students in three state universities, namely University of Southern Mindanao, University of Eastern Philippines, and Pangasinan State University during the school year 1989-1990. The test was subjected to item analysis and the best eighty test items were selected to comprise the final form of the innovative test. The final form of the innovative test was again administered to 80 college students for revalidation. The eighty-item final form obtained a mean score of whole test of 46.62 with a standard deviation of 14.72. The mean index of difficulty was 0.57 with a standard deviation of 0.09. The index of discrimination which made use of the point biserial correlation obtained a mean of 0.32 with a standard deviation of 0.08. Most of the eighty items yielded rpb coefficients which when tested for significance, obtained computed t-values that exceeded the tabular t of 2.379 at 0.01 level with 78 degree of freedom.The standard error of measurement obtained from the scores on whole test was 4.16. The true score range was the raw score plus or minus 8. The Kuder-Richardson 20 reliability coefficient obtained was 0.92. The validity coefficient using the NCEE percentile ranks and grades in high school biology as criteria-measure and scores on whole test were 0.54 and 0.45, respectively. The test presented innovative features. Section 1 was a test of knowledge involving an innovative matching type of items section 2 was a test of comprehension involving relationships section 3 was a test of comprehension involving skills analysis and, section 4 was a test of application of knowledge dealing with graphs. Test of knowledge, test of comprehension and test of knowledge of application accounted for 25 percent, 50 percent and 25 percent of the test, respectively. In the content area chemical and cellular bases of life was allotted 12.5 percent of the total number of items, biology of organisms was 27.5 percent, biology of populations and communities was 25 percent, perpetuation of life was 17.5 percent, and taxonomy of plants and animals was 17.5 percent of the total number of test items.