Development and validation of a thinking skills test for high school students in biology

• Main Author: Lim, Florentina C.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 1999
• Subjects: Examinations > Validity; High school students; Biology; Ability > Testing
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_doctoral/820
• Institution: De La Salle University

This study develops and validates a test which measured the thinking skills of second year high school students in biology. It also seeks to identify the characteristics of the developed test in terms of its validity and reliability and, the norms of the test.A group of 1,984 second year high school biology students randomly selected from selected high schools in Luzon, NCR-Manila, Visayas and Mindanao enrolled during the school year 1997-1998 took the final form of the thinking skills test.Item analysis was done to select the 50-test items for the final form of the Thinking Skills Test for High School Students in Biology. After item analysis, the final form of test had difficulty indices between from 0.17 to 0.79 and with an average difficulty index of 0.5. Its discrimination indices were from 0.1 to 0.77 and an average discrimination index of 0.4. The Thinking Skills Test for High School Students in Biology is a 50-items multiple-choice type with four options each. The test measures the 5 components of thinking skills as categorized by Stiggins, Rubel, and Quellmalz (1990) which are, recall, analyze, compare, infer, and evaluate along with 6 applicable and essential areas or contents of the second year high school biology curriculum which are, nature and processes of science, living organisms, cell structure and function, energy of life, cell growth, reproduction and genetics, and ecosystem. In general, the 50-item test has the following characteristics: it has content validity and is reliable. It has a range of difficulty indices between 0.17 and 0.79 and an average difficulty index of 0.5 which is equal to the ideal value of 0.5. It has discrimination indices between 0.1 and 0.77 and an average discrimination index of 0.4 hence, an evidence that the test may be considered as good test for a validated teacher-made test that measures the thinking skills of second year high school biology students, the mean score of the 50-item test is 25.42, which is one-half of the total number of items. The reliability coefficient (KR20) of the whole test was obtained to be .75 hence, the test may be considered a good test. Content validity was established by high school biology curriculum experts, test and evaluation experts and biology professors in consonance with the applicability and essential areas or topics of the high school biology curriculum. Item analysis of the test result revealed a reliable and valid test for evaluating the 5 components of thinking skills measured of second year high school biology students.The 50-item validated Thinking Skills for High School Students in Biology over all then, may be considered valid and reliable, can be used by teachers and administrators as a tool in measuring the components of the thinking skills as well the achievement in biology of second year high school students.