Assessing the competences of the secondary school students for interpretation of movement graphics through standardized tests

• Published in: AIP conference proceedings Vol. 2218; no. 1
• Main Authors: Deliu, Gabriela, Ștefan, Sabina
• Format: Journal Article Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: Melville American Institute of Physics 20.03.2020
• Subjects: Curricula; Graphical representations; Principal components analysis; Statistical analysis; Students
• ISSN: 0094-243X; 1551-7616
• DOI: 10.1063/5.0001057

In Romania, the new curricula for Mathematics, Physics and Science in Primary and Secondary School have created the formal framework for conducting learning activities, where students develop skills to interpret data represented in graphical form. The subject "Graphic Representation of the Movement" taught at the 6th grade level at Physics is very interesting yet it is challenging for students to understand at this age. Consequently, the purpose of this study was to determine the level of development of students’ competence, between 12-13 years, in understanding and interpretation of movement graphs. The data underlying the analyses was obtained by applying a standardized assessment tool, developed on the basis of the concept of "Construct Map". Item dimensionality analysis was performed by Categorical Principal Components Analysis (CATPCA) and item calibration by Item Response Theory (IRT) modelling. The distractor effectiveness was qualitatively analysed using the Item Response Curves (IRC). The study shows that students have a difficulty in understanding and interpreting movement graphics, that they have misperceptions, the most serious of which being the graph-trajectory confusion. The presentation of the difficulties faced by students, as well as the stages of elaborating the test, the way in which statistical analyses can be used to verify and improve the validity and fidelity of an evaluation tool, make this study a very useful resource for the teachers who want to improve their teaching techniques of the subject and/or techniques for developing a test.