Analysis of the discrimination index of final biology examinations in Malta

Item analysis is a range of statistics that helps to determine the effectiveness of each item in an examination. It plays an important role in contributing to the fairness of the examination as well as helps to identify content areas that may be problematic for students. The validity and reliability of an examination finally depend on the characteristics of the items. Item analysis permits a high reliability and validity to be built into a test in advance. Discrimination index (D) is part of item analysis that measures the difference in item difficulty between groups of students with high and low marks. The index varies between -1 and 1 where the item ideally should be between +0.3 and +1.0. A highly discriminating item is indicative of students who gained high tests scores got the item correct whereas those who had low test scores got the item incorrect. The objective of our study was to calculate the discrimination indices of Advanced level Biology final examinations at a public post-secondary institution in Malta. The final scores obtained by first-year students over a five-year period (n = 1315), 2014-2018, in Papers 1 (short-type items) and 2 (comprehension, structured and unstructured essays) were used to calculate the discrimination index for each item. Results are encouraging since negative discrimination, indicative of a defective item, were not observed in any of the items. Paper 1 is better at discriminating between high and low achievers since over the study period, 93% of the items had acceptable (D between 0.2-0.29) or good discrimination (D between 0.3-0.39) while less, 54%, in Paper 2. Also, fewer (5%) of the items in Paper 1 had poor discrimination (D < 0-0.19) but 46% in Paper 2. Results show that comprehension items are better than the essay type to discriminate between high and low achievers. This finding may be used to start a discussion at the institution to consider the validity of the essay-type of items in final Biology examinations.peer-reviewe

Classification of Maltese biology examination questions using Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy

This study investigates the question types according to Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy in the final Paper 1 Advanced Biology examinations at a public post-secondary Institution and the National ones at the cognitive domain. The data of the study was obtained by examining the May/June 2017 and 2018 past papers. A total of 205 questions were analysed (97 Institution and 108 National). The questions were classified in terms of the cognitive levels of the Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy. Data was given with tables as percentage. The study highlighted that not all objectives were present in every examination paper. The findings show that both types of examinations mostly include questions that do not promote higher levels of thinking. The Institution Paper 1 has two sections: Section A that tests the theoretical aspect, like the National examination while Section B tests the practical aspect. The highest percentage of questions in the National and Institution Section A examinations were from the remembering type of objective while from applying type in Section B. The percentage of questions in the cognitive domain, remembering type, were higher in the National examination. Analysis was also carried out to determine the marks being awarded to the different cognitive levels. When both examinations are considered, the bulk of the marks were in the remembering and understanding types of objectives. The percentage of marks allocated to the remembering type of objective in National examinations was 2.5X more in 2017 and 1.5X in 2018 than in the Institution Section A. In Section B, the applying type of objective was rewarded the highest marks. This study strongly highlights the narrow scope in terms of student achievement in high-stake examinations and shows how the present Maltese biology examination procedures promote low-level learning.peer-reviewe

L-editorjal

F’din il-ħarġa letterarja ta’ “Il-Malti” nsibu x-xogħlijiet ta’ wieħed u tletin kontributur, xogħlijiet varji b’karatteristiċi partikolari tagħhom.peer-reviewe

L-ortografija

L-ortografija tirregolarizza kemm jista’ jkun l-forma grafika li tirrappreżenta l-ilsien mitkellem.peer-reviewe

L-editorjal

F’din l-edizzjoni ta’ “Il-Malti” nsibu tiżwiqa ta’ xogħlijiet ta’ valur li jittrattaw diversi aspetti: l-aspett storiku, soċjokulturali, lingwistiku u letterarju.peer-reviewe

Examining the structural validity of the strengths and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ) in a multilevel framework

The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), proposed by Goodman (1997), has been used by many researchers to measure the social, emotional and behaviour difficulties in children. The SDQ comprises four difficulty subscales measuring emotional, conduct, hyperactivity and peer problems. It also includes a fifth subscale measuring prosocial behaviour. A sample of 5200 Maltese students who were aged between 6 and 16 years was used to investigate the multilevel factor structure underlying the teachers’ version of the SDQ. Statistical analysis in this study was conducted using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) and Multilevel Structural Equation Modelling (MSEM). The study finds that a two-level three-factor model fits the data marginally better than a single-level three-factor model.peer-reviewe

Examining the model structure of the strengths and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ)

The Strengths and Difficulties questionnaire (SDQ), proposed by Goodman 1997, has been used by researchers to measure social, emotional and behaviour difficulties in children. The SDQ includes four difficulty subscales, measuring emotional, conduct, hyperactivity and peer problems. It also includes a fifth subscale, measuring prosocial behaviour. Dickey 2004 suggested that the SDQ factor structure can be reduced to three dimensions comprising the prosocial, externalisation and internalisation subscales. Externalising problems combine conduct and hyperactivity, while internalising problems combine peer and emotional difficulties. A sample of 5200 local students aged between 4 and 16 years was used to investigate the factor structure underlying the teachers' version of the SDQ. Statistical analysis was conducted using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The study finds that the three-factor solution fits the data well. EFA establishes good internal consistency of these three factors. Moreover, several fit indices confirm this three-factor model through CFA. The externalisation construct linking hyperactivity and conduct problems is more robust than the internalisation construct linking emotional to peer problems. Through SEM, it was deduced that the Externalisation Factor dominates both the Internalisation and the Prosocial Factors. This implies that by controlling externalized behaviour leads to a better control of internalized and prosocial behaviours of students.peer-reviewe

An online educational portal for teachers and students in a subject department

Teachers are against duplication of efforts and dislike the sideway clerical duties that use up their resources for doing the proper job — enriching their knowledge and giving pastoral care for their students. The duty of marking attendance, entering marks and subsequently producing a global grade is an important link in the chain of school ad- ministration and hence a necessary evil. Today we are in an era enriched by useful technologies and tools that can help in the learning environment. In this paper, an already-existing open-source e-learning software platform is used and manipulated to accommodate the exigencies and specific needs of running a subject department at a post-secondary level in Malta.peer-reviewe

Diagnosis of misconceptions about force and motion held by first-year post-secondary students

Also published in Symposium Melitensia Vol. 15 (2019) p. 29-39The present study aims to detect misconceptions in force and motion among Maltese post-secondary students aged 16-17. The revised version of the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) originally designed by Hestenes, D., Wells, M., & Swackhamer, G. (1992) was used. A total of 395 students participated in the study by answering the FCI test at the beginning of their first-year and again at the end of the said year. Data were analysed by using a method used by Martín-Blas, T., Seidel L. & Serrano-Fernández A. (2010). In this study all of the known misconceptions given in the original paper by Hestenes, but modified by Bani-Salameh 2017, were examined. The dominant misconceptions from the students’ wrong answers for each of the 30 questions in the FCI were determined. A comparison of the dominant misconceptions held by the cohort studied in the pre- and post-test showed that a number of misconceptions persisted. This study reveals that the impetus, active force and action/reaction pairs misconceptions were the most problematic for the students. Only the pre- and post-test results for all students are reported in this study, leaving gender differences for future work.peer-reviewe

A simple HPLC-UV method for the determination of clindamycin in human plasma

This study describes a simple high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method for the determination of clindamycin in plasma. Analysis was carried out using a Varian® Pro Star HPLC unit equipped with an online degasser. A reversed-phase ACE® C18 column of dimensions 250x4.6mm, particle size 5μm was used. The mobile phase was made up of 0.02M disodiumhydrogen phosphate buffer (pH of 2.9) and acetonitrile at a ratio of 71:29 v/v, running through the column at a flow rate of 1.5ml/min and with ultraviolet (UV) detection set at a wavelength of 195nm. Clindamycin was separated from plasma proteins by protein precipitation with ice cold acetonitrile. Clindamycin and the internal standard phenobarbitone eluted after 3.96 and 7 minutes respectively. The method was validated for linearity in the working concentration range of 0.5-20μg/ml. Linearity was observed with a coefficient of determination (r2) of 0.990. The recoveries obtained were all above 82% and the limit of quantification and limit of detection were 0.2μg/ml and 0.1μg/ml respectively.peer-reviewe