doi: 10.7763/IJIMT.2010.V1.3
Measuring Students’ Understanding of Statistical Concepts using Rasch Measurement
Noor Lide Abu Kassim1
,
Nor Zatul-Iffa Ismail2 ,
Zamalia Mahmud2 ,
Mohammad Said Zainol3
- 1Institute of Education, International Islamic University Malaysia, 53100 Jalan Gombak, Selangor, Malaysia
- 2Centre of Statistical Studies, Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, MALAYSIA.
- 3Centre of Quantitative Studies, Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, MALAYSIA.
Abstract
This study investigates students’ conceptual knowledge and understanding of basic statistical concepts and compares it against statistical competence, which is associated with discrete statistical knowledge and basic interpretive skills. It particularly examines the correspondence between students’ perceived ability and their empirical understanding of the concepts. Two instruments were developed: a 20-item test to measure students’ empirical understanding of the basic statistical concepts and a questionnaire with matching items to measure their perceived ability of these concepts. For a direct comparison of the two, students’ responses to the test and questionnaire items were jointly analyzed using the Rasch measurement model. Results of the analysis show that conceptual understanding of basic statistical concepts is more difficult to attain than statistical competence. The results also suggest that students more often than not overestimated their understanding of basic statistical concepts, particularly those requiring conceptual understanding of the concepts.
Keywords
- basic statistical concepts
- conceptual understanding
- statistical competence
- Rasch measurement
How to Cite
Noor Lide Abu Kassim, Nor Zatul-Iffa Ismail, Zamalia Mahmud, and Mohammad Said Zainol, "Measuring Students’ Understanding of Statistical Concepts using Rasch Measurement," International Journal of Innovation, Management and Technology, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 13-19, 2010. https://doi.org/10.7763/IJIMT.2010.V1.3
Copyright & License
Copyright © 2010 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).