Rasch strategies for evaluating quality of the conceptions and alternative assessment survey (CETAS)

Abstract

Due to society demand for educational development, education in Malaysia has begun to utilize alternative assessment approach in schools and universities. This study developed Conceptions and Alternative Assessment Survey (CETAS) to examine lecturers’ conceptions of assessment (AC) and their practice of alternative assessment (AAP). In order for CETAS to be useful, a pilot study was conducted to examine quality of items in using Rasch Analysis approach. A total of 38 lecturers involved in this study. After item analysis, this study found that four items, Item 7 (AC), Item 8 (AC), Item 16 (AAP) and Item 30 (AAP) did not meet the requirement of fit statistics analysis and local item dependency. Therefore, four items were deleted while other 58 are suitable to be used for measuring the intended constructs. In addition, the scale calibration analysis also revealed that Scale 3 (slightly disagree) was not well-functioning. Therefore, after consideration of analysis and expert review, Scale 3 was collapsed leaving CETAS with 5 scales. Nevertheless, CETAS has a good item and person reliability and can be used to examine lecturers’ conceptions of assessment and their practices of alternative assessment.