Exploratory sequential design to develop and validate economics placement test for Nigerian universities

Abstract

This paper presents an exploratory sequential mixed methods approach in validating the Economics Placement Test [EPT] to assess prospective undergraduates’ Economics knowledge and perceived skills for admission into undergraduate programmes of Nigerian Universities. Exploratory sequential mixed methods design adopted in this study was characterized by an initial qualitative phase and then followed by a quantitative phase. The qualitative phase comprised of 45 participants. Similarly, the national Economics curriculum and assessment procedures were reviewed in order to develop the instrument. A total of 60 items EPT, response options and keys were constructed following the interviews and documents analysis with the review of experts’ panel. In the quantitative phase, the EPT was administered to 600 prospective university applicants. The Rasch Model was used to analyze the data using WINSTEPS. From the result of the analysis, good psychometric properties were obtained. Person and item reliability were adequate indicating an excellent reliability. The test satisfied Asch assumption of unidimensionality. Item-person map showed that the test was able to measure a range of the students’ abilities in Economics knowledge and perceived skills. Nevertheless, some defective items found to be irrelevant were removed to produce the final version of EPT. The items satisfied all the Rasch model fits as an evidence of construct validity. Thus, the EPT is a valid and reliable test to be used for measuring students Economics ability, hence providing true picture of students to be enrolled into Nigerian universities.