TY - JOUR
T1 - Investigating whether aberrant response behaviour in classroom maths tests is a stable characteristic of students
AU - Panayides, Panayiotis
AU - Tymms, Peter
PY - 2013/8
Y1 - 2013/8
N2 - This study investigated whether aberrant response behaviour is a stable characteristic of high school students taking classroom maths tests as has been implied in the literature. For the purposes of the study, two maths tests were administered; the first to 25 classes (635 students) and the second to 18 out of the original 25 classes (445 students). The tests contained multistep mathematical problems with partial credit awarding for partially correct answers, together with some multiple choice items. The Rasch Partial Credit Model was used for the analyses and the infit and outfit mean square statistics with six different cut-off scores were used to identify students with aberrant response behaviour (misfitting students). Six Chi-square tests were then performed, one for each cut-off score, leading to a very clear conclusion: contrary to expectations the same students do not misfit in the two tests administered; aberrance does not seem to be a stable characteristic of students. Explanations for aberrant responses such as carelessness, plodding or guessing need to be reconsidered. They may have validity for particular test situations but this has yet to be demonstrated and thus investigation calls them into question.
AB - This study investigated whether aberrant response behaviour is a stable characteristic of high school students taking classroom maths tests as has been implied in the literature. For the purposes of the study, two maths tests were administered; the first to 25 classes (635 students) and the second to 18 out of the original 25 classes (445 students). The tests contained multistep mathematical problems with partial credit awarding for partially correct answers, together with some multiple choice items. The Rasch Partial Credit Model was used for the analyses and the infit and outfit mean square statistics with six different cut-off scores were used to identify students with aberrant response behaviour (misfitting students). Six Chi-square tests were then performed, one for each cut-off score, leading to a very clear conclusion: contrary to expectations the same students do not misfit in the two tests administered; aberrance does not seem to be a stable characteristic of students. Explanations for aberrant responses such as carelessness, plodding or guessing need to be reconsidered. They may have validity for particular test situations but this has yet to be demonstrated and thus investigation calls them into question.
KW - aberrance
KW - classroom maths tests
KW - Rasch
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84880010200&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/0969594X.2012.723610
DO - 10.1080/0969594X.2012.723610
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84880010200
SN - 0969-594X
VL - 20
SP - 349
EP - 368
JO - Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy and Practice
JF - Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy and Practice
IS - 3
ER -