Developing of the Association Test with Daily Life Elementary School 7th Grade ‘Systems in Our Body’ Unit

Abstract

The aim of this study was to develop an test equal units, generalizable and appropriate for the objectives of the science curriculum to determine the status of the students associate to daily life with their knowledge which are at the elementary school 7th grade science program in the "Our body systems" unit and its psychometric properties. In this survey study, 609 7thgrade students enrolled in elementary schools in Giresun city and Bulancak town constituted the sample of this study. The test items of “association test with
daily life” on elementary school 7th grade systems in our body unit” were prepared as “Correct”, “Incorrect” and “I don’t know”. And the students’ “correct” answers were scored as 1, “incorrect” and “I don’t know” answers were scored as 0 point. Biologist, science educators and science teachers’ opinions on the test were asked and necessary corrections were made based on experts’ feedbacks. In order to determine psychometric properties of instrument, item analysis, and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) were carried out with data collected from the research. In accordance with CFA and results related to item discrimination, 94 items were excluded from
test, and the test took its final form with 42 items. Results of the CFA were revealed that within the scope of seven-factor structure, construct validity was high for target characteristics to be measured. According to the results of item analysis of the test, item distinctiveness average rate was found as .42 and item power was found as .64. In addition, reliability of scores was acquired with the test was high with regard to internal consistency. KR-20 reliability coefficient of the test was calculated as .87 and Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient of the test was calculated as .89.