Development and Validation of Basic Numeracy Skills Instrument on Operations in Rational Numbers (Banusioran)

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

The present secondary school curriculum K-12 demands a variety of assessments to be carried out in the course of instruction to guide effective teaching. The study aimed to develop and validate an instrument which is a diagnostic test in Mathematics for Grade 7 students. The developed instrument can measure student's skills in fundamental operations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division involving rational numbers like whole numbers, integers, decimals, and fractions.

METHODS

The researcher, together with the help of a pool of experts, examined the test items based on the learning competencies of Mathematics stated on the table of specification, the result of which became the basis in preparing the test blueprint. Based on the test draft, a set of100 questions with four options was formulated. The draft of the instrument was submitted to a panel of experts for content validation. Also, the test underwent pilot testing and two try-outs. Item analysis like difficulty index, discrimination index, and distracters analysis was conducted after the pilot testing and tryouts. After the final administration, a total of65 items were included in the final form of the test. To ensure reliability, the test underwent the process of internal consistency using the SPSS application to find Cronbach Alpha andKR-20 formula.

RESULTS

The constructed and proposed diagnostic test which is the Basic Numeracy Skills on Operation in Rational Numbers for Grade 7 students is valid and reliable. The students' mean score is 31.96 with a standard deviation of12.13.The difficulty and discrimination indices of the instrument are average and are considered a good item. The final BANUSIORAN test was found to be valid and reliable. The BANUSIORAN test may be utilized as an assessment tool for incoming Grade 7 students.

DISCUSSIONS

Findings revealed that the instrument is valid and reliable, the students' mean scores and a standard deviation value indicates that the performance of the participants in initial and in the final form of the instrument was moderately satisfactory, still, intervention is necessary. The developed instrument somehow may help mathematics teachers in assessing student's basic skills in fundamental operations and the items were responsive to some of the abilities stipulated in K-12 Mathematics curriculum.