ASSESSMENT OF DIFFERENTIAL ITEM FUNCTIONING OF PHYSICS MULTIPLE CHOICE USED BY WAEC IN 2020 IN RELATION TO SEX, LOCATION AND SCHOOL OWNERSHIP IN DELTA STATE

Measurement and Evaluation

The study investigated assessment of differential item functioning of physics multiple choice used by WAEC in 2020 in relation to sex, location and school ownership in Delta State. Three research questions and three hypotheses were formulated and tested with relevant data obtained. Expo-facto research design was adopted for the study. The sample of the study consists of 1080 (public and private) students drawn from the population of 46,759 which comprises of 38,092 students in public schools and 8,666 students in private schools in Delta State. Multi-stage sampling technique using stratified random sampling technique and simple random sampling were employed in composing the sample for the study. The research instrument was 2020 physics paper 2. The validity of WAEC/SSCE 2020 physics paper 2 was believed to be determined because WASSCE is a standardized examination taken at the same time across region and reliability of the instrument was determined. A reliability coefficient of 0.69 were obtained for WAEC/SSCE 2020 physics paper 2. The instrument was administered to 1080 SS 3 students offering physics in selected secondary schools in Delta State. The research questions were answered using binary Logistic Regression and independent chi-square in SPSS version 23 was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of confidence. The major findings of the study showed that there is significant difference between male and female students, urban and rural students, public and private school students in 2020 WAEC/SSCE physics multiple choice items in Delta State. Base on the findings it was recommended among others Examination bodies should develop test items to accommodate all abilities irrespective of the sex, location and school ownership.

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