Development of a Scientific Explanation Test on the topic of Gases for Upper Secondary School Students
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Abstract
This research aimed to develop a scientifically sound test of students’ ability to construct scientific explanations on the topic of gases for upper secondary school students. The test development process comprised six steps: 1) defining the operational definition of scientific explanation in the context of gases, 2) creating a test blueprint and item specifications, 3) constructing test items and their corresponding analytic rubrics, 4) examining content validity and overall suitability, 5) finalizing the test and conducting a pilot study, and 6) evaluating the finalized test in terms of item difficulty, discrimination, reliability, and rubric quality. The results indicated that the extended-response, constructed-response test demonstrated appropriate content validity and alignment with the intended construct. Following a pilot study with 41 eleventh-grade students from a large public school in Bangkok—students who had studied the topic of gases but had not received explicit instruction in constructing scientific explanations—the test showed acceptable item difficulty (Pi = .33–.57) and discrimination indices (Ri = .22–.42). The test demonstrated satisfactory reliability (Cronbach’s alpha = .732). In addition, the analytic rubrics were of high quality, with strong inter-rater consistency (ICC = .862). Therefore, the developed test is valid and reliable for accurately assessing students’ scientific explanation skills related to the topic of gases.
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