Differential Item Functioning in Reasoning Abilities between Males and Females : An analysis of the National Test Result

Abstract

The purposes of this research were to Analyze the differential item functioning (DIF) in reasoning abilities of the national test between male and female students.The sample were 464532 grade 3 students in the academic year 2014.The research instruments was the reasoning  abilitiy test for third grade  students. The logistic regression was used to analyz DIF.The magnitude of  Differential Item Functioning  was measured by criteria proposed  by Jodoin and Gierl (2001 ).The result showed that all  items were identified as DIF. Specifically, 2 items were flaged as uniform  DIF, while 25 items were non-uniform DIF. When consider the  magnitude of differential item functioning, it was found that all test items were categoried into the little  or  non  DIF category.There fore, it can be summarized that NT test items were  fair both the male and female.