Author:

Keywords:

Social Sciences, Education & Educational Research, Psychology, Educational, Psychology, Mathematical, Psychology, LATENT CLASS ANALYSIS, STAKES, MOTIVATION, 1301 Education Systems, 1701 Psychology, Social Sciences Methods, 3904 Specialist studies in education, 5201 Applied and developmental psychology

Abstract:

In this study it is investigated to what extent contextualized and non-contextualized mathematics test items have a differential impact on examinee effort. Mixture item response theory (IRT) models are applied to two subsets of items from a national assessment on mathematics in the second grade of the pre-vocational track in secondary education in Flanders. One subset focused on elementary arithmetic and consisted of non-contextualized items. Another subset of contextualized items focused on the application of arithmetic in authentic problem-solving situations. Results indicate that differential performance on the subsets is to a large extent due to test effort. The non-contextualized items appear to be much more susceptible to low examinee effort in low-stakes testing situations. However, subgroups of students can be found with regard to the extent to which they show low effort. One can distinguish a compliant, an underachieving, and a dropout group. Group membership is also linked to relevant background characteristics.