Psychometric Features of Inductive Reasoning among University Students According to Item –Response- Theory

Abstract

The current study aims to develop skills of Inductive reasoning test among University students. To achieve the objectives of this study, the researchers have followed the scientific steps in developing Charles  Doyle’s test as a suitable test to measure the ability of inductive reasoning, designed for university students, and after considering all its remarks, the test has been reviewed by expert referees in educational and psychological sciences to verify and check the availability of the suitable psychometric features of the given test in terms of form and content. The items of the test have been valid logically to measure what has it been prepared for. To verify the clarity of the instructions and items of this test and to set the performance time, the test has been applied on a pilot sample consisted of (60) university students. The results showed that the test instructions and items have been very clear to the sample and the performance time has been set. Then the test has been applied on a randomly sample consisted of (1000) male and female students from Baghdad universit. The researchers have applied three parameter model in analyzing the test items of inductive reasoning as measured by Bilog-m3, To achieve the hypotheses of the model, factorial analysis by means of principal components – item total correlation to the overall assessment scores was conducted. Furthermore the items matching of the two parameter model is considered as an evidence of the fact that the items measure the quality of one –dimensional according to Chi-square value with a level of significance (0.05).The items difficulty acceptance (-2.5) to (+2.5) and the items discrimination acceptance (0.05) to (2.5).Results shown that all items are within the rational limits and no item has been deleted. Also the validity and reliability of the test were verified by the rate of variance to evaluate the test reliability and in formation significance to evaluate the reliability of the capacity.