Exploring plausible causes of differential item functioning in the PISA science assessment: Language, curriculum or culture

Exploring plausible causes of differential item functioning in the PISA science assessment: Language, curriculum or culture

• Huang, Xiaoting China Institute for Educational Finance Research, Peking University, China
• Wilson, Mark Graduate School of Education, University of California, USA
• Wang, Lei National Educaton Examinations Authority, China

Educational Psychology, 1-13, 2014

Routledge

2014

• P Social Context of Education
  • PB Comparative Education
• L Educational Measurement & Evaluation
  • LC Academic Achievement Tests

Multidimensional RCML DIF Detection Procedure DIF Content Analysis Causes of DIF PISA Science assessment

• USA
• Canada
• Hong Kong
• Mainland China

• 1997.7 onwards

• Unknown or Unspecified

In recent years, large-scale international assessments have been increasingly used to evaluate and compare the quality of education across regions and countries. However, measurement variance between different versions of these assessments often posts threats to the validity of such cross-cultural comparisons. In this study, we investigated the cross-language, cross-cultural validity of the Programme for International Student Assessment 2006 Science assessment via three differential item functioning (DIF) analyses between the USA and Canada, Chinese Hong Kong and mainland China, and between the USA and mainland China. Furthermore, we explored three plausible causes of DIF via content analysis, namely language, curriculum and cultural differences. Our results revealed that differential curriculum coverage was the most serious cause of DIF among the three factors we investigated in this study, and differential content familiarity also contributed to DIF here. We discussed the implications of the findings for future international assessment development, and for how to best define 'scientific literacy' for students around the world.
[Copyright of Educational Psychology is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2014.946890]

• English

Journal Articles

• 01443410

• 10.1080/01443410.2014.946890

https://bibliography.lib.eduhk.hk/bibs/5e29f81e

2014-10-22