Application of Rasch Measurement Model in Establishing Roles Hierarchy for Malaysian Building Surveying Graduates

Despite the rising demand for the building surveying services in the current market, the function of this profession is generally still misunderstood. Hence, this paper attempts to identify the hierarchy and potential roles that can be offered by building surveying graduates in order to provide the acceptable roles in the Malaysian construction industry. A quantitative research approach has been adopted to achieve this study’s objective with close-ended questionnaires have been developed and administered to 136 professional building surveyors who are registered with the Building Surveying Division, Royal Institution of Surveyor Malaysia. The retrieved data were analysed using the IBM SPSS Statistic for the respondents’ demographic data and the Rasch measurement model that applied the Winsteps version 3.70 software in order to analyse the data on reliability, item fit, and item measure for roles hierarchy. The result of the study shows that the roles hierarchy consisted of 29 essential tasks a graduate should deal with in order to thrive in the labour market after graduation. Correspondingly, building maintenance and conservation, building control administration, building inspection, risk management and building audit, building works and quality, and building insurance are the essential roles there are based on the hierarchy level that has been extracted by the six components. This study contributes to the body of knowledge in the Malaysia context, in particular for the general international building surveying community as it reveals a roles hierarchy that graduates are required to perform, and where it will provide awareness on the existence of the building surveying vocation among other the non-allied construction professionals in Malaysia.

Establishing the Validity and Reliability of the Malaysian English Language Textbook Evaluation Checklist (MELTEC) Using Rasch Measurement Model (RRM)

A textbook is an important teaching and learning material. Evaluating a textbook is essential to ensure educational goals are met. In the present study, the Malaysian English Language Textbook Evaluation Checklist (MELTEC) is developed for the purpose of materials adaptation. The lack of validity and reliability of previous textbook evaluation checklists reported by researchers in the field of ELT textbook evaluation has resulted in the need to establish the validity and reliability of the checklist developed in this study using the Rasch Measurement Model (RRM). One hundred and ten ESL secondary school teachers from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, had participated in this study. Rasch analysis was used to examine the item fit, polarity, reliability, separation index, and unidimensionality of the checklist. As a result, the finalised version of MELTEC comprises of 78 items. A total of 63 items were dropped as these items were not deemed to be suitable. The analysis performed using Rasch Measurement Model proved that the checklist has high validity and reliability. The checklist is found to be suitable to evaluate ELT secondary school textbooks in Malaysia. On that account, future researchers can consider using Rasch Measurement Model to establish the validity and reliability of the instruments developed to ensure their integrity and quality.

ASSESSING THE VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY OF SCIENCE MULTIPLE CHOICE TEST USING RASCH DICHOTOMOUS MEASUREMENT MODEL

Multiple choice tests are widely applied to assess students’ knowledge in science education. This study aimed at assessing the validity and reliability of Science Multiple-choice Test in Malaysia. The items for this test were formulated by the researcher together with a panel of science teachers and the head of the science department with close reference to Secondary School Standard Curriculum (KSSM) syllabus. The test consists of 50 multiple-choice items with four options. Rasch measurement model was adopted to evaluate the quality of the Science Multiple-choice Test in terms of reliability analysis, item polarity analysis (PTMEA-CORR), item fit analysis and Principal Component Analysis of Residuals (PCAR). The reliability analysis was performed using Cronbach’s Alpha, and the results of reliability and separation index respectively indicated good reliability level of the test items. In order to improve the validity of the test, two negatively worded items (Q39 and Q40) were removed. Lastly, the PCAR analysis showed the unexplained variance in the 1st contrast (5.4%) was found to be well controlled and was below the ceiling value of one-third of the variance explained by the item (18.7%). However, the positive value of the disattenuated correlations indicate no evidence of the presence of secondary dimension. Keywords: multiple-choice test, Rasch measurement model, reliability and validity, science subject, secondary school standard curriculum

Development and Validation of Assessments of Adolescent Health Literacy: A Rasch Measurement Model Approach

BackgroundHealth literacy (HL) is implicated in improved health decision-making and health promotion, and reduced racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic health disparities. Three major areas of HL include functional, interactive, and critical HL. HL skills develop throughout the lifespan as individuals’ psychosocial and cognitive capacities develop and as they accumulate experiences with navigating health systems. Though adolescence is marked by increased involvement in health decision-making, most HL studies and measures of HL have focused on adults. Both the adult and adolescent HL literature are also limited by the paucity of validated test-based measures for assessing HL. The existing test-based validated HL measures for adolescents were originally designed for adults. However, adolescents are at an earlier phase of developing their HL skills (e.g., fewer experiences navigating the health system) compared to adults and measures originally designed for adults may assume prior knowledge that adolescents may lack therein underestimating adolescents’ HL. This study developed and validated test-based assessments of adolescents’ functional, interactive, and critical HL.MethodsItems were generated in an iterative process: focus groups with adolescents to inform item content, cognitive interviews with adolescents and expert consultation established content and face validity of the initial items, items were revised or removed where indicated. High school students (n=355) completed a measurement battery including the revised HL items. The items were evaluated and validated using Rasch measurement models. ResultsThe final 6-item functional, 10-item interactive, and 7-item critical HL assessments and their composite (23 items) fit their respective Rasch models. Item-level invariance was established for gender (male vs. female), age (12-15-year-olds vs. 16-18-year-olds), and ethnicity in all assessments. The assessments had good convergent validity with an established measure of functional HL and scores on the assessments were positively related to reading instructions before taking medicine and questioning the truthfulness of information found online. ConclusionsThese assessments are the first test-based measures of adolescents’ interactive and critical HL, the first test-based measure of functional HL designed for adolescents, and first composite test-based assessment of all three major areas of HL. These assessments should be used to inform strategies for improving adolescents’ HL, decision-making, and behaviors.