Data Analysis Assignment

1. Data Summary
Frequency Distribution Graph

Name

Michele Beaulieu

Frequency Distribution - Light and Shadows Quiz

9 8 7 6 Frequency 5 4 3 2 1 0 1 2 3 4 5 Test Scores 6 7 8 9 10

Mean

Mode

Median

Range

Standard Deviation

1.2247

2. Item Analysis

Question

Item # A B C* D

Upper 0 0 3 7

Lower 1 0 0 9

Difference

Discrimination

Total

Difficulty

0.3

0.15

Item Analysis

This question was too difficult. Answers A and B were too easy of a distractor question. Answer D was a bad distractor because even though the answer was wrong 80% of the students chose this answer as the best tool. Seven of the upper students also chose D as the correct answer and the only students to get the question correct were three upper students.

Possible Adjustments

This question will need to be fixed. To make the question better change answers A and B to answers that are not so obviously incorrect. Also, you most likely will need to reteach this concept to the students.

Question

Item # A* B C D

Upper 10 0 0 0

Lower 8 0 2 0

Difference 2

Discrimination 0.2

Total 18

Difficulty 0.9

Item Analysis

Answer B and D were bad distractors because none of the students in both the upper and lower groups chose those answers. 18/20 students answered the question correctly therefore this question is too easy because it produces a difficulty level of 0.9. The discrimination is a low and positive, which means more upper students answered the question correctly.

Possible Adjustments

I think this question is a bad question. It could be used as a confidence booster for students because it is at the beginning of the test and almost all students answered the question correctly. I suggest this question is turned into a true or false question or better distractor questions are added to make the test more difficult.

Question

Item # A B C D*

Upper 0 0 0 10

Lower 2 0 2 6

Difference

Discrimination

Total

Difficulty

0.4

16

0.8

Item Analysis

Answer B is a bad distractor question. The discrimination is good because more upper students answered the question correctly than lower students and all upper students answered the question correctly. The question is fairly easy because the difficulty level is 0.8.

Possible Adjustments

To make this question a better test question I would make answer B a better distractor question. This would then make the question a little bit more difficult making the question a better test question.

Question

Item # A B* C D

Upper 2 8 0 0

Lower 2 4 2 2

Difference 4

Discrimination 0.4

Total 12

Difficulty 0.6

Item Analysis

This is a good question. The discrimination is 0.4, which means more students answered the question correctly from the upper group than the lower group. There is an equal distribution among all options of the lower group making each distractor good creating a difficulty of 0.6.

Possible Adjustments

I do not think this question needs any adjustments.

Question

Item # A* B C D

Upper 9 0 1 0

Lower 5 2 3 0

Difference 4

Discrimination 0.4

Total 14

Difficulty 0.7

Item Analysis

Answer D is a bad distractor question because no student chose is as an answer. The discrimination of the correct answer is good because more students in the upper group answered the question correctly than students in the lower group. The difficulty was a good level at 0.7.

Possible Adjustments

I would change answer D to a better distractor question. The answer that was used for question D was also used in a question earlier in the test where 80% of the students answered the question correctly. Therefore I think by changing this answer to a better distractor question the question will become slightly harder and make it a better question.

Question

Item # A B C* D

Upper 8 0 2 0

Lower 4 0 6 0

Difference

Discrimination

Total

Difficulty

-4

- 0.4

0.4

Item Analysis

This question is a difficult question and has wording issues. There is a negative discrimination, which means there are more students in the lower group that got the question correct than students in the upper group. Because there is a negative discrimination it probably means that the lower students were guessing and answering the question from context not knowledge. Answer A and C are relatively the same except C explain the answer in a more scientific way. Answer B and D are bad distractors because no students chose these questions as the correct answer. This question should be analyzed and significantly changed or removed from the exam. The wording in the question is misleading. Some of the answers are written in a scientific way where others are not. This is testing the students ability to dissect the question then apply what they know not just test their knowledge. I would recommend a change in the wording of the question and creating better distractors to make the question better.

Possible Adjustments

Question

Item # A B C D*

Upper 1 0 0 9

Lower 2 2 1 5

Difference

Discrimination

Total

Difficulty

0.4

14

0.7

Item Analysis

This is a good question. The discrimination is good because there are more students in the upper group that answered the question correctly compared to students in the lower group. There is an equal distribution of answers chosen meaning the distractors were not too hard but they were still good options. This question was a great question with the difficulty not too high but also allowing a larger percentage of students to get the answer correct.

Possible Adjustments

I think this is a great question. It could be used at any point during the test. It is a great confidence booster for students and might be a good question to put at the beginning of the test.

Question

Item # A* B C D

Upper 10 0 0 0

Lower 9 1 0 0

Difference 1

Discrimination 0.1

Total 19

Difficulty 0.95

Item Analysis

This question was too easy. All but one students answered this question correctly so this means that there the other answers were bad distractors. There is a low discrimination, which means almost the same amount of students answered this question correctly in the upper group than in the lower group.

Possible Adjustments

I think this question should be turned into a true or false question or change the distractors to make a harder question. There was only one students who answered the question incorrectly so as a teacher you should go and talk to the student to see if they understand the question or not. If all students understand this question it should be removed from the exam.

Question

Item # A* B C D

Upper 10 0 0 0

Lower 10 0 0 0

Difference 0

Discrimination 0

Total 20

Difficulty 1.0

Item Analysis

This question is a bad question. All students answered this question correctly and there is no discrimination. All three wrong answers were very bad distractors because none of them related to light and damaging the retina.

Possible Adjustments

Change the distractor questions or remove this question from the test. This question is a good confidence booster for students and if the teacher wanted to give it as a confidence booster they should make it a true or false question.

Question

Item # A* B C D

Upper 10 0 0 0

Lower 7 2 1 0

Difference 3

Discrimination 0.3

Total 17

Difficulty 0.85

Item Analysis

This question was an easy question. All students but three answered this question correctly. I am assuming that the students that got this answer wrong ran out of time or just guessed. I would talk to the students who got this question wrong and see why they answered the way they did.

Possible Adjustments

I think the story should be changed to be more difficult to provide a different distractor for answer D. If the question has a better distractor for D, the question will be slightly harder and a better.

3. Recommendations
What decisions about the class, unit, instruction or the test can be reached based on the examination results? For example, is the class ready to go on to the next set of outcomes? Is there a particular outcome or concept that will need to be retaught? How would you adjust for individual students? Looking at the results of this test you can clearly see that the majority of the students did well. The class median was seven and the mode was eight, meaning the students marks were relatively high. I think the class understands the content and can move on based on the results shown. There was only one question that the students did not do well with and I think if the question wording is changed the students would have done better. I am not sure if the students know the content and understand each outcome or if this test was too easy. There is a large majority of the questions that had bad distractors, therefore it is unclear if the students knew the correct answer or if they knew what answer was correct by eliminating the bad answers. The teacher should take one class to review the exam with the class and go over each question. By reviewing the exam with the class the teacher will get a better idea if the students understood the questions. Before the teacher goes over the questions with the class I think the teacher should pair up students who did well on the exam with students who struggled and allow students to correct their exam together and go over the questions they got wrong. This will solidify the knowledge of the students who got high marks on the exam and assist students who struggled on the exam. After this process has taken place the teacher can reevaluate if the students understood all of the material. The teacher should reteach or explain questions one and six to the class. Those were the two questions that the class struggled most with. Question one had a bad distractor and either the students do not know what a pinhole camera is or they think sunglasses are a better option. The teacher will have to have a group discussion with the class to see why they answered the way they did and then possibly reteach what a pinhole camera is. Question six is worded poorly so I think it should be removed from the students marks. The teacher will need to reword the question and then explain to the class why the correct answer is option C. Either the students did not understand the question or were not taught the material from question six properly. There were five students who got a 50% on the exam which is the lowest mark received. I suggest that the teacher takes time to review the material with these students after class or during spare time. If the rest of the class understands the material the teacher should move on to knew concepts but going over the material with the students that struggled one last time is needed. I would recommend for the next unit that the teacher alter their teaching strategies for the five students that did not do very well and give alternate ways to learn the material. The teacher should also take extra time to help out these students so they are sure that they understand this new concept better than the last unit. After the teacher has done all of the above with the class he should possibly retest the students by creating another exam to ensure they all understand the material. The teacher should be focused on creating well-planned and organized questions that will test the students kno wledge of the subject properly and efficiently.