Assessing Critical Thinking Ability Of Students Using 4, 5, &Amp; 6 Multiple-Choice Option Formats: An Empirical Perspective
Faith Bokolo
Department of Educational Foundations, Isaac Jasper Boro College of Education, Sagbama, Yenegoa, Bayelsa State, Nigeria.
Uwah Idongesit Victor
Department of Educational Psychology G/C, University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria.
Keywords: Assessment, Critical Thinking, Multiple-Choice Format
Abstract
The study focused on assessing the critical thinking ability of students using the 4, 5, and 6-option multiple choice format. the study adopted the quasi-experimental non-control group design. The population of the study was 6,507 ss2 students. A sample of 120 students was drawn using multi-stage sampling procedure from three public secondary school in Obio-Akpor LGA of Rivers state. Mathematic Performance Test form 4, 5 and 6 (MP4, MP5 & MP6) were used as instruments in assessing the students. In order to determine students performance in terms of high and low critical thinking ability, the instrument was scored and overall score divided into two (N/2) minus two degree of freedom (N/2-2). This gave a criterion score of 13 marks. Table of specification (TOS) was used in determining validity of the instruments while Kuder Richardson formula 20 (KR20) was used in determining a reliability index of 0.76, 0.88 and 0.71 for MP4, MP5 and MP6 respectively. Students were divided into three equal groups (group 1, 2 and 3) with each answering MP4, MP5 and MP6 respectively. Simple percentage as well as one-way ANOVA was used in analyzing the data responses of the students. Findings showed that there was significant difference in the thinking ability of students in the 4-option (p=0.02<0.05) and 6-options groups (p=0.001<0.05). There was no difference (p=0.61>0.05) in the 5-option group. Also, male and female students performed indifferently (p=0.14>0.05) across groups. Finally, increased test options significantly (p=0.0001<0.05) improve high thinking ability of students in mathematics. Based on these, recommendation among others was that teachers and others should used the increased option multiple-choice format only in assessing critical thinking ability of students