Inventory of Motive of Preference for Conventional Paper-and-Pencil Tests: A Study of Validity and Reliability

Mehmet Taha ESER1 Nuri DOGAN2
1Department of Education, Union of Municipalities of Turkey, Ankara, Turkey.
2Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey.
DOI: 10.14689/ejer.2017.69.8

ABSTRACT

Purpose: The objective of this study is to develop the Inventory of Motive of Preference for Conventional Paper-And-Pencil Tests and to evaluate students’ motives for preferring written tests, short-answer tests, true/false tests or multiple-choice tests. This will add a measurement tool to the literature with valid and reliable results to help determine why students prefer certain exam types and their level of preference.

Research Methods: In this study, a screening research design was employed during the data collection and the analysis phases.

Findings: Cronbach’s alpha coefficients were calculated for reliability and it was concluded that the inventory was reliable. First, the exploratory factor analysis was conducted; this was followed by a second confirmatory factor analysis and finally a content validity study to determine the construct validity. A total of 14 items, including 11 items according to the results of the exploratory factor analysis, 1 item based on expert opinion and 2 items according to the results of the confirmatory factor analysis were removed from the survey form of the inventory, resulting in a final form containing 20 items. It was observed that the content validity values of each item in every subtest were sufficient.

Implications for Research and Practice: The study results showed that this inventory was an appropriate instrument for evaluating high school students’ preference for paper-and-pencil tests. An inventory developed under the scope of this study may be used to determine the factors predicting the examination type preference levels of students by using different samples. These results may be used when deciding the actions to be taken.

Keywords: Choice of examination type content validity exploratory factor analysis confirmatory factor analysis.