Tests
For the purpose of providing the decision makers with high-quality,
objective information about the performance and the achievement of the
students in the independent schools, the Evaluation Institute of the SEC
holds annual Qatar Comprehensive Educational Assessment (QCEA) in the
subject matters of Arabic, English, mathematics and science. The QCEA is
based on the Qatar Curriculum Standards, which set a very high goal and
compare with the best and most demanding educational standards
worldwide. The QCEA is held nationwide where all independent schools
with approximately 28,000 students participate in it. The performance of the
students in the QCEA along with their results in the school’s regular test
was considered for comparative purposes to ensure the reliability of the
results. The tests were administered to the students by the end of the
academic year 2007/2008. However, a diagnostic pretest was initially
administered to the students before the start of the study to rank and
distribute the students into the corresponding learning groups.
The tests covered issues like health and genetic disorders, pollution,
household electricity and chemistry of life. The items in the tests were
different in their difficulties to match the hierarchal categories of the mental
abilities in Bloom’s taxonomy. The tests contained multiple choice
questions as well as short essay questions. The QCEA was set by
CTB/McGraw-Hill (CTB). The classroom based tests were developed by the
researcher and reviewed by a panel of expert teachers in the school’s
science department.
Data Analysis
The statistical analysis was carried out using (SPSS and Microsoft Excel).
Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data. The means and
standard deviations, t-test and F-test, multivariate and univariate MANOVA
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as well as post hoc tests were used to detect any statistically significant
differences in the students’ achievement and attitudes.