EARCOME4,2007
Results
The students’ responses in the 2 items were scored using the scoring guideline as shown in Figure 3 below
Types of response Score
Omitted 0
Incorrect answer (without explanation) 1
Correct answer (without explanation) 2
Incorrect answer (with reasonable explanation) 3
Correct answer (unreasonable explanation) 4
Correct answer (reasonable explanation) 5
Figure 3: Scoring Guideline
Descriptive analysis of scores for Item 1 revealed a mean score of 1.87 with the standard deviation of 1.62. The lowest score obtained for Item 1 was 0 and the highest score obtained was 5. The maximum possible score for this item was 5. Table 1 below shows the frequencies and percentages for the type of responses of students for Item 1.
Table 1: Frequencies and percentages of the responses of students for Item 1 of the Mathematical Thinking Test
Types of response score Frequency Percentage
Omitted 0 99 19.2
Incorrect answer (without explanation) 1 205 39.7
Correct answer (without explanation) 2 31 6.0
Incorrect answer (with reasonable explanation) 3 84 16.3
Correct answer (unreasonable explanation) 4 40 7.8
Correct answer (reasonable explanation) 5 57 11.0
516 100.0
Table 1 shows that about slightly more than half (58.9%) of the students either did not respond or gave incorrect answer without explanation to Item 1. About 6.0% of the students gave correct response but without giving any explanation. Only 11.0% of the students gave correct answers with reasonable explanation in Item 1.
For Item 2, the result of the descriptive analysis showed a mean score