Abstract

VENDRAMINI, Claudette Maria Medeiros  and  DIAS, Anelise Silva. Item Response Theory to analyze a statistics test in university students. PsicoUSF [online]. 2005, vol.10, n.2, pp. 201-210. ISSN 1413-8271.

This study aimed to use the Item Response Theory to analyze the 15 multiple-choice questions of a statistics test presented in the statistics graphics or tables form. The 414 university students were selected by convenience from two private universities, predominantly psychology students (91.5%). The university students were 80% female and with 16-53 years old, mean 24.4 and standard deviation 7.4. The test has predominantly one dimension and the items can be better fitting to the model of three parameters. The indexes of difficulty, discrimination and bisserial correlation presented acceptable values. The results indicate the difficulties of university students in the mathematic and statistic concepts, that difficulties are observed in the other studies since the elementary education. One suggests making more profound studies of these concepts in higher education.

Keywords : Graphic and tabular presentation; Mathematic difficulties; Psychology students.

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