A Diagnostic Test Construction in Thai Reading Comprehension for Prathomsuksa 6 Students Under Sa Keao Primary Educational Service Area Office 1

Abstract

            The objectives of this research were as follows; 1) to create and develop the diagnostic test for Thai reading comprehension for students of Prathomsuksa year 6, 2) to test the quality of the diagnostic test itself, and 3) to study the results after utilizing the diagnostic test for Thai reading comprehension for students in schools under the supervision of Sa Keao Primary Educational Service Area Office 1.

           The samples included 341 students of Prathomsuksa year 6 of the 2^nd semester of 2013 from 17 schools under the supervision of Sa Keao Primary Educational Service Area Office 1 and were obtained through the application of a Multi-Stage Random Sampling method. There were 2 groups of tools used in this research which were 8 copies of the survey tests with 160 gap-filling types questions, and 8 copies of the diagnostic test with 160 four multiple-choice questions in which were created from the survey test. The tests were performed three times in which the first was carried out to study the suitability and validity of the language and duration to complete the tests, the second time was to analyze the quality, selection, and improvement and finally, the third was to perform the diagnostic test to determine for any errors occurred in students’ reading comprehension. The statistical tools used to analyze the data included the percentage, the mean-average, the standard deviation.

            The results obtained from the research showed that;     

            1.    The first test’s results indicated that the 8 copies of the diagnostic test with 160 four multiple-choice questions had matched contents approved by the experts as they can be used  to test the students’ reading comprehension ability and had validity  for language accuracy and suitability in time allowed for completing the test.   
            2.    The second test was performed and found that the 8 copies of the diagnostic test with 160 four multiple-choice questions had the item difficulty ranged from 0.07 to 0.91 and had the value of discrimination power ranged from -0.12 to 0.84, and with some improvement afterwards the test was repeated for the third time.
            3.    The third test’s results showed that the 8 copies of the diagnostic test with 160 four multiple-choice questions had the item difficulty ranged from 0.21 to 0.85, the value of discrimination power ranged from 0.20 to 0.65, the reliability valued from 0.52 to 0.82, the mean average value of 11.30 from the total value of 20, the standard deviation value ranged from 3.16, 3.26, 4.33, 4.58, 4.27, 3.77, 2.95, 3.13, and cut-off score was 10.04.     
            4.    Results from analysis indicated some defects of the diagnostic test from the third test and found that students had some defects ranging from the highest to the lowest as follows; meaning of sentence skills, word meaning skills, critical reading skills, interpretation skills, and conceptualized reading skills.