Student-Problem (S-P) Skill Analysis of Pupils' Mathematics Performance: A Strategy for Enhancing Quality in Education.

Abstract

S-P skill analysis (Sato, 1975) enables the extraction and analysis from the 'by-product' of testing, information about the learner's test-related skills and behaviour, his experiences and problems, that he encountered during his interaction with each of the test items, that might have arisen as a result of his unique characteristics or that of his teacher and school, or of the state or district, and of the test item. The results from such analysis are fed back to those concerned to enhance the quality of testing, teaching and learning, and hence the quality of education. Similar analyses in other countries have produced a variety of very useful results that have powered tremendous advancement in these areas.



As a capacity-building illustration, an S-P skill analysis of the responses to each of the 33 items in a statewide mathematics examination for sixth graders in Cross River State of Nigeria by 2583 candidates from 68 randomly sampled primary schools was done. This revealed a total of 5 skill areas with significant differences in S-P skills across sex, schools, locations and local government areas. These results were seen to provide very useful input into (1) the diagnosis of students' poor grasp of specific skills as well as their strengths and weaknesses; (2) the quality of the test items, and of the assessment instrument; (3) the areas of the primary school mathematics curriculum that need more coverage and greater emphasis within each classroom, each school, and within the state.



IFE PsychologIA Vol 9, No1 2001, pp. 173-192