The Structure of Domain Hierarchies Found Within a Domain Referenced Testing System

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess conditional states of item mastery found among items from different item domains and the effectiveness of various procedures for identifying such conditional relations. The item domains considered were from the curriculum area of multiplication of whole numbers, and were defined by a domain referenced testing system. It was possible to infer from the results of this study that the domain referenced testing system considered produced items which across domains showed strong conditional relations. Comparisons of goodness of fit were made among domain hierarchies with similar numbers of specified conditional relations generated by two different empirical procedures and by experts judgment. Additional comparisons were made among models generated by the same procedure but with different numbers of specified conditional relations.

Support for the validity of empirically generated hierarchies with moderate numbers of conditional relations among domains was provided. However, similar support was not provided for the conditional relations hypothesized to exist by subject matter experts.

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References

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