Identifying primary pupils knowledge state of

learning Time:
Lesson learnt from preliminary analysis

Prepared by: Carolyn Sia Jia Ling, Universiti Sains

Malaysia
Lim Chap Sam, Universiti Sains Malaysia

Introduction
Aim of the study: to develop a two-prong
cognitive diagnostic assessment in the topic of
time for primary mathematics learning

Cognitive Diagnostic Assessment

(CDA)
an approach where the psychology of
learning is combined with methods and
models in statistics for the purpose of making
inferences about students specific knowledge
structures and processing skills (p.4).
only assesses examinee on a defined set of
attributes

Knowledge State
well-specified combinations of
attributes that form the basis of
students conceptions of domain-specific
knowledge and skills (Ketterlin-Giller &
Yovanoff, 2009, p.7).

Attribute Hierarchy Method (AHM)

A psychometric model that used to analyse
pupils response pattern from CDA
consisted of two parts, namely the
identification of cognitive attribute, and the
specification of the attribute hierarchy to
model test performance.

Procedure of applying AHM

Identification of attributes
Formation of attribute hierarchy
Generate the expected response pattern
Collect the data
Analyse the observed response pattern

Methodology
Participants
Teachers
Year six pupils

Instrument
15 attributes related to time 11 cognitive
models
A 44-items assessment

Example of item

Findings and Discussions

Pupilsknowledge states for model 3 (subtraction of two
given time to find starting time in minutes and hours).

There are 13 patterns of knowledge states found (include both match

and mismatch with the proposed hierarchy)

66.8% of the pupils mastered all the 5 attributes that measure in the
model

Possible reasons for the mismatch of the observed and expected

response pattern:

Careless mistakes while solving the tasks

Do addition algorithm for subtraction problem (example)

confusion when regrouping minutes from hours in subtraction (example)

Unidentified error

Importance of consistence in number of items for

each combination of attribute in AHM

To make the analysis result from ANN and HCI more reliable

ANN artificial neural network: the neural network will try to link the
items to the respective attributes and find out the hidden information
underlying the response.

It is used to calculate the attribute probability (pupils mastery level on each

of the attribute)

Importance of consistence in number of items for

each combination of attribute in AHM

HCI hierarchical Consistency Index: to measure to what extend the

proposed attribute hierarchy matches with the pupils one.

Table 3 Mean and standard deviation for model and modified model of 1, 2
and 3

Model 1

Modified
Model 1

Model 2

Modified
Model 2

Model 3

Modified
Model 3

Mean

0.936

0.943

0.877

0.946

0.908

0.933

0.196

0.214

0.164

0.200

0.173

Standard 0.176
Deviation

Conclusion

Aim of the study: Develop a cognitive diagnostic assessment (CDA) that

could help teacher to identify pupils' cognitive strengths and
weaknesses in the topic of "Time".

We found that what teachers assumed might not representing the

situation of all the pupils. further investigation is needed

Thank you!