Cecilio-Fernandes Dario, Bremers André, Collares Carlos Fernando, Nieuwland Wybe, Vleuten Cees van der, Tio René A
School of Medical Sciences, University of Campinas, Campinas, Brazil.
Center for Education Development and Research in Health Professions (CEDAR), University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
Korean J Med Educ. 2019 Sep;31(3):193-204. doi: 10.3946/kjme.2019.130. Epub 2019 Aug 26.
Assessment in different languages should measure the same construct. However, item characteristics, such as item flaws and content, may favor one test-taker group over another. This is known as item bias. Although some studies have focused on item bias, little is known about item bias and its association with items characteristics. Therefore, this study investigated the association between item characteristics and bias.
The University of Groningen offers both an international and a national bachelor's program in medicine. Students in both programs take the same progress test, but the international progress test is literally translated into English from the Dutch version. Differential item functioning was calculated to analyze item bias in four subsequent progress tests. Items were also classified by their categories, number of alternatives, item flaw, item length, and whether it was a case-based question.
The proportion of items with bias ranged from 34% to 36% for the various tests. The number of items and the size of their bias was very similar in both programmes. We have identified that the more complex items with more alternatives favored the national students, whereas shorter items and fewer alternatives favored the international students.
Although nearly 35% of all items contain bias, the distribution and the size of the bias were similar for both groups. The findings of this paper may be used to improve the writing process of the items, by avoiding some characteristics that may benefit one group whilst being a disadvantage for others.
不同语言的评估应衡量相同的结构。然而，项目特征，如项目缺陷和内容，可能会使一个考生群体比另一个群体更具优势。这被称为项目偏差。尽管一些研究关注项目偏差，但对于项目偏差及其与项目特征的关联知之甚少。因此，本研究调查了项目特征与偏差之间的关联。
格罗宁根大学提供医学国际学士学位课程和国家学士学位课程。两个课程的学生都参加相同的进度测试，但国际进度测试是从荷兰语版本逐字翻译成英语的。计算差异项目功能以分析四个后续进度测试中的项目偏差。项目还根据其类别、选项数量、项目缺陷、项目长度以及是否为基于案例的问题进行分类。
在各种测试中，存在偏差的项目比例在34%至36%之间。两个课程中的项目数量及其偏差大小非常相似。我们发现，选项更多的更复杂项目对本国学生有利，而较短的项目和较少的选项对国际学生有利。
尽管近35%的所有项目都存在偏差，但两组的偏差分布和大小相似。本文的研究结果可用于改进项目的编写过程，避免一些可能使一个群体受益而对其他群体不利的特征。
