Comparative Analyses of Difficulty and Discrimination Indices of Islamic Studies Courses as Quality Indicator of Examination

Abstract

This paper analyses the items of 2019/2020 Qur’an and Hadith Courses examinations of Islamic Studies department, school of undergraduate studies, Aminu Saleh College of Education, Azare, Bauchi State. The paper reviewed the concepts of assessment and testing, the qualities desired of a good assessment tool such as, validity and reliability. Also reviewed was item analysis with special reference to, item difficulty and item discrimination ability. The study employed an ex post facto design where responses of students in 2019/2020 Qur’an and Hadith Courses of Islamic Studies department, school of undergraduate studies, ASCOE, Azare were used. Sample of 18 items for each was used. The findings of the study revealed that 11(61%) out of 18 items of the Qur’anic examinations were of moderate difficulty while, only 7(39%) items in the Hadith examinations. On the average, both Qur’anic and Hadith examinations were found to be of moderate difficulty 0.56 and 0.44 respectively. The findings also revealed that, Qur’anic courses examinations were found to be of marginal discrimination (0.21) while Hadith courses examinations were poor (0.13) in discriminating between the high and low achievers. Finally, the paper concludes that Qur’anic courses examinations are more appropriate than the Hadith courses examinations. It is therefore recommended among others that, items found to be difficult, easy and or non-discriminating be reviewed or discarded.

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