대학전공선택검사의 성차에 의한 차별기능문항 탐색

Abstract

Objectives Paying attention to the phenomenon of a gender gap in the choice of a major in the engineering de-partment, this study set out to examine whether there was differential item functioning by gender and what caused it by analyzing the items related to engineering in the Korean College Major Interest Inventory, 2nd Edition(KCMII-2).
 Methods For this purpose, the study used the data of 9,069 respondents who answered the activity preference items and the data of 9,040 respondents who answered the vocational preference items in the engineering sec-tion of the inventory in its analysis before checking if the data met the normal distribution and unidimensionality assumption requirements. Differential item functioning was extracted with the ‘lordif’ package of R and the PARSCALE program. The items whose differential function was found both in the programs were chosen as the final differential item functioning.
 Results The results of testing the assumption of unidimensionality suggested the possibility of other dimensions of latent trait beyond activity and career preferences. Subsequent analysis conducted through differential item functioning analysis revealed that nine out of the 30 activity preference items and seven out of the 30 vocational preference items were extracted as differential item functioning. All these items except for one activity preference item were favorable to female students. The activity preference items whose differential function included majors in life science and biotechnology, computer software, environmental studies and energy, and chemistry and chemical engineering. In terms of career preference, the differential functioning items encompassed majors in life science and biotechnology, chemistry and chemical engineering, and environmental studies and energy.
 Conclusions The study then inferred the causes of the differential item function extracted based on the findings and discussed the future direction of career education to help high school students overcome the gender gap in the choice of an engineering career and make a reasonable and sustainable career and occupation choice.