Differential Item Functioning of Verbal Ability Test in Gulf Multiple Mental Ability Scale for GCC Students According to Gender and Country

Abstract

The study aimed to investigate the differential item functioning (DIF) for verbal ability test items in the Gulf Multiple Mental Ability Scale for female students in general and Omani Female students in particular in using Mantel-Haenszel (MH) and the Transformed Item Difficulty (TID) methods. The test consisted of 30 multiple-choice items with four distactors. The study sample consisted of the archive data for 4280 students of the third and fourth grades in GCC countries. The results revealed that Sixty Pecent of the items showed DIF related to gender using MH. Similarly, Sixty Pecent of the items showed DIF related to country using MH. DIF values were small indicating weak DIF in most items. Results also indicated that DIF using TID was found for Thirty percent of the items related to gender, and 33.33% related to country. Furthermore, Kappa coefficient 0.524 was moderate between MH method and TID for gender and the agreement ratio was 70%. Kappa coefficient 0.158 was weak between MH method and TID for country and the agreement ratio was 46.67%. Based on the study results the reseachers recommend invistigating the reasons behind the detected differential functioning of some items in the verbal ability test at the second level of the GMMAS scale to avoid and address it.