Learner Competence Across Cognitive Levels In Undergraduate Medical Education: An Item Response Approach.

Abstract

Objective: The current study endeavors to evaluate competence of learners using item response theory approach in undergraduate medical education. Methodology: The responses of the examinees from first professional year (MBBS) were evaluated for Anatomy discipline to gauge learner competence through knowledge, understanding and application in the subject using item response theory approach (IRT) which is an effective tool to measure the validity (discrimination and difficulty index) of assessment, while KR-20 is used to gauge reliability of the items with statistical software STATA 17. The quality of question and level of examinee responses provide skill level and competence of learners. Results: The current study found that the C1 and C3 level items from the Anatomy discipline are mostly acceptable and effectively gauge learner competence while flawed C2 level items need complete restructuring. The study also identified weak areas of average learner for items in each cognitive level. Conclusion: The study found significant role of IRT in effectively estimating competence of the examinees across cognitive levels for each discipline and in building of an effective test pool through assessment of learner ability and construction of quality SBAs to achieve valid and reliable assessment tool. Keywords: Difficulty index; Discrimination index; Single best answer questions; Cognitive levels; Item characteristic curve.