| Summary: | The purpose of this study was to develop a valid and reliable, instrument for
determining the mathematics subject matter knowledge of Thai preservice elementary
teachers at eight (8) teachers' colleges in eight (8) provinces in northern Thailand.
The focus of the content of interest was the operation of division of rational numbers
in the context of an appropriate taxonomy of the cognitive domain categories
suggested by Wilson (1971). The Delphi technique, item analysis, and "known
group" techniques were utilized in the instrument development phases of the study.
Hypotheses were tested to determine whether significant differences existed between
colleges and between teachers with different backgrounds. The dependent variable
was the mean test score for preservice teachers at eight Thai teachers' colleges. The
study included the testing of significance for colleges, background, and whether
there was significant interaction between colleges and teachers' backgrounds (liberal
arts and science). The pilot instrument consisted of 52 items representing four
cognitive levels (computation, comprehension, application, and analysis). Based on
an analysis of pilot test data, 10 items were eliminated. The final draft instrument
consisted of 42 items and was administered to 272 preservice elementary teachers.
When field test data were analyzed and compared to "known group" data, 10 items
were found to be outside of the acceptability range for difficulty. Item difficulty
was used for selecting items for inclusion in the final instrument to measure the
operation of division of rational numbers with Thai college preservice elementary
teachers. This step in the research served to reduce the number of test items to 32,
which constituted the content for the final instrument.
The internal consistency reliability was .81 for the 42-item instrument.
Content and construct validity were verified by various procedures. === Graduation date: 1994
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