The study aims to develop quality test items with acceptable ranges of discrimination and difficulty indices which will be used as an instrument to measure the level of higher order thinking skills among students. Theoretically and conceptually, these test items were developed according to the indicators and definitions of the micro skills inherent in the higher order thinking framework provided by the Malaysian Ministry of Education, in addition to the micro skills within the Swartz et al.(2008) Model of Thinking Skills. Initially, a total of 872 items measuring 26 types of thinking skills were developed. These items were prepared in nine sets and were administered to 1239 respondents from 26 primary and secondary schools, as well as two public tertiary institutions. Results of the study indicated that, after excluding non-quality items which did not conform to the acceptable range of discrimination and difficulty indices, 645 items or 71.7% of the administered items were retained as they fulfilled the set criteria of 0.2 for the discrimination index and within the range of 0.1 to 0.9 for difficulty index.
Volume 11 | 08-Special Issue
Pages: 150-162