Development and Validation of a Concept Inventory for Interpreting Kinematics Graphs in the Tanzanian Context

Abstract

<p style="text-align: justify;">This paper discusses the development and validation of a concept inventory for interpreting kinematics graphs in the Tanzanian context. The study involved 61 participants comprising physics pre-service teachers, secondary school teachers, diploma college tutors, and a university lecturer from Tanzania. We developed 25 multiple-choice questions for interpreting kinematics graphs. The different steps in the development process used are selecting the topic, setting objectives, constructing questions, validating questions, and reliability testing. We carried out descriptive and inferential statistical analysis by using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 22 followed by item analysis for pre-and post-piloting. Findings revealed normal distribution scores with a mean and standard deviation of 39.28±10.893 for pre-piloting and 40.16±8.08 for post-piloting. It also revealed no significant difference between pre-and post-piloting results with a p-value of 0.414.  In addition, correlation coefficients for test re-test reliability were .783 and .878 for single and average measures respectively. Moreover, item analysis in terms of difficulty index, discrimination index, and distractor efficiency agreed with the published standards. Based on these findings, the study recommends the use of developed and validated kinematics graphs concept inventory by physics educators in both research and classroom instructions in the Tanzanian context.</p>