Degree Type

Dissertation

Date of Award

1983

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Family and Consumer Sciences Education and Studies

Abstract

An achievement test was developed that assessed both lower and higher levels of cognitive achievement in personnel management of Coordinated Undergraduate Program in Dietetics (CUP-D) students. The personnel management competencies used to develop the test were those required of CUP-D with a general emphasis as specified in the minimum competency list of The American Dietetic Association (1973);A table of specifications was established based on the minimum competencies and personnel management course outlines from CUP-D. The content areas were managerial process, human behavior, and labor economics. Cognitive levels of knowledge, comprehension, application and analysis, and evaluation were used for the test items. The test questions were developed in two formats: multiple-choice items with four distracters, and situational items with a factual situation and associated multiple-choice items;The items were reviewed by four educators of dietetic students for content and accuracy. Three evaluation specialists reviewed the test for item-writing principles and cognitive level. The device was pilot tested with 27 dietetic interns for usability and readability;Program directors of 26 of the 38 general CUP-D agreed to have their students (297) respond to the test. The data producing sample consisted of 280 senior CUP-D students. Data were analyzed in the following ways. An item analysis of the 107 test items; test reliability, standard error of measurement, standard deviation, and mean score were calculated;An optimum test was developed by selecting the best items from each content-cognitive category based on item statistic criteria. A 70-item device was developed from the pool of items. In this device, 69% of the items in the human behavior content area met the criteria, followed by managerial process (54%) and labor economics (54%);The 70-item final device had a mean score of 43 and a range of 11-67. The average difficulty was 61%, within 1.5 points of the ideal average difficulty for the device. The reliability was 0.80, using the Kuder-Richardson 20 formula. The personnel management achievement test would be useful as part of the overall evaluation plan for CUP-D students.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.31274/rtd-180813-8556

Publisher

Digital Repository @ Iowa State University, http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/

Copyright Owner

Lynne Ellen Baltzer

Language

en

Proquest ID

AAI8407049

File Format

application/pdf

File Size

114 pages

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