Assessment of Difficulty Levels in Understanding Science Among Undergraduate Students Using the Rasch Analysis

The assessment of students' understanding of the difficulty levels in physics, provided by Rasch analysis, is carried out here using two different tests as measurement tools. We used a poly tomous version of the standard FCI test by select ing items that maintain the core of this concep tual inventory. To do this, we randomly divided the 380 responses collected during a recent FCI analysis into five groups and then restructured six items into six separate evaluation scale items. At this stage, we carefully selected items to high light the dominance of one common-sense error in mechanics. Next, we created our own test with items designed to cover six levels of difficulty, al ternating simpler calculation steps within phys ics-based problems. For both cases, the threshold parameter was estimated using the polytomous Rasch model. The results were analysed and dis cussed.