A pilot study on chemistry achievement test

Knowledge of chemistry involves abstract concepts and it should be explained in three representative levels, namely, macroscopic representative level, sub-microscopic representative level and symbolic representative level (Johnstone, 1991). Macroscopic level involves changes that are visible to the naked eye and noticeable by the senses of touch, smell and sight. Whereas, symbolic level focuses on the use of formulas, symbols and graphics. Sub-microscopic representative level, on the other hand, is the level of representation that involves particles that are not visible to the naked eye, namely, atoms, molecules and ions. The success of students in mastering the concepts of chemistry is closely related to their ability to create relationships among the three levels of representation. To understand chemistry in a meaningful way, students need to be exposed to the three levels of representation in chemistry. Therefore, this study described the development and pilot test of the chemistry achievement test. This achievement test consisted of 4 different items, developed based on the multiple representations of the topics of Acids and Bases within Malaysian context. In this study, the validity of the test was established through content and linguistic validity, while the reliability of the achievement test was established through the test-retest procedure. The test was administrated by the researchers at two different times, involving a total 27 Form 4 Science stream students. The value for the test-retest reliability coefficient was .828. The description of the test items, and the scoring procedure were also discussed in this paper