Differential Item Functioning in Online Learning Instrument (EPFun)

Abstract

Providing young learners with high-quality digital primary education and literacy skills are necessary for them to excel academically. The development of the online Fun Learning Instrument known as English Primary Fun (EPFun) is based on the Piaget Constructivism Development theory. This theory could be applied to young learners as it includes cognitive, behaviourist and second-language acquisition theory as well. The purpose of this study is to detect Differential Item Functioning (DIF) in performances between genders among Malaysian young learners in rural primary schools. The data were obtained from the randomly selected respondents of 106 male and 144 female young learners from the target group. The EPFun instrument consists of four constructs: a) Usefulness (USFN), b) Ease of Use (EOU), c) Ease of Learning (EOL) and d) Satisfaction (SAT). To analyse the responses to the instruments, 40 items overall were made up using 5 levels of coded smileys from the 4 constructs. The data were analysed using SPSS and Winsteps version 3.68.2, a Rasch-based item analysis programme. The findings indicate there is no significant difference in DIF performance between male and female young learners. This conclusion is derived from the t-test for Equality of Means, which revealed the results of the Sig. (2 tailed) for every construct (USFN; Sig = 0.558; EOU; Sig = 0.638; EOL; Sig = 0.628 and SAT; Sig = 0.500) larger than 0.5. The findings also revealed that there were only 7 items detected as DIF. However, there is no significant DIF based on the size range of the logits scales. Female young learners excel in one construct-Satisfaction (SAT). However, male young leaners are on a par with female young learners with regard to other constructs. Thus, this instrument is free from DIF and could be used as an indicator to gauge young learners’ literacy skills, especially in using hypermedia reading materials in English.