The Developing Students Generic Skills Instrument Through Lecture Assessment Based on Many-Facets Rasch Measurement Model

Abstract

Generic skills are subjective in nature, therefore they can be measured by means of self-assessment, through the peers, teachers or lecturers and by using portfolio. This study aims at developing an instrument measuring the generic skills of university students using an approach from the evaluation of the lecturers. The instrument consists of nine construct of the generic skills, namely team-work, communication, leadership, critical thinking and problem solving, life-long learning and information management, entrepreneurships, ethics, moral and professional, social responsibilities and management. This study employs the Many-Facets Rasch Measurement Model, whereby it involves three facets namely the students, the items and the lecturers. The data analysis is done using Facets 3.64.0. The raters are 17 lecturers and the subjects rated are 194 first year students of 2008/2009 in-take in a university. The reliability scores of the nine constructs in the instrument are between 0.95-0.96. All items are also examined to determine whether the data fit the Rasch Measurement Model. This is done by means of looking at the outfit mean square values and the infit mean square values. The percentage of agreement amongst the raters is between 43.4% – 49.5%. This percentage range shows the values exceeding the expectation of the Rasch Model. The consistency among raters when making the rating is also examined using the fit analysis. Based on the findings from the analysis, it can be concluded that the instrument constructed is suitable for measuring the generic skills of university students through the perspectives of the lecturers.