• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.43 no.1
• /
• pp.17-28
• /
• 2023

In line with the entry into the digital-based intelligent information society, the science curriculum emphasizes the cultivation of scientific competencies, and computer-based test (CBT) is drawing attention for assessment of competencies. CBT has advantages to develop items that have high fidelity, and to establish a feedback system by accumulating results into the database. However, it is necessary to solve the problems of improving validity of assessment results, lowering measurement efficiency, and increasing management factors. To examine students' responses to the introduction of the new assessment tools in the process of transitioning from paper-based test (PBT) to CBT, in this study, we analyzed the results of the PBT and the CBT conducted in 2021 National Assessment of Educational Achievement (NAEA). In particular, we sought to find the effects on student achievement when only the mode of assessment was changed without change of items, and the effect on student achievement when the items were composed including technology enhanced features that take advantage of CBT. This study is derived through the analysis of the results of 7,137 third-grade middle school students taking one among the three kinds of assessments, which were the PBT or two kinds of CBT. After the assessment, the percentage of correct answers and the item discriminations were collected for each group, and expert opinions on characteristics of response were collected through the expert council involving 8 science teachers with experience in NAEA. According to the results, there was no significant difference between students' achievement results in the PBT and the CBT-M, which means simple mode conversion type of CBT, so it could be explained that the mode effect did not appear. However, it was confirmed that the percentage of correct answers for the construct response items was somewhat high in the CBT, and this result was analyzed to be related to the convenience of the response. On the other hand, there were the items with a difference of more than 10%p from the correct answer rate of similar items, among the items to which technology enhanced functions were applied following the introduction of CBT. According to the analysis of response rate of options, these results could be explained that the students' level of understanding could be more closely grasped through the innovative items developed through the technology enhanced function. Based on the results, we discussed some guidance to be considered when introducing CBT and developing items through CBT, and presented implications.