A Cognitive Diagnostic Assessment Study of the Listening Test of the Singapore–Cambridge General Certificate of Education O-Level: Application of DINA, DINO, G-DINA, HO-DINA, and RRUM

Abstract

This study investigates the underlying structure of the listening test of the Singapore–Cambridge General Certificate of Education (GCE) exam, comparing the fit of five cognitive diagnostic assessment models comprising the deterministic input noisy “and” gate (DINA), generalized DINA (G-DINA), deterministic input noisy “or” gate (DINO), higher-order DINA (HO-DINA), and the reduced reparameterized unified model (RRUM). Through model-comparisons, a nine-subskill RRUM model was found to possess the optimal fit. This study shows that students’ listening test performance depends on an array of test-specific facets, such as the ability to eliminate distractors in multiple-choice questions alongside listening-specific subskills such as the ability to make inferences. The validated list of the listening subskills can be employed as a useful guideline to prepare students for the GCE listening test at schools.

Acknowledgments

I wish to express my sincere thanks to the students and staff of the schools who participated in this study: Clementi Town Secondary School, Bukit Panjang Government High School, Bedok South Secondary School, Beatty Secondary School, Ang Mo Kio Secondary School, and Bukit Batok Secondary School. I would also like to express my gratitude to Lydia Alexkartadjaja from the National Institute of Education (NIE) of Nanyang Technological University and Lim Jie from the National University of Singapore for their invaluable help in data collection, analysis, and reporting. Any flaws remain mine alone.

Notes

¹ The subskill-based approach in this paper is a reductionist methodology which explains listening in terms of its constituents and their relationships.

² Forward inferences refer to comprehenders’ attempt to draw logical conclusions and activate their world knowledge to envision the results and conclusions of something said or done. Backward inferences, on the other hand, refer to comprehenders’ attempt to link the current text to preceding texts.

³ Due to copyright constraints, this author has attempted to present a permissible amount of the texts where possible. Interested readers are referred to the published test materials which are available in local Singaporean bookstores.

Additional information

Funding

The study was supported by National Institute of Education (NIE) research grants (RI 2/16 VSA and SUG 12/16 VA).