Exploring Gender Differential Item Functioning in Eighth-Grade Mathematics Items for the United States and Taiwan

• In Event: Roundtable Session 6
  In Roundtable Session: Differential Item Functioning: Methods and Applications

Abstract

The study explored the consistency of the gender DIF patterns on mathematics items differing in cognitive demand levels within and between two countries. The U.S. and Taiwan 8th grader samples participating in the large-scale TIMSS mathematics assessment were used with the ordinal logistic regression DIF method. The study concluded that the total amount of gender DIF items was low. The gender DIF patterns on items differing in cognitive demand levels were consistent and featured equal number of DIF items favoring both genders. Although the patterns were replicated across country samples, the actual items identified as DIF and non-DIF differed between countries, indicating gender DIF items were country-dependent. The implications were discussed.

Author

• Ming-Chih Lan, University of Washington