THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN ANALYTICAL THINKING SKILLS TEST ON LOCAL HISTORY TO FOR GRADE 9 STUDENTS: MIXED METHODS EXPLORATORY SEQUENTIAL DESIGN

Abstract

         This study aimed to: (1) examine the components of critical thinking skill assessment in a Grade 9 history course focusing on local history; and (2) develop and validate the quality of a critical thinking assessment instrument constructed by the researcher in terms of content validity, item difficulty, discrimination power, and reliability. The study employed an exploratory sequential mixed methods design, using Bloom’s taxonomy and principles of educational measurement and evaluation as its conceptual framework. The target group for identifying the assessment components consisted of five purposively selected teachers. The sample for the instrument validation phase included 32 Grade 9 students from a school in Nong Bua Lamphu Province, selected through cluster random sampling. The research instruments consisted of: (1) focus group discussions and (2) a critical thinking skill assessment instrument. Qualitative data were analyzed using content analysis, while quantitative data were analyzed using basic statistics, including the index of item-objective congruence (IOC), difficulty index, discrimination power, and reliability coefficient. The findings revealed that: (1) the assessment of historical critical thinking skills comprised six components: explaining historical methods, applying historical methods to investigate narratives, analyzing historical events based on historical methodology, analyzing key events in each period using historical methods, evaluating the credibility of data and historical references, and using historical methods for research. These components were used to develop a 40-item, five-option multiple-choice test aligned with the indicators and learning objectives; and (2) the developed assessment instrument demonstrated high quality. Of the 40 items, 35 obtained an IOC value of 0.50 or higher, indicating satisfactory content validity. After the pilot test, 32 items met the specified criteria, and 30 items were selected for the final version. The difficulty index ranged from 0.30 to 0.65, while the discrimination power ranged from 0.30 to 0.90, indicating levels from fair to excellent. The overall reliability of the test, calculated using the Kuder–Richardson Formula 20 (KR-20), was 0.90. The findings provide both a structural framework for assessing local historical critical thinking skills and a high-quality assessment instrument grounded in educational measurement principles. These can serve as guidelines for developing effective higher-order thinking assessment tools in history education.