A Teoria da Resposta ao Item no IFRN: uma aplicação com os dados do Exame de Seleção dos cursos técnicos integrados

Abstract

Item Response Theory (IRT) is gaining more and more space in large-scale tests in Brazil since it is already established in several parts of the world. This method adopts an independence of the items in relation to the individuals in which it is desired to measure their proficiency. The main goal of this work is to show how is possible to estimate the proficiency of candidates who take the Selection Examination of the Federal Institute of Eeducation, Science and Technology of Rio Grande do Norte (IFRN in Portuguese) through the Item Response Theory, and thus rank them more appropriately. The data provided by IFRN refer to attributes of those enrolled in the event, answered at the time of registration, and the answer sheet and scores in Mathematics, Portuguese Language, and Writing, calculated a posteriori. The results showed that it is possible to apply the IRT for this type of selection, since there is information about the population of respondents and the estimation of the parameters can be performed by selecting a representative sample of 9th grade students in Elementary School. In general, the items in Mathematics presented greater difficulty in relation to items in the Portuguese language and some items were not very informative, and may have been discarded in the item calibration stage, if the IRT had been adopted as a methodology for calculating the candidate scores. This work proves to be useful so that the decision makers of the institutions that use selection exams for the admission of students can see the advantages of using IRT in these selections.