Uma proposta de estimação da proficiência em matemática dos participantes do Proitec 2022, utilizando a Teoria Clássica dos Testes e a Teoria de Resposta ao Item

Abstract

When evaluating a student’s knowledge, it is important to prioritize their development through the results and reflections that the test provides for the construction of the student’s knowledge. A good evaluation methodology makes it possible to identify, understand, interpret and situate the skills that the student masters. In the field of skill measurement, there are two predominant theories, namely, Classical Test Theory (CTT), in which interpretations and analyses are always associated with the test as a whole, and Item Response Theory (IRT), whose focus of analysis is on the items. The objective of this work is to estimate the proficiency level of students who took the Mathematics test of the Technological and Citizenship Initiation Program (Proitec) 2022, using CTT and IRT. In addition, this work proposed a discussion on the application of IRT in the selection processes of the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Rio Grande do Norte (IFRN), as a proposal to improve existing methods. The methodology used consisted of calibrating Mathematics items, estimating respondents’ proficiency, constructing an item map that allowed identifying which skills students master, and assigning a grade within the same scale used in the National High School Exam (Enem). The results showed that the construction of evaluation models using IRT within IFRN is feasible, provided that all necessary steps for its development are followed. It is therefore hoped that this work can contribute to improving the teaching-learning process, particularly within IFRN, by considering the use of IRT as an evaluation model capable of measuring student proficiency more efficiently.