Document Type : Original Article

Authors

• Usani Joseph Ofem ¹
• Sylvia Ovat ²
• Ntah Hycenth ³
• Maryrose Ify Udeh ⁴

¹ Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-Alike, Ebonyi State

² Department of Educational Foundations, University of calabar, Nigeria

³ Department of Educational Foundations , University of Calabar

⁴ Department of Science Education, University of Calabar, Nigeria

Abstract

Students’ performance has been an issue of concern among stakeholders in education. A lot of studies have been carried out, but the problem persists. This study seeks to examine the effect of item sequencing on academic performance using the control variables of gender and test anxiety. A total of 245 participants were used for the study. Two instruments, the Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI) developed by Spielberger in 1980 and the Physics Achievement Test (PAT) developed by Ibout in 2022, were used for data collection. The collected data were analysed using means, standard deviations, and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). The result showed that gender significantly influences students’ performance in physics. Emotional test anxiety has a significant effect on test performance in Physics and item sequencing has a significant effect on post-test performance in Physics. The result further showed that no interactive effect exists between item sequencing and the dimension of test anxiety assessed on the post-test score in Physics. Based on the findings, conclusions and further implications of the findings were discussed.

Keywords

• Test anxiety
• emotional test anxiety
• ANCOVA