Item Quality Analysis of the Engineering Design Process Skills and Creativity Instruments in Biology Learning

Abstract

Accurate assessment of Engineering Design Process Skills (EDPS) and creativity in Biology learning requires instruments with adequate empirical item characteristics. This study aimed to examine the item quality and internal consistency of EDPS and creativity assessment instruments within the context of the Human Respiratory System. A quantitative descriptive design was employed involving 67 eleventh-grade students from SMA Negeri 1 Mijen, Indonesia. The instruments comprised 14 EDPS items and eight creativity items, each using a 0–4 scoring scale. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, item difficulty, corrected item-total correlation, discrimination power, and Cronbach's alpha. The findings showed that 20 of the 22 items (90.91%) met the adopted item-total correlation criterion, comprising 13 EDPS items and seven creativity items. Of these, 19 items (86.36% of all items) also demonstrated satisfactory discrimination and were considered suitable for retention. EDPS_9 met the item-total correlation criterion but required revision because of its relatively low discrimination index (0.292), whereas EDPS_13 and Creativity_8 failed to meet the criterion and demonstrated very low discrimination. Twenty-one items were classified as moderately difficult, while one EDPS item was categorized as easy. The EDPS and creativity instruments demonstrated high internal consistency, with Cronbach's alpha coefficients of 0.933 and 0.869, respectively. These findings provide preliminary empirical evidence supporting the retention of most assessment items while emphasizing the need for targeted revisions and further psychometric evaluation before broader implementation.