INTEREST IN COMBINED OPERATIONS: AN INSTRUMENT FOR PRIMARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

An assessment was conducted on the Interest in Combined Operations (ICO) instrument among primary school students. ICO consists of 20 items categorized into four main constructs: Emotion, Engagement, Knowledge, and Value. This instrument was adapted from the Interest in Mathematics Inventory, using the Four-Phase Model of Interest by Hidi and Renninger as its theoretical framework. The study involved 84 Year Five students aged 11 years from two primary schools in the Beaufort district, Sabah, Malaysia. To determine the validity and reliability of the ICO instrument, this study applied the Rasch Measurement Model. The item polarity analysis using PTMEA-CORR values indicated that no items needed to be removed from the ICO instrument. The Raw Variance Explained by Measures was 47.3%, indicating good consistency, while the Unexplained Variance in the 1st Contrast was 9.7%, remaining below the 15% threshold set by the Rasch Measurement Model. This confirms that the instrument demonstrates good unidimensionality. The Cronbach’s Alpha value for the ICO instrument was 0.83, indicating high reliability. Additionally, the ICO instrument recorded item reliability and separation index values of 0.97 (excellent) and 5.51 (excellent), respectively. The reliability and separation index for respondents were 0.79 and 1.91, respectively, demonstrating good consistency in measuring student interest. In conclusion, the ICO questionnaire has high validity and reliability in measuring interest in Combined Operations among Year Five primary school students.