An Application of Cognitive Diagnosis Modeling in TIMSS: A Comparison of Intuitive Definitions of Q-Matrices

Abstract

Detection of students’ ability levels is one of the common aims in educational studies. Cognitive Diagnosis Modeling approach has been used recently for the purpose of ability level detection by defined Q-matrices. This paper aims to use Cognitive Diagnosis Modeling (CDM) in order to investigate the definition of a Q-matrix across the cognitive skills of different years and countries in TIMSS. There is a subjective way in defining Q-matrices; for this purpose, an application of building Q-matrices under specific CDMs, from a set of expert proposed attributes is examined. The proposed attributes are used to build Q-matrices for TIMSS mathematics questions across its cycles, and across different nations.