Data Processing of Word-Association Test (I-Form) : The P-P Graph Analysis

Abstract

Our previous papers have reported that we have developed an instrument measuring cognitive structures of students by the Word-Association Test of Iwate Form (for brevity: WA-Test of I-Form). Nishimura (a member of our seminar) has established the 'P-P Graph Method' which describes, on a two-dimensional space, the change between pre- and posttest score of responses in WA-Test as a point with Cartesian coordinates (x-axis is a pretest score and y-axis a posttest one). We have tried 'P-P Graph Analysis' for several researches and have found a remarkable pattern for distributions of points in P-P Graphs by the cluster analysis with the 'change coefficient' defined by us. It seems that the P-P Graph Analysis might be useful to assess the teaching arts of teachers in teaching-learning process.