Unraveling Scientific Creativity in Fluid Dynamics: An Item Response Theory Approach with Rasch Analysis for High School Learners

Abstract

Scientific creativity is a key 21st-century skill that should be assessed to identify students' creative potential. This is important for mapping out and guiding students toward the fields of interest they will pursue in the future. However, the measurement of scientific creativity in schools is still dominated by conventional ordinal score-based approaches, which fail to clearly reflect individual students’ abilities. This indicates a gap between modern assessment expectations and limited evaluation practices. This study aimed to develop the Scientific Creativity Test in Fluid Dynamics (SCTDF) for high-school students and to conduct a preliminary psychometric evaluation of its measurement functioning using the Rasch model. This study used the 4D Research and Development model and involved 50 high school students in Pamekasan Regency, East Java. The research instrument was a test consisting of 14 multiple-choice items based on seven indicators of scientific creativity and fluid dynamics. Data analysis was conducted using the Ministep application according to the Rasch Model criteria. The findings provide preliminary Rasch-based evidence regarding the measurement functioning of the SCTDF. Most items demonstrated acceptable model–data fit; however, one item showed misfit and person reliability was low (0.49), indicating limited precision in differentiating respondents along the measured continuum. Further item refinement and validation with larger and more diverse samples are therefore required. The study concludes that the SCTDF can serve as an alternative tool for assessing scientific creativity based on modern psychometrics, although revisions to certain items are still required to improve measurement accuracy