Purpose The objectives of this study can be outlined as follows. First, to determine the procedure for developing a diagnostic test to map students’ understanding of basic accounting concepts. Next, to determine information obtained from the diagnostic test analysis results, such as content validity, difficulty level, discrimination power and distractor effectiveness. Second, to analyze the concept mapping generated from the diagnostic assessment to determine whether this assessment is capable of mapping students’ conceptual understanding. Design/methodology/approach This research is a development research by adapting the Four D Model from Thiagarajan et al. (1974) using three stages, namely, define, design and development. The research subjects involved three experts for content validity testing and 72 undergraduate accounting students for test item analysis and concept understanding mapping test. Data analysis techniques used descriptive statistics and classical score theory with the ITEMAN program for item analysis. Findings The results of the study showed that 50 objective questions and 7 essay questions had been developed through preliminary studies, literature reviews, concept map formulation, test item development and item validation. The first test analyzed the content validity test using the Gregory technique, the test results showed a coefficient of 0.95 indicating that the content validity was very high (0.8). Furthermore, the test analysis using the ITEMAN program stated that the overall test instrument was relatively easy, the level of discriminating power was quite good and the reliability was very high. However, there were 15 items that were rejected because they had a very low discriminating test. The test results showed that each student’s ability in each concept was different from one another with the lowest average score being on concept 2, namely, the basic accounting equation. Research limitations/implications This study’s limitations lie in analyzing item quality using classical scoring theory for item analysis. Furthermore, modern scoring analysis can be used to further ensure the validity and reliability of the test instrument. Furthermore, the effectiveness of using diagnostic test instruments has not yet been assessed. This stage will be continued in future research by implementing an appropriate learning model. Practical implications The results concluded that the diagnostics test of basic accounting concepts can be used as a test that can map student’s understanding. With this mapping, teachers can design the right learning methods to help students better understand the concepts that are still lacking. Originality/value This research has a novelty in the development of diagnostic test instruments to map the understanding of basic accounting concepts in students. With this mapping, students become better prepared to understand the next stage of accounting material.
Herawati et al. (Sat,) studied this question.