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ABSTRACT
This study aimed to develop and validate an inventory that measures the
whole range of basic and integrated science process skills as stipulated in
the Malaysian science curricula and that is suitable for Malaysian lower
secondary school students. The validated inventory was subsequently
utilised to determine the differential acquisition of science process
skills by gender, location, and ethnicity. In the instrument development
phase which involves item generation and field testing, a reliable 60-item
Malaysian-Based Basic and Integrated Science Process Skills Inventory
(MB-BISPSI) that has a KR-20 reliability of 0.88, difficulty indices of
items that range between 0.25-0.75 and discrimination indices which
are above 0.4 was produced. In the main causal-comparative study using
a sample of 1021 Form 2 students (548 girls and 473 boys) from seven
(four rural and three interior) out of the eight secondary schools in
Kapit Division, Sarawak, the findings indicate that the students achieved
a mastery level which fell short of the two-third benchmark (e.g., 66.7%)
for the overall science process skills, basic and integrated science process
skills, and also for each of the 12 science process skills. Additionally, it
was found that, while female students generally achieved a markedly
higher mean percentage score in the overall Science Process Skills than
did the male students, such phenomenon was only observed amongst
the Kenyah ethnicity. There were no significant differences in science
process skills acquisition between rural and interior students. Implications
for a more thoughtful inculcation of science process skills are proffered
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ABSTRAK
Kajian ini bertujuan untuk membina dan menentusahkan satu inventori
yang mengukur semua kemahiran proses sains asas dan bersepadu yang
terkandung dalam kurikulum sains di Malaysia dan yang bersesuaian
untuk kegunaan para pelajar sekolah menengah rendah. Inventori yang
ditentusahkan tersebut seterusnya digunakan untuk mengenal pasti
penguasaan kemahiran proses sains berdasarkan jantina, lokasi, dan
etnik. Melalui fasa pembinaan instrumen, Inventori Kemahiran Proses
Sains Asas dan Bersepadu Berkonsepkan Malaysia (MB-BISPSI) yang
mempunyai 60 item dengan kebolehpercayaan KR-20 sebanyak 0.88,
indeks kesukaran dalam julat 0.25-0.75 dan indeks diskriminasi yang
melebihi 0.4 dihasilkan. Dalam kajian causal-comparative menggunakan
sampel seramai 1021 pelajar Tingkatan 2 (548 perempuan and 473
lelaki) daripada tujuh (empat luar bandar dan tiga pedalaman) lapan
sekolah menengah di Bahagian Kapit, Sarawak, dapatan menunjukkan
bahawa pelajar gagal mencapai penanda aras dua pertiga (yakni, 66.7%)
untuk kemahiran proses sains secara keseluruhan, kemahiran proses
sains asas, kemahiran proses sains bersepadu, dan setiap satu daripada 12
kemahiran proses sains secara spesifik. Tambahan pula, didapati bahawa,
sungguhpun pelajar perempuan mencapai skor min peratus yang lebih
tinggi daripada pelajar lelaki, fenomena ini hanya berlaku dalam kalangan
etnik Kenyah. Tiada perbezaan dalam penguasaan kemahiran proses sains
secara keseluruhan di antara pelajar luar bandar dan pedalaman. Implikasi
untuk pemupukan kemahiran proses sains yang lebih berfikrah di samping
cadangan-candangan untuk penyelidikan yang akan datang dibincang.
INTRODUCTION
Assessing students' acquisition of science process skills is an important
aspect in the teaching and learning of science. In the Malaysian context,
school-based Practical Work Assessment or its Malay acronym, PEKA
(Penilaian Kerja Amali) was introduced in 1999 where students carried
out a series of experimental work in groups over the schooling years of
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Ong Eng Tek et al.
• What are the levels of science process skills amongst the Form
2 students in each of the 12 science process skills: Observing,
Classifying, Measuring and Using Numbers, Inferring, Predicting,
Communicating, Using Space-Time Relationship, Interpreting Data,
Defining Operationally, Controlling Variables, Hypothesising, and
Experimenting?
• Are there any main effects for gender, location, and ethnicity in terms
of overall science process skills?
• Are there any two-way interactions and three-way interaction amongst
gender, location and ethnicity in terms of overall science process
skills?
LITERATURE REVIEW
Huppert, Lomask, and Lazarowitz (2002) reckon that science process
skills are a "major goal of science education, since those skills are not only
needed by scientists, but by every citizen in order to become a scientifically
literate person" that can function in global society (p. 807). Additionally,
these skills, according to Huppert et al. (2002), are applicable to all
elements of society and as such, people should know how to use them in
their daily life. But then, what constitute the science process skills? This
is an important aspect to review given that many teachers have "poor
conceptual understanding of the science process skills ... (in which)
their incorrect definitions ranged from not having any idea to tautology"
(Mbewe, Chabalengula, & Mumba, 2010, p. 76).
In the Malaysian context, science process skills are categorised into
basic science process skills (BSPS) and integrated science process skills
(ISPS), of which their precise definitions are given in Table 1.
A review of the currently available science process skill instruments
in the literature indicates that these instruments were deficient in terms
of coverage on science process skills. The process skills coverage in some
instruments was limited in that they assess basic science process skills,
integrated science process skills, or a combination of certain process
skills. For example, Beard (1970) developed the Basic Science Process
Test (BSPT) for primary grade pupils, while Tannenbaum (1969)
developed the Test of Science Processes which measures skills of observing,
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Malaysian-Based Science Process Skills Inventory: Development, Validation and Utilisation
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Malaysian-Based Science Process Skills Inventory: Development, Validation and Utilisation
five process skills: (i) identifying variables (12 items), (ii) operationally
defining (6 items), (iii) hypothesising (9 items), (iv) experimenting (3
items), and (v) interpreting data and graph (6 items). Comparing the
performance on ISPS by level, there was a statistically significant difference
between Form 2 and 4 students in hypothesising, operationally defining,
experimenting, and interpreting data and graph. With respect to gender,
statistically significant differences were found in hypothesising, identifying
variables, and interpreting data and graph. However, the ISPS mean scores
for Form 2 and 4 students (i.e., 32.3% and 34.5% respectively) and for
boys and girls (i.e., 31.5% and 34.5% respectively) were considered low. To
explain these low ISPS mean scores, Ismail (2001) points to the ubiquitous
use of didactic teaching, note copying and ineffective laboratory teaching
that does not relate theory with the practical work.
Abu Hassan Kassim and Rohana Hussin (2003) investigated the
level of science process skills acquisition within the context of chemistry
amongst 300 form four students drawn from seven secondary schools in
Johor Bahru by means of cluster random sampling. However, only two
basic science process skills (i.e., predicting and inferencing) and four
integrated science process skills (i.e., hypothesising, identifying variables,
interpreting data, and experimenting) were measured using an author-
developed structured-item science process skills test which has a reliability
of 0.90. The findings indicate that the students achieved an overall
science process skills mean of 54.26% and specifically, in descending
order, 71.45% for hypothesising, 65.50% for interpreting data, 62.50%
for predicting, 59.41% for identifying variables, 49.00% for inferencing,
and 36.68% for experimenting.
Kiu Ling Feng (2006) conducted a study to determine the level of
integrated science process skills amongst 100 second-year science education
undergraduate students who majored science, chemistry, and physics at
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia in Skudai, Johore. The five integrated
science process skills, namely controlling variables, hypothesising, defining
operationally, interpreting data, and experimenting, were assessed using
an instrument, with a reliability of 0.85, which was adapted by Samini
(1986) from Test of Integrated Process Skills I (Dillashaw & Okey, 1980)
and Test of Integrated Science Process Skills II (Burns et al., 1985). The
findings indicate that the overall acquisition of integrated science process
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METHODOLOGY
Research Design
In view of the purpose of this study, the appropriate methodology
used was a blend between development of test items, and the use of
a causal-comparative research design. The test item development
was characterised by two phases. Phase One was characterized by the
instrument development process (Cohen, Manion, & Morrison, 2007)
that involves (1) identifying the test objective; (2) specifying the content
of the test and this entails identifying as well as describing the science
process skills to be tested; (3) forming a test specification table and this
includes delineating the indicators for each of the science process skills
and the expected number of items; (4) writing appropriate test items
that match the delineated indicators; and (5) checking items by experts
to ensure face validity and content validity. Phase Two was characterized
by psychometric analysis where the developed set of items was piloted to
establish the internal reliability as well as the difficulty and discrimination
indices. Items that have difficulty index within the range of 0.25-0.75 and
discrimination index of at least 0.40 would be accepted, while those that
do not meet the required range would be either modified or rejected.
In the causal-comparative design, the existing groups of students of
various ethnicities in their respective intact ecological locations were used
in the quest to ascertain and gauge their acquisition of science process
skills. In other words, the existing differences between gender, location,
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Malaysian-Based Science Process Skills Inventory: Development, Validation and Utilisation
Sampling
In the piloting phase, a total of 60 Form two students from two classes
of a secondary school in Tanjong Malim, representing top, average and
bottom sets, sat for the test on basic science process skills. The use of three
achievement sets of students was aimed to ensure that the difficulty and
discrimination indices derived were typical and not ability-biased.
In the main study, a purposive cluster random sampling was employed.
The cluster was the "divisions" in the state of Sarawak and these divisions
constituted the "intact groups (that were) randomly selected" (Gay, Mills,
& Airasian, 2009, p.129), while purposive was incorporated into the
cluster random sampling on the basis that the sole criterion for selection
within the intact groups was Form 2 students. Note that in other states
in Malaysia, "districts" were used instead of "divisions". Table 2 shows
the actual number of students by gender, location, and ethnicity that
participated in this study.
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Malays an-Based Science Process Skills Inventory: Development, Validation and Utilisation
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Ong Eng Tek et al.
RESULTS
(a) Data Screening
The detailed preliminary data analyses for normality and other statistical
characteristics for the Overall Science Process Skills, each of the specific
12 science process skills, and the composited basic and integrated
science process skills indicated that all the values of skewness, which
ranged between —0.42 and 0.87, fall within the acceptable range of not
more than +1.00 or not less than —1.00 (Morgan, Griego, & Gloeckner,
2001), suggesting that none of the distributions was markedly skewed
and consequently, none warranted the use nonparametric statistics.
Furthermore, all the dependent variables have acceptable kurtosis values
that fall within the acceptable range of not more than +1.00 or not less
than —1.00 (ibid.), suggesting they were neither too peaked with long tails
nor too flat with too many cases in the tails.
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Malaysian-Based Science Process Skills Inventory: Development, Validation and Utilisation
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Ong Eng Tek et al.
Table 4: Acceptable and Retained Items for Basic Science Process Skills
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Malaysian-Based Science Process Skills Inventory: Development, Validation and Utilisation
Table 6: Acceptable and Retained Items for Integrated Science Process Skills
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Ong Eng Tek et al.
Source df SS MS
Gender 1 560.43 560.43 6.57 0.011 0.007
Location 1 32.69 32.69 0.38 0.536 .000
Ethnicity 5 3061.52 612.30 7.17 0.000 .035
Gender x Location 1 127.89 127.89 1.50 0.221 .002
Gender x Ethnicity 5 957.39 191.48 2.24 0.048 + .011
Location x Ethnicity 5 610.09 122.02 1.43 0.211 .007
Gender x Location x 5 256.73 51.35 0.60 0.699 .003
Ethnic
Error 997 85112.89 85.37
Total 1021 915826.00
Corrected Total 1020 90418.65
Significant at p < 0.05
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Malaysian-Based Science Process Skills Inventory: Development, Validation and Utilisation
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Ong Eng Tek et al.
Pairwise Comparisons
Ethnic (I) — Ethnic (J) Mean 13+ E.S.'
Difference (I J)
Malay - Chinese -5.41 0.430
Malay — Iban 2.96 1.000
Malay - Kayan 2.13 1.000
Malay - Kenyah 0.35 1.000
Malay - Others 1.14 1.000
Chinese - Iban 8.36 0.000 — 0.89
Chinese - Kayan 7.54 0.014 * 0.61
Chinese — Kenyah . 5.76 0.056
Chinese — Others 6.55 0.012 * 0.70
Iban — Kayan -0.83 1.000
Iban — Kenyah -2.61 0.389
Iban — Others -1.82 1.000
Kayan — Kenyah -1.78 1.000
Kayan - Others -0.99 1.000
Kenyah - Others 0.79 1.000
* Significant at p < 0.05 — Significant at p < 0.001 Adjusted for multiple comparisons:
Bonferroni 'E.S., Effect Size = (Absolute Mean Difference)/ (pooled SD of 9.42)
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Malaysian-Based Science Process Skills Inventory: Development, Validation and Utilisation
Table 12: Means and Standard Deviations by Gender and Ethnicity for
Overall Science Process Skills
ponder
Male
Female
Ethnicity
Figure 1: Profile plots of gender and ethnicity interaction
for Overall Science Process Skills
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Ong Eng Tek et at
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Ong Eng Tek et al.
TIPS II (Okey, Wise, & Burns, 1985), while in the latter, form 4 students in
Johor Baharu acquired a mean percentage of 54.0% in the Science Process
Skills Achievement Test, a structured test that measures two basic science
process skills (i.e., predicting and inferencng) and four integrated science
process skills (i.e., hypothesising, identifying variables, interpreting data,
and experimenting).
The findings of this and other similar studies on students' acquisition
of science process skills (e.g., Abu Hassan & Rohana, 2003; Ismail, 2001;
Kiu Ling Feng, 2006), taken together, suggests that in general, Malaysian
secondary students have not sufficiently acquired the science process
skills as aspired by the Malaysian Ministry of Education. Therefore, it
is imperative for the Ministry of Education to seriously look into this
phenomenon of fell-short-of-the-two-third-benchmark in the acquisition
of science process skills amongst Malaysian secondary school students,
strategising science teaching which inculcates the mastery of basic and
integrated science process skills. Additionally, the different ways in
which science process skills could be tested in terms of the feasibility
in administration and scoring for prompt teacher feedback should also
be duly considered and swiftly implemented in our quest to instil these
science process skills amongst the students who constitute the future
generation of Malaysia to meet the demand of the 21'1 century.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We acknowledge with great appreciation the kind gesture of the Malaysian
Ministry of Higher Education for providing us the Fundamental Research
Grant Scheme (Coded: FRGS/KPT 05-28-06-08). Equally, we would like to
express our gratitude to all the participating students for their willingness
to respond to the Malaysian-Based Basic and Integrated Science Process
Skills Inventory (MB-BISPSI), all the teachers who helped to administer
the MB-BISPSI and supervise the sessions, and the principals of the
participating schools for being so accommodating.
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Malaysian-Based Science Process Skills Inventory: Development, Validation and Utilisation
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