Basic science process skills test for primary schools item development and validation

This paper reports the development and validation of a test that measures the whole range of basic science process skills as stipulated in the Malaysian science curricula and that is suitable for Malaysian upper primary school students. In the instrument development phase, 58-item Basic Science Process Skills (BSPS) Test was generated according to a set of a priori indicators. These items were vetted by two reviewers consisting of experienced primary science teachers to ensure content validity and to establish inter-rater reliability (or, degree of agreement). The analysis of inter-rater agreement in categorisation of basic science process skills items yielded a Cohen’s Kappa value of 0.877, p = .000 < .001. The BSPS Test was then field tested with a group of 197 upper primary students (Grades/Years 4-6, or aged 10- 12) that represents top, average, and bottom sets. The dataset was subjected to item analyses, resulting in a quality 29-item BSPS Test. The BSPS Test has a KR-20 reliability of 0.86, and means for difficulty and discrimination indices of items that measured at 0.61 and 0.49 respectively. This paper ends with a discussion as to how the quality 29-item BSPS Test could be used in the classroom alongside the mandatory science practical assessment, thus providing the concurrent validity.