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UPSI Digital Repository (UDRep)
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| Full Text : Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris |
| This study aimed to develop and validate a test 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, and subsequently, to determine the differential acquisition of science process skills by gender, location, and ethnicity. In the instrument development phase, 62 items were generated according to a set of a priori indicators for the seven basic science process skills and 49 items for the five integrated science process skills. These items were then field tested with a total of 110 Form 2 students that represent top, average, and bottom sets. The dataset was subjected to item analyses, culminating in a 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. These three test characteristics are indeed within acceptable limits for a reliable test. In the main causal-comparative study using a sample of 1021 Form 2 students (548 girls and 473 boys) from 7 (4 rural and 3 interior) out of the 8 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. In terms of each specific science process skill, female students significantly outperformed male students in the process skill of Experimenting. For the process skill in Predicting, Chinese and Kenyah achieved significantly higher than Iban, while for the process skills of Communicating, and Interpreting Data, Chinese and Kayan students significantly outperformed Iban students. 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 alongside recommendations for future research using a more nationally representative sample to examine the validity of such generalisation. |
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