This research was conducted to qualitatively gauge the influence of the use of Jigsaw in the teaching and learning of primary science on students’ attitudes towards science. A total of 12 Year-5 students (9 girls and 3 boys) in a low enrolment school or its Malay equivalent, Sekolah Kurang Murid (SKM) classified by the Ministry of Education as schools with less than 150 students were involved in this research. The two-week intervention consisted of three cycles of Jigsaw in the learning of primary science. Basically, one cycle of Jigsaw entails students working in their respective home groups, students moving to their respective expert groups to work on the teacher-prepared tasks, and students returning to their respective home groups to take turn to share what they have learned in their respective expert groups. Preand post-intervention interviews were conducted with six of the Year- 5 students. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed through a recursive process. While the anal.....

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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 reliabi.....

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An ex-post facto study was conducted to determine which teacher practices can promote critical thinking among secondary school students. A total of 1200 students in 12 schools in a district in Selangor participated in the study. The study employed an extreme group causal comparative design where students who tested high in critical thinking as measured using the Cornell Critical Thinking Test Level X (CCTT-X) were compared with students who obtained low scores in the CCTT-X. Twelve experiences with regard to teacher practices in the classroom differed significantly between the high and the low scorers when analysed with the Mann-Whitney U Test. Implications of the study, particularly on ways to teach better to promote critical thinking are discussed. Key words: Critical thinking, Teacher practices, Malaysia..

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