Development of an achievement test for science laboratory practices course

The aim of this study is to develop a valid and reliable achievement test for science laboratory course for preservice primary teachers. In this process, a question pool consisting of 21 items was prepared by scanning the relevant resources on the subject and related to experiment types/laboratory approaches, symbols used in science laboratories, science laboratory materials, scientific process skills and organization of science laboratories. The prepared questions were examined by field experts in terms of scientific, technical, language and expression. Necessary corrections were made on the questions by the researcher and the supervisor. A pilot study of the prepared test was conducted on a small group and it was determined that the test was understandable. The study group of this study consisted of 166 preservice primary teachers studying in the department of primary education of the faculties of education of two universities located in the Central Anatolia Region of Türkiye and who had taken the Science Laboratory Course. Item analysis was conducted on the collected data and the difficulty and discrimination index of each item were calculated. 2 items with low discrimination index were removed from the test and 4 items were revised after receiving expert opinion. As a result, the measurement reliability of the Science Laboratory Course Achievement Test consisting of 19 items was calculated as 0.65. Item analyses showed that the test was at an easy level and had good discrimination. According to this value, the Science Laboratory Course Achievement Test is quite reliable. The prepared Science Laboratory Course Achievement Test can be used in future studies.