Assessing Science Process Skills In Physics Teaching

Science process skills are reflection of the methods used by scientists while generating information on science teaching. These important skills include the processes, which can be applied in almost every stage of life, and which should be possessed and used by any individual in scientific literate societies. Moreover, these skills enable students to reach the meaningful learning level in courses such as physics, chemistry and biology, and prevents memorizing and forming negative attitudes towards science. The studies carried out in science teaching in recent years, and the new teaching programs have increased the interest on science process skills. In the USA and western countries the studies on the science process skills date back to 1960s. While we can encounter many studies about testing and assessing the science process skills in foreign literature, this field seems to be new in our country. This study is carried out in order to develop a valid and reliable testing instrument for assessing the science process skills of the students in the first class of high school. The scope of the Test for Assessing Science Process Skills (TASPS) is composed of identifying variables, constructing hypotheses, controlling variables, v recording data (constructing the data table), constructing graph and graph interpretation skills. These skills have key role in laboratory experiments. The method adhered to in the process of developing test includes defining the structure to be tested, forming the item pool, piloting, item analysis, and validity and reliability analysis processes. TASPS is developed as a result of the pilot studies administered to 1548 high school students in the ninth class. In order to prove the validity of the test scope, structure and criteria validity studies are done and as for the reliability, interior consistency analysis, stability analysis and inter referee consistency studies are done. The final version of TASPS is composed of three multiple choice and three open ended modules, with a total of six modules. Module 1 assesses the skills of defining the variables and constructing hypotheses, and has 60 multiple choice questions; Module 2 assesses the skills of controlling variables (designing experiment) and has 5 open ended and 25 multiple choice questions; Module 3 assesses the skill of constructing data table and has 8 open ended questions; Module 4 assesses the skill of drawing graph and has 8 open ended questions; Module 5 assesses the skills of graph interpretation and has 60 multiple choice questions; and Module 6 assesses the skills of defining the variables and suggesting hypothesis and has 10 open ended questions. TASPS is designed as a question pool which can be used in the studies related to science process skills and in-class activities. The users can apply TASP without any change or can pick the appropriate quality and quantity of the items from the question pool according to their needs and form their own tests.