Assessing Senior High School Biology Students’ Science Process Skills

Abstract

This study was conducted to assess science process skills of drawing, classifying, interpreting and hypothesising among Senior High School (SHS 3) Biology students in the Volta Region of Ghana. Two hundred and forty students were randomly chosen from six SHSs to respond to the research instruments. Additionally, six SHS 3 Biology teachers in the sampled schools also participated in the study. The main instruments used to collect data were science process skills assessment tasks, interview guides for students and teachers and guide for content analysis of Biology practical workbook of students. The research instruments were pilot tested on a representative sample to determine the reliability and validity of the instruments. The interrater reliability coefficient for the performance tasks on drawing, classifying, interpreting and hypothesising were found to be 82.50%, 85%, 2.50% and 80% respectively. Mixed methods research design was employed in this study and thus quantitative and qualitative methods were used in analysing data generated from the respondents. Prominent among the findings were that majority of the students performed poorly on the skills of drawing, classifying, interpreting and hypothesizing, Biology practical activities were not organized frequently in the schools and there was a significant difference between the categories of schools and the acquisition of science process skills of drawing, classifying, interpreting and hypothesizing. Based on the findings, it was recommended that Biology teachers at SHSs should organise practical activities frequently for students to acquire and master science process skills that are stipulated in the syllabus for meaningful learning of Biology.