LEVELS OF TEACHER TRAINEES’ ACQUISITION OF INTEGRATED SCIENCE PROCESS SKILLS IN AUTHENTIC CONTEXTS (67 - 79)

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to identify the levels of teacher trainees’ acquisition of integrated science process skills (ISPS) as a whole, and the level acquired for each of the five subskills in ISPS, namely identifying variables, operationally defining, identifying testable hypothesis, data and graph interpretation, and experimental design. It also establishes the differences in ISPS acquisition by English proficiencies. Additionally it also surveys the teacher trainees’ evaluation of the effectiveness of the laboratory manual they used to aid the teaching and learning of science process skills. Using a causal comparative design, TIPS-II of Burns, Okey, and Wise’s Test of Integrated Process Skills II was administered to a total of 142 science teacher trainees from Sultan Idris Education University, Malaysia. The data collected was analysed descriptively in terms of percentage mean score for fair comparison, and inferentially using one-way ANOVA. The results indicated that the achievement level of the overall ISPS was 86.93%, and the achievement level of each subskill in ISPS was 77.70% to 93.43%. The one-way ANOVA indicated that the difference in percentage correct acquired by the teacher trainees was significant according to their proficiencies in English language. Also, the teacher trainees evaluated the laboratory manual as an effective aid in helping them comprehending science process skills.