Development and Validation of Worksheets in Physics Based on Science Process Skills at HSSC Level

Abstract

Science process skills (SPS) are necessary skills that should be acquired in the 21^st century. Assessment of student’s competency level in science process skills is a major challenge for teachers. It is necessary to have a validated science process skills instrument that could measure the level of competency for science process skills among science students. This study focused on developing a valid and reliable instrument to measure students' competency level in science process skills. This research study is based on the research and development process. The researcher followed a systematic method based on the 4D instructional development model used by Thiagarajan et al. (1974). This model splits the instructional development process into four phases: define, design, develop, and disseminate. In the first phase, the physics curriculum was critically analyzed at the higher secondary school certificate level to select the four experiments in the subject of physics that were based on science process skills. The construction of item indicators, i.e., the aspects of SPS, were selected in this phase. The second stage was designed in which the researcher developed four worksheets for four experiments. In this stage, items were constructed. In the third stage, items were revised in the light of the expert’s judgment. In the fourth stage, the research instruments passed through a field trial after validation. The subject of the field trial was 60 Physics students of grade XII of two top-level colleges in the city of Rawalpindi. The third phase was the evaluation phase, in which scoring rubrics for worksheets were developed. The validation yielded 22 items for the worksheet of Experiment I, 22 items for the worksheet of Experiment II, 19 items for the worksheet of Experiment III, and 15 items for the worksheet of Experiment IV. The reliability coefficient of Worksheet I is 0.79; it was 0.88 for Worksheet II. For worksheet III, it was 0.71, and 0.82 for worksheet IV. The statistical values confirmed that all four worksheets were empirically valid and reliable for assessing science process skills.