The Development and Validation of an Achievement Test on Science Process Skills for Grade 10 Biology Students

• Main Author: Lapuz, Karla Mae
• Format: text
• Published: Archīum Ateneo 2020
• Subjects: n/a
• Online Access: https://archium.ateneo.edu/theses-dissertations/487
• Institution: Ateneo De Manila University

Learning biology is an essential part of the new science curriculum guide that was set by the Department of Education for the K-12 program. It allows students to understand the study of life and the interactions and processes that come with it. As study in biology grows, the challenges in learning biology also appear. These challenges focus on the skills that needed to be developed to maximize learning in biology. For this to happen, the objective of the lesson, instruction, and assessment should support one another. An assessment is an organized way of measuring student achievement in the classroom. Giving out assessments is important in education because it assists teachers in giving proper grades, in planning the lesson, facilitating the class and in increasing the way of learning of students. Some problems with assessments contribute to the decline in the teaching and learning process. Nowadays, assessments focus on knowledge which fails to provide an intellectual challenge to students. Teachers also do not have enough time to create assessments that are validated and checked for reliability. The more valid and reliable the assessment the more consistent and accurate it becomes in measuring the learnings of the students. The purpose of this study is to construct a valid and reliable achievement test that can assess the Grade 10 Biology students' science process skills. An instrumentation research design was used in this study in developing a science process skill achievement test (SPSAT). The SPSAT covers grade 10 biology learning competencies given by the Department of Education. As part of the preliminary phase of this study, the teachers answered an open- ended questionnaire about their practices and needs assessment in assessing science v process skills. Also, a 38 multiple-choice item and 27 point hands-on SPSAT with table of specifications (TOS) was constructed. The SPSAT was then validated by experts in science to evaluate the test in terms of content. The pilot testing of the achievement test was given in the 3rd quarter to two sections composed of 65 grade 10 students. Selected participants answered an open- ended questionnaire that talks about their experience during the test. In this study, both descriptive and inferential statistics were used. Numerical data were gathered, tallied and analyzed. The data from SPSAT was also assessed in terms of reliability, usability, fairness, concurrent, predictive, and construct validity. The results revealed a high degree of validity with means ranging from 4.68- 4.77 in terms of content validity. The findings further revealed a significant result between the SPSAT and APSA test with a high positive (r = 0.75) correlation. Similarly, the 4th quarter test score had a high positive (r = 0.75) correlation on the SPSAT. Analysis of the construct validity reveals that the SPSAT is divided into seven factors which represent different science process skills that were measured in the SPSAT. Furthermore, reliability analysis also shows that the SPSAT has a high- reliability value (Cronbach alpha = 0.948) which means that the test items exhibits excellent reliability. Lastly, upon a detailed examination of the teachers and students’ responses, interviews and open-ended questionnaires showed a positive response to the usability and fairness of the SPSAT. The developed SPSAT constructed for this study shows a high degree of validity and reliability that can be used in order to gauge the level of mastery of the students when it comes to science process skills that the students acquired. Also, the SPSAT can accurately aid teachers in identifying the areas of strengths and areas that the students need to improve so that they can also provide good feedback to the students.