THE DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF A MALAYSIAN-BASED BASIC SCIENCE PROCESS SKILLS TEST

Abstract

This paper reports the development and validation of a test that measures the basic science process skills for upper primary school pupils as stipulated in the Malaysian science curricula. In the instrument development phase, 58 Basic Science Process Skills (BSPS) items were generated according to a set of a priori indicators. These items were vetted by two reviewers to ensure content validity and to establish inter-rater agreement, yielding a Cohen’s Kappa value of 0.877, p = < .001. The BSPS Test was then field tested with a group of 197 upper primary students (aged 10-12) that represents top, average, and bottom sets. The dataset was subjected to item analyses, resulting in a quality 29-item BSPS Test. The BSPS Test has a KR-20 reliability of 0.86, and means for difficulty and discrimination indices of items that measured at 0.61 and 0.49 respectively. This paper ends with a discussion as to how the quality 29-item BSPS Test could be used in the classroom alongside the mandatory science practical assessment, thus providing the concurrent validity.