Science Process Skills (Sumber: UK National Foundation for Educational Research, 2010)

·     The interaction of children with their environment in a scientific manner happens through process skills such as handling, manipulating, observing, questioning, interpreting etc.

·      Process skills are thus the route by which children explore and gain evidence which they use in developing ideas

·        Scientific processes would include guessing, predicting and hypothesizing.  A prediction is generally substantiated by ‘evidence’ either in current or past experience.  A hypothesis is a statement which attempts an explanation of an event or relationship.  A scientific hypothesis is one which can be tested scientifically.  The quality of tentativeness is another feature of a hypothesis, as it is a possible explanation.  Hypothesizing can be encouraged in situations where there is more than one obvious and possible reason for something happening.

Indicators of Process Skills

How are indicators valuable?

·     For teachers to use in observing children and deciding the extent to which they are engaged in the actions that indicate that process skill are being used.

·    For guiding the evaluation and adaptation of activities, such that the children are likely to be involved in the actions described by the indicators

·    For suggesting how children can be helped to develop their process skills

·    For indicating the kinds of tasks that can be used to assess children’s use of process skills

The Indicators

OBSERVING

·         Using the senses to gather information

·         Identifying differences between similar objects or events

·         Identifying similarities between different objects or events

·         Recognising the order in which sequenced events take place

RAISING QUESTIONS

·         Asking questions which lead to inquiry

·         Asking questions based on hypothesis

·         Identifying questions which they can answer by their own investigation

·         Recognizing that some questions cannot be answered by inquiry

HYPOTHESIZING

·         Attempting to explain observations or relationships in terms of some principle or concept

·         Applying concepts or knowledge gained in one situation to help understanding or solve a problem in another

·         Recognising that there can be more than one possible explanation of an event

·         Recognizing the need to test explanations by gathering more evidence

PREDICTING

·         Making use of evidence to make a prediction ( as opposed to a guess which takes no account of evidence)

·         Justifying how a prediction was made in terms of present evidence or past experience

·         Making use of patterns to extrapolate to cases where no information has been gathered

FINDING PATTERNS AND RELATIONSHIPS

·         Putting various pieces of information together and inferring something from them

·         Finding regularities of trends in information, measurements or observations

·         Identifying an association between one variable and another

COMMUNICATING EFFECTIVELY

·         Using writing or speech as a medium for sorting out ideas or linking one idea with another.

·         Listening to others’ ideas and responding to them

·         Keeping notes on actions or observations

·         Displaying results appropriately using graphs, tables, charts, etc.

·         Reporting events systematically and clearly

·         Considering how to present information so that it is understandable by others

DEVISING AND PLANNING INVESTIGATIONS

·         Deciding what equipment, materials, etc. are needed for an investigation

·         Identifying what is to change or be changed when different observations or measurement are made

·         Identifying what is to be measured or compared

·         Deciding the order in which steps should be take in an investigation

MANIPULATING MATERIALS AND EQUIPMENT EFFECTIVELY

·         Handling and manipulating materials with care for safety and efficiency

·         Using tools effectively and safely

·         Showing appropriate respect and care for living things

·         Assembling parts successfully to a plan

·         Working with the degree of precision appropriate to the task in hand

MEASURING AND CALCULATING

·         Using an appropriate measure in making comparisons or taking readings

·         Taking an adequate set of measurements for the task in hand

·         Using measuring instruments correctly and with reasonable precision

·         Computing results in an effective way