Students' perceptions on science process skills development during biology lessons

The thinking skills involved in scientists’ construction of knowledge are known as science process skills (SPS). Owing to the importance of SPS, this set of skills is included as part of the science education curriculum worldwide. In Hong Kong, teachers are recommended to implement different teaching and learning strategies in class to booster students’ development of the 6 essential SPS (i.e., “Observing”, “Classifying”, “Designing Investigations”, “Conducting Practicals”, “Inferring”, “Communicating”) stated in the curriculum. Nevertheless, little is known about students’ SPS development during science lessons in Hong Kong, particularly, Biology lessons under the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE) curriculum.

This study examines the most and the least developed SPS as well as the development of SPS in Biology lessons from students’ perceptions in the Hong Kong context with the qualitative approach. Data collection consisted of questionnaires, focus group interviews and individual interviews. 21 students were first invited to complete a questionnaire. Upon the completion of questionnaire, 12 students were invited to take part in the focus group interviews, and eventually, 6 students from the 12 students were invited to participate in the individual interviews. Thematic analysis was then applied in analyzing the transcripts of the interviews.

Findings from the study suggest that (1) students tend to have different perceptions on their most and least developed SPS in Biology lessons though some of them regard the same SPS as their most or least developed SPS, and (2) students have developed SPS during their Biology lessons under the instructional approaches adopted by their teachers. These findings could serve as a reference and provide insights for teachers in their instructional design so as to better cater students’ SPS development in Biology lessons.