A MODEL FOR ASSESSING STUDENTS’ SCIENCE PROCESS SKILLS DURING SCIENCE LAB WORK

The assessment of students’ manipulation skills is often neglected by teachers. This trend can be partially attributed to traditional assessment practices which focus upon what the student writes in a lab report rather than the student’s physical performance during the lab activity. Therefore, this article reports on the processes which were undertaken when designing the Performance-Based Lab Assessment Technique (PBLAT). The PBLAT can be used to assess the process skill of manipulation of equipment/materials in biology (i.e. assembling, measuring, and experimenting) as the students conduct science lab activities in high schools and colleges/universities. The PBLAT is not limited to biology lab situations as it can be adapted to other sciences.