Development of a Test of Science Inquiry Skills Elementary School Students

국민학생(園民學生)의 과학(科學) 탐구능력(探究能力) 측정(測定)을 위한 평가도구(評價道具) 개발(開發)

The purpose of this study is to develop an reliable instrument for evaluating science inquiry skills through an R&D procedure. A total of ten seience inquiry skills were selected for the development of the instrument, ie, observation, classifying, recognizing problems, measuring, inferring, formulating hypothesis, controlling variables, experimenting, interpreting and drowing a conclusion. And three items were developed for each sceince inquiry skill, totaling up to thirty items. The content areas of developed items are divided into three categories, material and energy, life and environment, and the earth and the space. There are 10 items for each category. The content validity and the objectivity of developed items were checked, verified in the two field trials and revised according to the analysis of items by seven experienced specialists with the degree of doctors in science education and five teachers who were studying for their master's degree in science education. According to the results of the second field trial. the content validity of the instrument was 91.1%, reliablity(K-R 20) 0.78, defficulty index 49.13%, discrimination index 0.42, mean achivement 61.85%, standard deviation 5.11, and standard error 2.40. Considering the above results, the developed instrument in this study is regarded as a appropriate instrument for evaluating science inquiry skills of elementary school students.