Assessment and investigation of science laboratory skills among year 5 students

In line with the current interest in alternative and authentic assessment, this study focused on the evaluation of students' performance on science laboratory process skills. A sample of 147 year 5 students from six schools responded to laboratory process skills tests which assess investigating, performing and reasoning in the content areas of biology, chemistry and physics. The data were analysed to provide information about students' overall practical performance and to identify specific preinstructional conceptions and erros. An investigation of predictors of laboratory performance revealed significant associations between performance and amount of homework done and students' perceptions of several aspects of the classroom environment (personalisation, investigation and organisation). The gender differences commonly found in science achievement were absent when laboratory performance was used as the criterion.     

Why Automate Instruction?

Automation of instruction can satisfy current needs to increase educational quantity and quality in business, industry and education. Though the ideas are not new, automation gives the first practical opportunity for widespread application. Automated instructional systems include teaching machines, individual "closed-loop" tutoring situations and "feedback" from the student to the machine. These systems exploit the principles of knowledge of results, reward immediacy of reinforcement, participation and individual differences. As a result, teaching is speeded up and improved as students understand and retain better. Automation of instruction will continue to be exploited as it increases in complexity and man-machine relationships. Benefits will be widespread, improving especially teachers' efficiency and market value as well as the nation's means to challenge, effectively, Communism's world-wide competition.