Improving Science Process Skills Among Pre-Service Trainees Through Hands-On Experiments

Abstract

The study was driven by the investigator’s dissatisfaction with the traditional lecture and demonstration methods which were ineffective in developing essential skills such as observing, classifying, measuring, inferring, experimenting, and communicating. The researcher identified key challenges including a lack of hands-on activities and insufficient feedback. To address these a three-month intervention was implemented involving 20 pre-service trainees. The intervention featured structured hands-on experiments in Chemistry, Physics and Biology integrated with inquiry-driven learning and meaningful feedback. Data was collected using pre- and post-intervention questionnaires. The results showed significant improvements in all targeted skills with gains of 44% in observing, 43% in classifying, 38% in measuring, 35% in inferring, and 31% each in experimenting and communicating. The study concludes that hands-on experiments significantly improve science process skills among pre-service trainees. These findings offer practical implications for educators seeking to improve science teaching methodologies in teacher education programmers.