4.2. Students’ level of procedural knowledge
Part B tested students’ science process skills. This section also measured how students conducted activities
(experiments) to solve the problems. From the analysis of questions in section B in UTPKPP, procedural
knowledge level of students was determined by taking into account the average percentage of students responded
correctly to the questions. The level of students’ problem solving in terms of procedural knowledge was weak because less than half of
the students (31.1%) were able to answer the questions correctly. More than half of the students managed to
answer correctly the basic science process skills involving procedural knowledge of welding and were able to
make their own observations with the percentages of 64% and 59.5%. However, less than 30 percent of students
had successfully integrated science process skills such as building hypotheses (29%), determining independent
variables (26.5%), planning procedures (12.5%) and collecting data (24%). This shows that the students were
weak in their mastery of procedural knowledge.
According to Rose et al. (2004), emphasis on students’ mastery of science process skills are not regarded as
an important element in the process of teaching and learning science. Therefore, the teaching of science does not
include the application of students’ science process skills. Therefore, high school students performed poorly in
studies on mastery of science process skills. Mastery of science process skills or procedural knowledge can be
achieved if students are allowed to experience a series where students can have the opportunity to learn about
themselves more effectively. Thus, findings by Entepinar and Geban (1996), show that a method of inquiry-
oriented laboratory has enhanced students’ understanding of scientific concepts. This is because students
themselves involved in building hypotheses, designing experimental procedures, data collection, recording
observations, making interpretation of data obtained and conclusions.