Assessment on Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices (KAP) of Sto. Tomas Integrated High School on the Use of Science Laboratory as Basis for Developing a Supplementary Tool in Learning Science

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

While there is an apparent decrease in students' exposure in the use of Science laboratory, a lot of problems may be attributed from this, especially on the development of their appreciation on the scientific method and other scientific processes. The science laboratory serves as a venue where students can perform scientific experiments and, in turn, understand scientific processes and develop critical thinking, logic, and the like. However, at Sto. Tomas Integrated High school, it has been observed that students seemed to lack understanding of the importance of the Science Laboratory specifically among Grade 11 Jobs. The premise seemed not to serve its purpose as another resource for learning. Thus, a study of the knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of students’ laboratory use were deemed necessary.

METHODS

Descriptive method of research was used using a survey questionnaire. The respondents of the study were the 59 Grade 11 Jobs students of Sto. Tomas Integrated High School who were observed to have low academic performance in Science during the first quarter of the school year generally. Frequency count was used to obtaining the age, gender, and interest of respondents and mean averaging was used to measure the overall perception of respondents on KAP. Respondents were personally oriented by the researcher to assure full understanding of each item in the questionnaire. Data were then analyzed and interpreted.

RESULTS

The results of the study reveal the following salient findings: (1) in terms of gender, 59 percent are male students and (2) in terms of interest, Sports and Social Media are the two top inclinations of the respondents, with 24 and 20 percent respectively. The respondents' mean perception on the use of Science Laboratory in terms of knowledge, attitude and practices, with 3.54, 3.67 and 3.67 respectively, reveals that they are Slightly Aware.

DISCUSSIONS

It is indeed a must for high school students to be exposed and engaged in using the science laboratory in their science class to gain adequate knowledge, proper behavior and attitude and improve their practices. This will develop their scientific skills which are deemed important in the pursuit of further education. In most cases, when the availability of science laboratory, equipment, and instruments is inevitable, science teachers are suggested to improvise tools and equipment. The paper may have not captured everything and, therefore, it is suggested that further studies may be ventured relevant and related to this one.