Development of Localized Rubric for Science Laboratory Activities in Public Secondary Schools

Abstract

INTRODUCTIONAssessing the level of performance of students plays an indispensable role in the teaching and learning process. In every laboratory activity, evaluating the competency level of students predominantly in the science process skills i.e. inferring, predicting, controlling variables, interpreting data, drawing conclusions, and generalization is necessary to determine the skill in which they excel or needs further enrichment. While the majority of the laboratory activities follow a set of standardprocedures and instruction, still these activities vary in scope, difficulty, and context. Thus, the availability and efficiency of laboratories pose another issue in the conduct of activities. This, in turn, affects the preparation of rubrics as it stipulates a more complete, flexible, and encompassing tool to be developed that may rigorous and tedious for teachers to do.METHODSThe study made use of purposive sampling method and a descriptive research design.RESULTSIn this study, it was found out that the respondents are aware and unanimous toward the function and importance of using rubrics in assessing the students' level of performance: provide the list of specific criteria for scoring/grading science laboratory activities; provide means for giving specific feedback on which aspect of learners need to improve; provide explicit guidelines for the students regarding teacher's expectations; allow teachers to save time, effort and other resources in creating customized rubrics/searching for downloadable assessment tools for science laboratory activities; and Stimulate motivation among students through a clear, achievable presentation on how their performance will be assessed against each standard/criterion.

DISCUSSIONS

Moreover, it was found out on the study that there were considerable number of constraints met in the conduct of laboratory activities: lack of available laboratory apparatuses/chemicals needed in experimentation; lack of safety equipment like eyewash and shower in the laboratory; insufficient time to finish the activity; insufficient ventilation of laboratory room; lack of access to resources such as internet and substantial books needed in developing rubrics; and lack of available science laboratory. It is recommended that the development of a more authentic and localized rubric must be conducted to respond to these concerns and elevate students' competency that directly addresses the concern of developing the five science process skills.