The Impact of Inquiry-Based ChemistryExperimentation on Eleventh-Grade Students’ Science Inquiry Process Skills

Abstract

As the advocacy for active learning in science classrooms grows, so is the need to cultivate learners’ competencies in scientific inquiry. In this parallel convergence mixed-methods study, we examined the science process skills of 221 eleventh-grade students in four out of 30 senior secondary schools, which were selected using a two-stage sampling technique. A six–week chemistry experimentation teaching using the 4-H Inquiry-in-Action model followed a pre-test. During experiments, qualitative classroom observations were made to describe students’ science inquiry process skills. While the quantitative data were collected using the Science Inquiry Process Skills Inventory, the qualitative data were collected using the Event Sampling Observation Schedule. Grand findings show a meaningful level of acquisition of all of the science inquiry process skills under investigation. The skill to use evidence to answer scientific questions was relatively easy, and although students were more inclined to drawing and interpretation of graphs, they experienced initial challenges in designing their own experiments, making accurate measurements, and recording the masses and volumes of experimental samples. These results have underscored the need to employ guided inquiry learning strategies in the Liberian science classroom and hence serve to inform science curriculum reform programs in Liberia.