Abstract:

The state our society is in is referred to as a post-truth world. As a result of the development of digital information technology, a vast amount of information of varying qualities is being rapidly disseminated across society. Each person is thus becoming more and more an evaluator of information and facts presented, which many times they do not fully understand. At the same time, people should be able to acquire new evidence-based knowledge in their professional lives and to innovate based on this knowledge. These demands are leading to the need for changes in the education systems of many countries. The educational challenges and demands placed on pupils, students and teachers require new skills and knowledge (the so-called competencies for the 21st century), which also affect science education. Scientific skills naturally play an important role in the active investigation of scientific phenomena and facts, but they are also a prerequisite for the actual understanding of objects and processes. Scientific skills are an essential component of scientific literacy and include, but are not limited to, problem orientation, planning and carrying out scientific investigations, interpreting data and drawing conclusions. For effective student learning development and an evidence-based approach to teaching, the skill level of individual students needs to be assessed. This requires the availability of appropriate tools that are well-suited for use in school practice. For this reason, the aim was to develop and validate a suitable test that could be used to measure the scientific skills of Czech students at the lower secondary education level. For this purpose Science inquiry test by Pedaste (2021) was used. This test was translated, and the context of the selected tasks was modified to fit the Czech realities. Two versions of the test were created, which were first content validated by an expert panel of biology didacticians and science teachers and then verified with 92 Czech lower secondary school students. The two versions were identical in the number and targeting of tasks, which focused on analytical skills, planning skills, interpretation and science knowledge. It was verified that the test version did not have a statistically significant effect on the students’ performance on the test (H = .009, p = .925). All analogous items of test versions A and B were found to be correlated (p < .001). A very strong relationship was found in 17 items (ρ = .703 to .952). A strong relationship was found in 6 items (ρ = .514 to .677). Both versions of the test are designed for easy evaluation, do not require complex instruction, and appear to be suitable for diagnosing scientific skills with an emphasis on skills related to science inquiry in Czech educational practice.

Keywords:

Scientific skills, research tool, science education, STEM.