Teacher-coaches’ Perspective on the Validity and Acceptability of Commercial Laboratory Testing and Analysis of High School Science Investigatory Projects

摘要

This paper attempts to determine the teacher-coaches’ perspective concerning the validity and acceptability of commercial laboratory testing among high school students in conducting their investigatory projects (IP). Considering the conduct of IP as an inquiry-based learning of the scientific method, validity in this context refers to the alignment of the practice to the goals and aims of having the students do an IP, whereas acceptability refers to the personal judgment of the teacher whether the said practice is appropriate or not. The study initiates with a review and discussion of the nature of IP as practiced in the Philippine setting vis-à-vis with relevant literature on inquiry-based teaching and learning. The empirical aspect of the study is the participation of 47 practicing high school science teachers who are, or have had an experience in teaching and coaching the conduct of an IP. Data collection involves the use of survey as well as grouped and individual interviews. Results indicate that while majority of the respondents consider the practice as invalid, majority of the same pool of respondents also consider the practice as acceptable. Lack of laboratory instruments and materials was pointed out as the inherent determining factor in the consideration of the validity and the acceptability of the practice. The implications to assessment specifically on judging the merits of the students’ IP output are also discussed.