Enhancing student’s science process skills through problem solving model: an effectiveness study

Abstract

The present study aimed to determine the effectiveness of the problem solving model for science learning. The model effectiveness was determined by student’s activities, science process skill, and knowledge aspect. The data was obtained through experimental research with a randomized control-group pretest-posttest design. This study was conducted at three different school, namely state junior high school 1 Padang, state junior high school 12 Padang and national junior high school Padang. Two classes of each school were choosen as simple random sampling. The instrument were observation sheets to collect student activities and multiple choice questions to collect students SPS and knowledge aspect. Student activity data were analyzed using the Cohen’s Kappa formula and percentage. The data of improving SPS and knowledge aspect were analyzed by U Mann-Whitney test using SPSS 19. The results revealed that the PS models proved effective which was based on the students’ activities in which they were categorized as a very active category, as well as to improve students’ SPS and knowledge aspect. Therefore, reflected from the findings of the present study, it is recommended for the teachers to implement the use of PS models in science learning at junior high school.