Science process skills acquired by senior secondary school chemistry students

Thesis Overview

<p> </p><p><strong>INTRODUCTION</strong></p><p><strong>Background of the Study</strong></p><p>All the nations of the world accord priority attention to science and technology in their development efforts. The reason for according such priority attention to science and technology is that it is a road map to great economic improvement and equally serves the only means to national development (Ajewole, 2010). In the age of fast-developing technology, it has become necessary for all countries of the world, especially the developing ones, to organize and improve the teaching of science that helps in understanding of the fundamental base to develop technology. Technology is the successful application of scientific ideas, principles, laws and theories for the purposes of developing services as well as for improving technology itself (Agboola &amp; Oloyede, 2007). Science benefits technology at the same time that technology enhances our understanding of science.</p><p>Okeke (2007), defined science as a systematic process of obtaining verifiable knowledge and experimentation. Nwosu (2001), defined science as both an organized body of knowledge and a process of finding out knowledge. Science is a discipline, a body of knowledge about the universe, the structure and reactions of matter, the conservation and transfer of energy, the interaction between living things and their environment (Ezeudu, 2011). Therefore, all the definitions above center on science as systematic study of the environment or nature through observation and experimentation leading to accumulation of an organized body of knowledge useful for problem solving in the environment. According to Mbah and Leghara (2008), science is a two way activity that involves “product” (the knowledge and outcomes of Science) and “process” (the skills and scientific procedures of investigation). Science can be categorized into two dimensions – the process and the product dimensions. The process of science involves the methods of approach employed and activities engaged in by scientists in order to arrive at a product. These include observation, classification, measurement, inferring, communication, predicting, controlling variables, formulating models, formulation of hypothesis, manipulating, interpretation of data, counting/number relations, experimenting, recording of data and making operational definitions (Akinbobola &amp; Afolabi, 2010).</p> <br><p></p>