| Summary: | Bibliography: leaves 207-218. === This study describes the development, validation, classification, administration and assessment of a compact programme of ten core practical task items chosen from a pool of 33 practical tasks developed for the purpose of this study in basic school physical science. The practical items encouraged and measured various science process skills laid out in the South African Revised National Curriculum Statement Draft. The derivation and classification of the specially designed diagnostic practical task items by experienced lecturers, teachers and academics constitutes an original and crucial part of the study. The objective is to assess the consensus of juries of four to eleven expert science educators on classification of the ten core practical activities, matching the categories. The investigation establishes whether there is a perceived relevant match or a perceived "irrelevant" mismatch between the science process skills tested by the current experimental programme of practical items and the descriptive theories of practical science and its classification schemes and criteria proposed by (a) Franus (1992), (b) Gardner (1983), (c) White (1988), (d) Solomon (1998), (e) Lock (1990), (t) Kapenda, Kandjeo-Marenga, Gaoseb, Kasanda and Lubben's (2001) the Cambridge-based International General Certificate of Education after Millar, Ie Marechal and Tiberghiea (1999), (g) Race (1997) and (h) OBE (Revised National Curriculum Statement Draft, 2001). Lock's assessment framework for practical tasks was found to be the most relevant scheme among the others. The study also identified eight process skills that are highly relevant to practical tasks of the compact programme. These skills included: (a) comprehension skills; (b) recognising given item of apparatus; (c) following instructions; (d) carrying out tasks and handling science apparatus; (e) observation skills; (t) interpretation of the observations; (g) making predictions; and (h) reporting and communicating scientific information.
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