Chapter I
Introduction
Learning science is fun but taking it into a deeper learning is hard for some students. It is
not an easy subject in their part when it comes in learning process, which sometimes leads to a
failing performance most especially in both academic and conceptual reasoning skills. Some
student says that science is boring and burdensome in the sense that it needs a keen science
literacy in expressing ideas and assessing the information being taught.
Filipino students are still weak in math and science, according to results of the Third
International Mathematics and Science Study Philippines ranked 41 st in Mathematics and 42nd in
Science out of 45 countries test, thus the above accounts provide a framework of information that
will look into the factors that might affect National Achievement Test results administered for
Grade 6 and Fourth Year students. This examination is designed to determine the student’s
academic strength and weakness. The Rating they obtained from NAT serves also a tool to test
showed that science continues to be the most difficult field of study.
The DOST revealed that Filipino participants garnered a score of 349 and 350 in Science
and Math respectively, way below the international average of 489 in both subjects (Crisostomo,
2000). Moreover, the lack of science education facilities is reflected on the poor quality of basic
science and math education seen by the low achievement scores of Filipino students in various
tests (Jalmasco, 2017).
According to Dy (2011), the primary goal of teaching is to provide appropriate and
effective instruction to students. Thus, a science teacher must provide or design a strategy that
will help the students improve their performance.
Review of Related Literature
Hot Seat as a learning strategy is said to be an effective way for students to practice their
higher-level thinking skills, while gaining a deeper understanding of the content that is being
learned. The idea behind these strategy is that students practice their public speaking skills while
they take on the role of a character from a book and they answer questions from their classmates.
Moreover, Georgiou (2003) defines assessment as a general term which includes all methods
used to gather information about children’s knowledge, ability, understanding, attitudes and
motivation.
Assessment is the collection of relevant information that maybe replied on for making
decisions and can be used up in the process of informing the key stakeholder on the student’s
progress, gathering and synthesizing their performance (Fenton, 2003).
Types of Assessment
Conventional assessment, are more traditional assessment tools evaluate what skills
students can perform with success. They are generally knowledge-based, versus hands-on or
performance-based. They include traditional types of tests like multiple-choice, short answer
essays or constructed responses, and standardized tests such as those districts administer to all
students (Ruckdeschel, 2003).
Multiple-Choice Tests
Multiple-choice tests are popular tests that require students to recognize correct answers from
among several choices, usually three to four with all but one choice wrong. They're easy to score, but not
as easy to create because answer choices must carefully balance one correct answer, one close-to-correct
answer, with the remaining wrong. Some students consider multiple-choice tests easier than essay tests,
and others consider them to be a greater challenge. If a student is fairly good at strategy, he or she is
likely to be successful with multiple-choice tests, since points can be scored with a close guess through a
process of elimination. But because the answers are somewhat simpler to determine, they cause for a
much broader knowledge-base and this makes them more challenging to prepare for. Some students can
compensate for a lack of this broader knowledge-base through good test-taking strategy (Ruckdeschel,
2018).
Short-Answer Essay Tests
Educators design short-answer essay tests to evaluate what can't be articulated through
multiple-choice questions. The tests generally require a deeper, more detailed analysis of
content that requires higher-order thinking. For this reason, many students find essay
responses to be more of a challenge. Question prompts are used to elicit students responses,
and can often involve application of complicated concepts, synthesis and problem-solving
through the making of comparisons, identification of similarities and differences, and cause and
effect relationships (Ruckdeschel, 2018).
Constructed-Response Tests
Constructed-response tests require short answer or fill-in-the-blank questions, and require
a blend of factual knowledge and higher-order reasoning. Students place their own information
in missing spaces rather than from among several pre-prepared choices. They're much easier to
create than multiple choice, and can retain control over guessing. For this reason they're more
difficult to score, and usually require manual scoring with each response read and evaluated on
its merits. When used as part of a comprehensive standardized test, they tend not to be weighted
as heavily as other questions for ease of scoring (Ruckdeschel, 2018).
Standardized Tests
Schools use standardized tests widely on a national level, and they are part of every
school district's accountability design. Many are considered "high stakes" because they're taken
by large populations of students, and if they do not perform well, districts could lose valuable
federal and state funding. Standardized tests need to be easily scored for this reason, and are
therefore designed using a typical combination of multiple-choice, short answer, document-
based questions and constructed responses (Ruckdeschel, 2018).
Authentic Assessment
Authentic Assessment is a type of test given to students designed to assess their ability to
apply standard driven knowledge and skills to a real world challenges (Prof. Mueller, 2018). Authentic
assessment can be either a short-term or long-term assignment for students. There is no specific
length of time attached to an authentic assessment learning opportunity. However, "within a
complete assessment system, there should be a balance of longer performance assessments and
shorter ones" (Valencia, 1997).
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