An evaluative study of the experimental tasks of the Ethiopian grade 12 chemistry textbook considering developing science process skills

This study evaluates the experimental tasks of the Ethiopian grade 12 chemistry textbook vis-a-vis coverage of the essential components of science process skills (SPSs) using content analysis. All the procedures in an experiment were analyzed using rubrics of the inquiry-based task analysis inventory (ITAI) instrument. This instrument was based on 10 indicators of SPSs (observing, measuring, inferring, communicating, classifying, predicting, controlling variables, stating hypothesis, interpreting data, and formulating models). The results indicated that the most frequent basic SPS was observing (39.33%), followed by measuring (18.67%) and communicating (18%) compared to the sum total of frequency occurrence of overall skills counted in all experimental procedures. The indicators of other components of the basic process skills are at low level. Almost all integrated skills are not reflected by the experimental tasks. Therefore, we can conclude that the SPS exercised by the experimental instructions is at low level. This study recommends that curriculum developers, textbook writers, and teachers shall revisit the experimental tasks to include SPSs at a reasonable balance.