The investigation of university students’ science process skills and chemistry attitudes at the laboratory course

Chemistry learning aims at developing students' professionalism and facilitating them to compete in the global society. One of the essential skills need in the 21^st century chemistry learning is science process skills (Chabalengula, Mumba, & Mbewe, 2012; Sermsirikarnjana, Kiddee, & Pupat, 2017). Science process skills are a key aspect in learning scientific knowledge because the scientific knowledge is obtained through the investigation (Sa-ngiamjit, 2016). Science process skills enable the students to be directly involved in the science materials when solving the problem by using scientific approach (Abungu, Okere, & Wachanga, 2014). The students who have process skills tend to think analytically and able to solve the new problem compared to the students who do not have process skills (Oloyede, 2012). Science process skills generally used in the learning which is designed to involve the students conducting investigation, one of them is chemistry.

Chemistry contains abstract concepts that require good reasoning skills. In other words, chemistry concepts require the students to integrate the three levels of representation, i.e., macroscopic, microscopic, and symbolic (Herga, Čagran, & Dinevski, 2016; Santos & Arroio, 2016). The interaction among those three levels is an important characteristic needed to understand the chemistry concepts (Sirhan, 2007). Therefore, learning chemistry is not only about learning how many materials to be remembered but also learning to acquire science process skills and then apply them in scientific investigation (Jeenthong, Ruenwongsa, & Sriwattanarothai, 2014). Through science process skills, the students are expected to solve problems that they encounter inside and outside the laboratory (Bolat, Türk, Turna, & Altinbaş, 2014; Çam, Topçu, & Sülün, 2015; Irwanto, Rohaeti, Widjajanti, & Suyanta, 2017). In brief, Science Process Skills (SPS) are needed by the students to learn how to become a chemist.

A number of previous studies on SPS have been conducted in various contexts. In Turkey, Aktamis and Ergin (2008) investigated the effect of SPS-based teaching to improve students' scientific creativity, attitudes towards science and science achievement involving 40 seventh grade students as the samples. The result showed that SPS have been known to be able to improve students' learning achievement and creativity. Earlier before, O'Brien and Peters (1994) examined the influence of cooperative learning in the form of microcomputer-based teaching on the learning achievement of 165 preservice elementary teachers. It is found out that students' process skills have a moderate influence on their cognitive development. Recently, in Indonesia, Prayitno, Corebima, Susilo, Zubaidah and Ramli (2017) analyzed the influence of Inquiry-based Learning and Student Team Achievement Division (INSTAD) on science process skills involving 136 seventh grade students which result indicated a correlation between students' academic skills and science process skills. It is found out that students with higher academic skills tend to obtain significantly better SPS compared to those with lower academic skills.

SPS are frequently linked with hands-on laboratory activities (Durmaz, 2016; Seyhan, 2015; Taylor, Rogers, & Veal, 2009). In other words, the chemistry laboratory serves as a place for developing students’ intellectual, mental, and psychomotor skills through discovery activities. In practice, it turns out that students do not only need to be sufficiently equipped with skills, but also need to have a positive Chemistry Attitudes (CA) to support the inquiry activities in the laboratory. Osborne (2003) pointed that students’ attitudes are the result of their experience in science. Attitudes relate to ideas, beliefs, and honesty in reporting, and skepticism (Jones & Butts, 1983). As stated by Lang, Wong and Fraser (2005), there is a significant association between students’ attitudes towards chemistry and their laboratory class environment. Attitudes are used to provide direction to scientific actions. One of the factors influencing students’ attitudes towards chemistry is the engagement in the learning process (Kubiatko, 2015). Lack of judgment on students’ attitudes are one of factors that triggers their poor scientific orientation and their low responsible attitudes in their daily activities (Ataha & Ogumogu, 2013). Therefore, evaluating students’ attitudes periodically is one of the important goals in improving success in chemistry learning.

Another goal of chemistry learning at tertiary level is to develop positive attitudes. Ajzen (2001) expressed that attitudes relate to the attribute such as good-bad, beneficial-unhelpful, pleasant-unpleasant, and like-dislike which are relatively stable over time. Attitudes are considered as one of particular attitudes in science which is described as the way followed by the scientists in accessing and interpreting the knowledge (Yaşar & Anagün, 2009). Scientific attitudes are classified into nine components, such as rationality, curiosity, open-mindedness, objectivity, aversion to superstition, suspended judgment, critical mindedness, intellectual honesty, and humility (Billey & Zakhariades, 1975; Gauld & Hukins, 1980; Önder, Çelik, & Silay, 2012). Speciﬁcally, scientific attitudes are viewed as the process which connects stimulus and responses towards the students’ behavior (Heng & Karpudewan, 2015). If the students have positive attitudes, they are predicted to be more successful in achieving the achievement and pursue their career (Aydeniz & Kaya, 2012; Kubiatko, Balatova, Fancovicova & Prokop, 2017).

Scientific attitudes refer to the phenomenon on how the students think, feel, and perform logical and systematical actions (Cavas, Ozdem, & Cavas, 2013; Kapici & Akçay, 2016; Montes, Ferreira, & Rodríguez, 2018; Schwarz, 2007). Several previous research indicate that scientific attitudes are extremely needed in learning. Scientific attitudes are one of the factors that motivate the students (Al-Rabadi, Al-Momani, & Al-Rabadi, 2013) and simultaneously determine their achievement in science learning (Ali, Iqbal, & Akhtar, 2015; Brown et al., 2015; Gonen, 2008; Salta & Tzougraki, 2004). Even Bakar et al. (2010), Gardner (1975) and Osborne (2003) considered attitudes as the most influencing factor towards the achievement among other factors. The students who have scientific attitudes show willingness to understand, question, find out and verify the data and considering the consequences (Akcay, Yager, Iskander & Turgut, 2010). Therefore, scientific attitudes would lead the students to think critically, develop their curiosity, and able to distinguish between facts and opinions, and dare to argue.

Within the context of science, especially chemistry, attitudes share vital relationships with other factors. Brown et al. (2015) involved 125 university students to find out the correlation between their attitudes towards chemistry and their learning achievement. It is found out that even at a weak level, there is a positive correlation between students’ affective scores and achievement in low-achievement group. Furthermore, Kurbanoglu and Akin (2010) also found out that chemistry laboratory anxiety negatively correlates with students’ attitudes on chemistry and self-efficacy. Besides, it is also reported that attitudes on chemistry share a positive correlation with self-efficacy. In Turkey, Hacieminoglu (2016) also involved 3598 seventh grade students to examine the correlation between attitudes in science and other variables. The result showed that students’ attitudes towards science has a strong positive correlation with performance-goal orientation, learning goal orientation, self-efficacy, meaningful learning, and rote learning. In addition, a moderate correlation between students’ attitudes towards science and science achievement, and nature of science views were also successfully confirmed. Meanwhile, in Philippines, Magwilang (2016) conducted a study to examine the effect of context-based approach toward students’ motivation, attitudes and achievement in inorganic chemistry lesson. The result showed that students in the experimental group had higher motivation, positive attitudes and higher achievement than students in the control group. Furthermore, Usak et al. (2009) explored students’ attitudes towards science at 1301 university students which result showed that there was a statistically significant correlation between attitudes and achievement. It was also found out that male students obtained slightly identical mean scores to the female students’.

In addition to those variables, attitudes towards science are known to be influenced by other predictors, such as gender (Gardner, 1975; Heng & Karpudewan, 2015; Osborne, 2003; Özyürek & Eryilmaz, 2001; Weinburgh, 1995) and grade levels (George, 2006; Hacieminoglu, 2016; Heng & Karpudewan, 2015). Accordingly, Osborne (2003) highlighted that the most significant factor which influences students’ attitudes towards science is gender. In other words, attitudes should be acquired by the students in solving various problems that occur in chemistry experiments. The problem solving should also be supported by adequate SPS. In a study administered by Downing and Filer (1999), a positive correlation was found between preservice elementary teachers’ science process skills and their attitudes towards science. Similarly, Yakar (2014) also argued that positive attitudes towards science could be enhanced through activation of science process skills.

We claim that adequate SPS and positive chemistry attitudes support students’ achievement in solving unstructured problems. Unfortunately, in Indonesia, only few studies on students attitudes (e.g., Kristiani, Susilo, & Aloysius, 2015; Suprapto & Mursid, 2017; Suryawati & Osman, 2018) and SPS (e.g., Prayitno et al., 2017; Rani, Wiyatmo, & Kustanto, 2017; Subali, Paidi, & Mariyam, 2016) available. Moreover, previous studies have not yet tapped on the correlation between SPS and attitudes in students majoring chemistry. We also strongly believe that positive attitudes and cognitive skills help students to evaluate and decide in solving various problems related to chemistry (Erdem, 2015). Therefore, it is important for researchers to investigate the extent to which student competence has been achieved in chemistry learning. Such research is carried out as an effort to provide educators with information to improve and enhance the success of future learning programs.

Motivation and Objectives

In the curriculum of higher education in Indonesia, it is important to integrate scientific skills and attitudes into chemistry teaching and learning, including laboratory courses. It aims to minimize the superiority of conventional lectures. We assume that this approach is effective in enhancing students’ psychomotor and affective through various practical works. In order to improve students’ performance, lecturers need to be a mediator in training soft skills into hard skills. This approach is also believed to be able to promote creative thinking, communication, collaboration, and critical thinking skills, because students are faced directly with unstructured problems in their daily life. Based on these issues, this study is intended to:

map the students’ performance in order to make the lecturers able to plan learning programs to develop process skills and attitudes towards chemistry;
implement laboratory learning strategies that do not only enhance understanding of chemistry concepts, but also promote various practical skills and chemistry attitudes that students require to solve problems in the 21st century; and
apply certain laboratory teaching methods that can improve students’ performances through laboratory work;

When the students are trained to master science process skills, it can lead to improving the quality of graduates and enhancing educational programs at tertiary level. This effort is considered as a mediator to link the teaching and the research in higher education.

The Purposes of the Study
The purposes of the study are to: 1) investigate the level of students’ SPS and their CA, 2) examine the differences between the mean SPS and CA scores based on gender and grade levels, and 3) explore the relationship between SPS and CA among undergraduate chemistry students. The main questions of this study are:

How is the level of students’ SPS and CA in chemistry study program?
Are there any significant differences of students’ mastery in SPS based on gender and grade levels?
Are there any significant differences of students’ mastery in CA based on gender and grade levels?
How is the relationship between students’ SPS and CA in chemistry study program?