The assessment of the UAE's in-service and pre-service Elementary science teachers in the integrated science process skills

The objective of this study was to investigate the UAE's in-service and pre-service science teachers' competency in the integrated science process skills (ISPS). To achieve this, a ISPS instrument consists of 15 items was constructed. It covers five skills which: operational definition, constructing hypothesis, controlling variables, data collection, and conducting experiments. Research sample consisted of 133 in-service elementary science teachers, and 130 pre-service elementary science teachers. T-test analysis of the six hypotheses showed that the in-service teachers performed better than the pre-service teachers. However, both groups scored below the cut point, 70%, which established by the ministry of education. Therefore; the teachers' professional development should be reviewed, based on the need of new programs and the outcome should be assessed. In addition, an extra credit hour as well as another course should be offered for the pre-service science teachers. (c) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.