Inquiry Models One of the Alternatives in Improving Primary School
Students’ Scientific Process Skill
Nana Djumhana
Department of Elementary School Teacher Education, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Jl. Setiabudi No. 229, Bandung,
Indonesia
Keywords: Inquiry, Science Process Skills.
Abstract: The process of teaching natural sciences in elementary schools is expected to emphasize the development of
science process skills, conceptual understanding, conceptual application, and basing natural scientific
activities on the current social and environmental issues in accordance with the students’ ages and cognitive
development. A scientific work in the dimension of science is a combination of scientific processes and
scientific attitudes. As required by the science curriculum, the teaching of natural sciences should put an
emphasis on the science process skills. A scientific work requires an improvement in the teaching quality of
natural sciences to improve students’ learning achievement, participation, science process skills, and
scientific attitudes. The inquiry model is assumed to be able to reinforce the teaching quality of natural
sciences in elementary schools. At the same time, the inquiry model is considered an alternative of
development model in this study. This study is a descriptive experiment using the matched subjects design,
in which a pre-test and post-test were conducted on students attending lessons on natural sciences in
elementary schools (Sevilla,1993). A study of its like aims at describing the condition of an existing
phenomenon objectively (Demsey,1996; Notoatmodjo,1993). The results revealed that there was a decline
in the poor category from 70% to 10%. It goes to say that the inquiry model could improve elementary
school students’ science process skills including: observing, posing questions, clarifying, predicting,
communicating, interpreting, formulating a hypothesis, planning an experiment, applying concepts, and
concluding.
1 INTRODUCTION
The teaching of natural sciences plays an important
role in the scientific need fulfillment of children at
their age. Teaching science to elementary school
students is not only about paying the teacher
attention to them, but also about their scientific
development under teacher guidance through
problem identification process-based activities.
When it happens, it should contain activities that can
improve their science process skills.
The teaching of natural sciences in elementary
schools is expected to interact with environments,
and students are not only expected to understand
scientific concepts and their application, but also to
be able to develop values that are beneficial for
themselves and the community in the future.
Therefore, the teaching of natural sciences in
elementary schools should encourage students to
internalize their learning experience, which in turn
will empower them to skilfully use their knowledge
and skills to explain and solve problems in their
everyday life. Similarly, it is also not wrong if
science lessons develop scientific competence,
knowledge, attitude, and behavior, in this case,
through a teaching model that can improve scientific
work-based science process skills.
A scientific work in the dimension of science is a
combination of scientific processes and scientific
attitudes. As required by the science curriculum, the
teaching of natural sciences should put an emphasis
on the science process skills. According to Karso in
Nuryani (1992), students’ understanding through the
development of process skills will be more
meaningful and linger longer more in memory,
especially when they can practice it and do
conceptual inquiry themselves. The core of teaching
natural sciences is science process skills that enable
students to do scientific activities such as observing,
recording, analyzing data, and generalizing.
274
Djumhana, N.
Inquiry Models One of the Alternatives in Improving Primary School Students’ Scientific Process Skill.
In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Educational Sciences (ICES 2017) - Volume 2, pages 274-278
ISBN: 978-989-758-314-8
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved

Studies show that the teaching process in
elementary schools is generally teacher-centered and
learning achievement of natural science subject is
relatively lower than that of other subjects
(Sardjono, 2000). Similarly, the result of an
observation in a school, the teaching of natural
sciences is too teacher-centered and text-book
oriented. Students just sit, listen to the teacher, and
take note. This makes learning less meaningful and
students hardly remember what they learn.
During the lesson, teachers rarely use teaching
properties even though the school provides them. As
a result, students are made not used to doing an
experiment. Students’ low participation in a group or
class discussion harms the development of their
science process skills, scientific attitudes, scientific
conceptual understanding. The teaching objectives
do not put an emphasis on science process skills. As
a result, the learning outcomes set by the curriculum
are not optimally achieved. Science process skills
are intellectual skills frequently used by scientist and
could be used in science class to understand certain
phenomena. Inquiry method makes learning more
meaningful to students, especially when the
instructional materials are related to their prior
knowledge (Semiawan, 1990).
Another fact found in the field is that teachers
are not well-prepared to carry out the teaching of
natural sciences where science process skills become
the learning goal. They often make an excuse that
science process skills are never there in the final
examination. Instructional activities are too focused
on training students to do exercises in the course
book or tests. If it continues to go this way, the
learning objectives as set by the curriculum will
never be achieved.
Some studies found many weaknesses in the
teaching of natural sciences in elementary schools;
among others, according to Supriyono (2003) are:
(1) The most dominantly used method in science
class is lecture where the teacher acts as a controller
and information transmitter, (2) the course book
becomes the sole material source, (3) the focus of
teaching is to train students to do exercises available
in the course book, (4) demonstration is rarely
carried out in the classroom, so students act as
passive participants, and (5) inquiry method is never
done in the classroom because it is deemed to waste
time, and the most frequently done activity is doing
exercises in the student worksheets (LKS) and the
course book.
Considering the above facts, it is urgently needed
to improve the quality of teaching and learning
process of natural sciences in elementary schools as
required by the curriculum.
An improvement in the teaching quality of
natural sciences is badly needed to improve
students’ learning achievement, participation,
science process skills, and scientific attitudes. The
inquiry model is assumed to be able to reinforce the
teaching quality of natural sciences in elementary
schools. At the same time, the inquiry model is
considered an alternative of development model in
this study. The bases for choosing the inquiry model
as an alternative in this study are: (1) this model
encourages students to make inquiries, (2) this
model can improve students’ critical thinking skills,
(3) this model can develop science process skills, (4)
this model enable students to apply his knowledge in
everyday life, (5) this model can equally develop
cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains, so
the learning is more meaningful, and (6) this model
corresponds to the development of modern
psychology which views learning as a process of
behavioral change as a result of experience. This
description indicates that the teaching of the natural
sciences is an active teaching both physically and
mentally.
According Mulyasa (2008), it is better that the
teaching of natural sciences is carried out using
scientific inquiry model to develop the ability to
think, work, and behave scientifically. Therefore,
teaching natural sciences in elementary schools
emphasizes direct experience through the
development of science process skills and scientific
attitudes (Depdiknas, 2006). Similarly, according to
Joyce (1980), the use of inquiry method can improve
scientific understanding, creative thinking skills, and
skills to acquire and analyze information.
This study seeks to answer the following
research question: can the use of inquiry model in
teaching natural sciences improve elementary school
students’ science process skills?
This descriptive experiment used the match
subjects design with the focus on the development of
science process skills in science class in elementary
schools. The descriptive analysis was done on
science process skills developed through the natural
science teaching activities using the inquiry model in
elementary schools.
2 RESEARCH METHODS
The study was conducted by comparing the pre-test
scores of science process skills with the post-test
scores.
Inquiry Models One of the Alternatives in Improving Primary School Students’ Scientific Process Skill
275

This study is a descriptive experiment using the
matched subjects design, in which a pre-test and
post-test were conducted on students attending
lessons on natural sciences in elementary schools
(Sevilla, 1993). A study of its like aims at describing
the condition of an existing phenomenon objectively
(Demsey, 1996; Notoatmodjo,1 993).
The research instruments included: (1) science
process skill test, (2) student activity observation
sheets, and (3) observation sheet of inquiry model
implementation in the teaching of natural sciences in
elementary school.
The pre-test scores represent the elementary
school students’ science process skills.
3 RESULT AND DISCUSSION
The results revealed that there was an improvement
in the elementary school students’ science process
skills including: (1) observing, (2) posing questions,
(3) clarifying, (4) predicting, (5) communicating, (6)
interpreting, (7) formulating a hypothesis, (8)
planning an experiment, (9) applying concepts, and
(10) concluding.
3.1 Research Result
3.1.1 Test Result
The pre-test scores and percentage before the
implementation inquiry model and the post-test
scores and percentage after the implementation
inquiry model indicate an improvement in the
science process skills. The percentage of the average
test score is presented in the following table:
Table 1: The Scores of Pretest and Post-test of Science
Process Skills.
Treatment
Poor
Fair
Good
Very Good
X
%
X
%
X
%
X
%
Pretest
7
70
2
20
1
10
-
-
Posttest
1
10
3
30
5
60
-
-
The above table shows that the percentage of
average score science process skills before the
implementation of inquiry model was 70%, and it
significantly declined to 10% after the
implementation of inquiry model. It indicates that
the elementary school students’ science process
skills improved after the implementation of inquiry-
based teaching in the science class.
3.1.2 Result of Observation of Student
Activities
The description of student activities was obtained
through an observation by an observer. The
observed aspects were: (1) observing, (2) posing
questions, (3) clarifying, (4) predicting, (5)
communicating, (6) interpreting, (7) formulating a
hypothesis, (8) planning an experiment, (9) applying
concepts, and (10) concluding.
The observer noted every aspect of science
process skills found in the student activities during
the teaching process. The results of observation were
as follows:
 At the first meeting, students generally were
unable to do the observation well. It was seen
in the non-optimal use of all sense organs that
could be used to describe the characteristics of
a particular object and its relationship with
another object. Students generally were just
doing a direct observation. At the following
meeting, they seemed to get used to doing an
observation using other sense organs because
most students were able to do an observation
correctly.
 At the first meeting, students generally were
not able to pose questions or express opinions.
At the following meeting, they started to pose
questions and express opinions. Students
should be trained to question what, why, and
how during the class meeting.
 Students did not seem to find any difficulties in
doing a classification, be it at the first and the
final meeting. The observer categorized
student’s skills in doing classification good.
 Students seemed to find difficulties in
predicting. Therefore, this skill was categorized
poor by the observer. However, at the
following meeting, there was a creating phase,
and this improve their skills to predict.
 Students communicating skill were deemed fair
at the first meeting because this skill was
frequently used in the teaching and learning
process. However, at the following meeting, it
was deemed good.
 Interpreting skill is one of difficult aspect to be
mastered by students. It was deemed low by
the observer. At the next meeting, this skill
slightly improved and was deemed fair.
 Students also found difficulties in formulating
a hypothesis. Thus, the observer gave a poor
category for this skill. However, at the next
meeting deemed it good. Students’ skill to
formulate a hypothesis was trained in the
ICES 2017 - 1st International Conference on Educational Sciences
276

discussion and reflection phase available in the
inquiry model considering that the required
hypothesis was just predicting a deductive
thing.
 In inquiry-based instruction, students are
always asked to plan an experiment. Therefore,
even at the first meeting their skill to plan an
experiment was deemed good, considering this
skill only required students to prepare tools and
materials before the experiment.
 Applying concepts was found difficult by
elementary school students. It was due to the
fact that their conceptual understandings were
not at the same level. Therefore, this aspect
was deemed poor at the first meeting.
However, at the following meeting they could
applied simple concepts.
 At the first meeting, student’s skill to draw a
conclusion was deemed fair. It was less
meaningful to the students since the conclusion
was drawn form a conceptual description.
However, at the following meeting, the
observer considered this aspect good. This
happened because in the inquiry model,
students were only expected to draw a
conclusion by generalizing the results of a
series of experiments, regardless of that the
process was under guidance of the teacher.
Observation was also carried out to record the
activities of the lecturer who acted as the model
teacher in this study. The observers were his fellow
lecturer and an elementary school teacher.
During the conduct of the study, the writer found
some important things to note considering that this
study will provide invaluable recommendation for
elementary school teacher education lecturers with
the concentration in science education who will give
lectures to prospective elementary school teachers.
What follows are some major findings of this
study:
 Elementary school student’s science process
skills cannot be developed if the teaching of
natural sciences is only focused on explaining
what is written in the course book and students
are only made sit, silent, listen, and take note.
 At the first meeting, most students did not have
science process skills. 90% of 10 science
process skills tested were deemed not good.
This is due to the fact that the teacher was not
accustomed to using a teaching model that
emphasized the provision of direct experience
through the development of science process
skills and scientific attitudes as mandated by
Depdiknas (2006).
 The inquiry model could be used as a natural
science teaching model with five phases:
asking, investigating, creating, discussing, and
reflecting. This model was proven to
significantly improve elementary school
students’ science process skills. This is in line
with Harlen’s (1990) opinion that the
meaningfulness of learning natural sciences
highly relies on student active participation in
the lesson. Therefore, scientific inquiry method
is suggested to be applied to teaching natural
sciences in order to develop skills to think,
work, and behave scientifically.
4 CONCLUSIONS
Based on the result of data analysis and research
findings, it was concluded that the inquiry model
could improve elementary school students’ science
process skills. It was evident in the following
findings:
There was an improvement in elementary school
students’ science process skills as a result of the
application of inquiry model to teaching natural
sciences in elementary school so that students could
perform a scientific inquiry using a proper scientific
framework. The result of this study confirms a
previous research conducted by Deur and Harvey
(2005), which suggested that the inquiry teaching
strategy significantly affected students’ conceptual
understanding and learning outcomes.
Elementary school students earned experience of
learning natural sciences through an inquiry model
that can improve their science process skills in
addition to other skills such as the skill to think,
work, and behave scientifically. This is in line with
Balim’s (2009) opinion that learning through an
inquiry model can improve students’ cognitive and
affective domain.
Science lecturers in the elementary school
teacher education earned a practical experience of
improving students’ science process skills through
the implementation of inquiry model.
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