Table 1.

Goals of Science Skills instruments

Instrument	Purpose	Teaching tool	Assessment tool
A-Z Science Skillsa	Make key terms for describing skills needed to do experimental work accessible for students; student reference guide for postlab reflection.	+	−
Postlab reflectiona	Asks students to reflect on what skills they used well, with examples, after an experiment or laboratory activity; allows teacher to formatively assess how students understand the skills required for scientific experimentation.	+	+
Group Collaboration rubricb	Makes effective strategies for successful scientific collaboration explicit and outlines expectations for student group work. Aims to promote awareness of what it takes to successfully collaborate, help students learn to value the benefits of teamwork for accomplishing major projects, and improve the quality of group work.	+	−
Group Collaboration reflectionb	Asks students to self-assess the quality of their collaboration skills and group work among three levels for five major categories, list evidence for why they choose that level, and reflect on how they would improve in next group project.	+	+
Science Skills assessment	Allows teacher-researcher to evaluate how well students can identify important experimental skills (including collaboration), synthesize their understanding about the skills, and self-assess their performance in science class. This instrument was the pre-, mid-, and postassessment.	−	+
SSKI rubric	Allows teacher‐researcher to assess the extent to which students are able to connect different ideas about skills required for experimental work at five levels of complexity. Used primarily to score responses to question 2 on Science Skills assessment.	−	+

^aScience Skills tools.

^bGroup Collaboration tools.