The purpose of the study was to determine the science process skills included in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) biology practical examinations in Kenya for a period of 10 years (2002-2012). Ex-post facto design was adopted for the study. The content of KCSE Biology Practical Questions (KCSE-BPQ) for the period was analyzed based on 12 categories of science process skills and their descriptions. The data were analyzed descriptively using percentages. The five most common science process skills identified out of the 12 examined in the study are observation (32.24%), communicating (14.63%), inferring (13.13%), experimenting (12.21%) and interpreting data (11.94%). The results also revealed a high percentage of basic science process skills at 73.73% compared to the integrated science process skills at 26.27%. It is recommended that the Kenya National Examination Council should include more integrated science process skills into the KCSE biology practical examinations to enable the students to develop problem solving abilities and creativity which are important tools for biotechnology.

The study investigated the influence of ethnicity, gender and grade level on the motivational beliefs and self-regulation in Biology learning through a non-experimental quantitative study among 317 students in 2 co-educational schools in Nakuru (n = 155 ) and Siaya (n = 162) counties, Kenya. The study used a modified version of Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) which had 44 items to measure motivational beliefs and self-regulation. A 4 × 2 × 2 MANOVA revealed "ethnicity" as having the largest effect on these variables. There was a statistically significant difference between the Nakuru group and the Siaya group in favor of Nakuru with regard to self-efficacy in Biology learning. They also scored higher in most of the variables. There were no statistically significant gender differences in motivational beliefs and self-regulation in Biology learning. However boys were more self-efficacious with low test anxiety than girls. Girls had higher intrinsic value, cognitive strategy and self-regulation than boys. There were statistically significant grade level differences in favor of grade 12 students. Grade 11 students had the lowest scores in all the variables under investigation. The implications for the study are discussed.

The study investigated secondary school students' mastery of Integrated Science Process Skills (ISPS) among co-educational schools and the influence of grade level, gender, and school location in Siaya County, Kenya. The study used a causal-comparative design with purposive sampling technique. A 30-item Test of Integrated Science Process Skill (TISPS) developed by Kazeni (2005) was administered. The instrument assesses the skills of controlling variables, defining operationally, formulating hypotheses, experimenting and interpreting data. The instrument was administered to 429 students, 117, 108, 101 and 103 in grades 9, 10, 11 and 12 respectively drawn from one urban co-educational school (n = 215) and one rural co-educational school (n = 214). The data were analyzed by grade level using one-way ANOVA and by gender and school location using an independent sample t-test. The findings indicated moderate mastery of ISPS and statistically significant grade level differences between grades 9 and 10, 10 and 11, 11 and 12, 9 and 11, 9 and 12, and 10 and 12; Gender differences in favor of boys and school location differences in favor of urban school students in mastery of ISPS. The following conclusions are made with regard to integrated science process skills: Mastery of ISPS increases with grade level; boys have a higher mastery of ISPS than girls; the urban school has a higher mastery of ISPS than the rural school. Implications for practice and further research are herein explicated.

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