Science education contributes to secondary school curricula globally. One of the distinctive features of science education compared to other school subjects is the use of practical laboratory work in its learning and teaching. Chemistry is one of the secondary school science subjects that studies chemical reactions. Based on this feature, practical laboratory work is integral to chemistry education. Consequently, developing students’ manipulative skills for practical laboratory work is essential. Insufficient manipulative skills can be dangerous in chemistry because fatal consequences may result from improper handling of apparatus and chemicals. Furthermore, inadequate manipulative skills significantly prevent students from acquiring other desirable skills and learning outcomes. Thus, students with competent manipulative skills ensure laboratory safety and better opportunities for them to learn science through doing science. However, a systematic framework for developing students’ manipulative skills is lacking. It is common for a teacher to demonstrate a skill merely to students, and then students mechanically imitate the skill in many secondary school laboratories globally. Yet, this kind of practice is ineffective because of the imbalance between the declarative and procedural stages. Literature reported that students’ declarative and procedural knowledge is needed for practical laboratory work. We referred to the literature and developed a five-level hierarchy framework of manipulative skills for a teacher development project which targeted pre-service chemistry teachers. In this presentation, I will explain how students’ manipulative skills can be progressively developed through the five-level hierarchy framework by developing their declarative and procedural knowledge. Furthermore, I will describe how a four-stage teacher development project develops pre-service chemistry teachers’ competencies of teaching manipulative skills for secondary school practical laboratory work by using the framework.

Keywords: Laboratory work, practical work, chemistry education, manipulative skills, technical skills.