Relations between scientific reasoning, culture of problem solving and pupil's school performance

Abstract

The article reports the results of a study, the main aim of which was to find out correlations among the three components of the Culture of problem solving (reading comprehension, creativity and ability to use the existing knowledge) and six dimensions of Scientific reasoning (conservation of matter and volume, proportional reasoning, control of variables, probability reasoning, correlation reasoning and hypothetical-deductive reasoning). Further, we present the correlations among individual components of the Culture of problem solving and individual dimensions of Scientific reasoning with pupils' school performance in mathematics and physics. We conducted our survey among 23 pupils aged between 14-15 years in the Ústí nad Labem Region. The results have shown that one component of the Culture of problem solving -the ability to use the existing knowledge -strongly correlates with three dimensions of the Scientific reasoning structure: proportional reasoning, control of variables and probability reasoning. However, no correlation was proved between the creativity and the dimensions of Scientific reasoning. We have found out also that the indicators of the Culture of problem solving and the Scientific reasoning largely do not correlate with school performance either in mathematics or in physics. Keywords

Predicting Physics Achievement of 11th - grade Students through Critical and Logical Thinking Skills

“…It is apparent that the studies outlined here produced the same results, that logical thinking predicts science achievement, except (Hejnová et al, 2018) and (Riyanti et al, 2019) studies. The differences in results may be attributable to such factors as types of assessment, sample selection techniques, and sample size.…”

“…There is an important body of literature that followed tried to analyze more in-depth potential relationships between academic achievement and logical thinking. Although some researchers have argued that no significant correlation between logical thinking and academic achievement, for example, Hejnová, Eisenmann, Cihlář, & Přibyl (2018) surveyed ( 23) students from one class of the ninth grade, in the Czech Republic, they assessed students' reasoning abilities by LCTSR test, they used Spearman's rank correlation coefficients, they reported that the school performance in physics, largely do not correlate with proportional reasoning, control of variables, correlation reasoning, and probability reasoning. The researchers believed that this fact is related to the size of the study sample and it ought to hence be the subject of further research with a considerably bigger arrangement of students.…”

“…Several studies have shown that there is a relationship between critical thinking and academic achievement (Semerci,2011;Ramos et al, 2013;Sherafat, 2015), although, Aksu & Koruklu (2015) have argued that there is no significant relationship between critical thinking dispositions and academic achievement. In contrast, while some studies suggested that logical thinking predicts students' achievement (Vázquez & Anglat, 2017;Gurcay & Gulbas, 2018;Rakhmawan, Firman, Redjeki, & Mulyani, 2018), other studies pointed in the opposite direction (Hejnová et al, 2018;Riyanti, Suciati, & Karyanto, 2019). There is a limited agreement between studies, about what thinking skills predict students' achievement?…”

Relations between Generalization, Reasoning and Combinatorial Thinking in Solving Mathematical Open-Ended Problems within Mathematical Contest

“…Furthermore, Nunes et al [66] considered mathematical reasoning and algebraic skill as the two separate contributions to the achievement in mathematical problem solving. Relations between several aspects of mathematical problem-solving were investigated and the ability between control of variables and reasoning was confirmed also by [67]. However, Chimoni and Pitta-Pantazi [68] identified the ability to provide reasoning by analogy, serial or deductive reasoning as a significant predictor for lower-secondary students' algebraic thinking.…”

Characterization of the Test of Scientific Reasoning Ability of Static Fluid Material for Prospective Physics Teachers: the Polytomous Rasch Analysis Authors’

“…Scientific reasoning abilities applies the principles of scientific investigation, starting with proposing hypotheses, planning experiments, devising or designing, conducting experiments to conclude [10], combining content knowledge, controlling variables, and using hypothetical-deductive reasoning to find solutions to scientific problems [1,9,11,12]. Scientific reasoning ability affects the level of ease of students in solving a problem [13][14][15][16].…”