Validation of an Instrument to Assess Deductive Reasoning in Solving Types of Problems

Abstract

The accelerated pace of knowledge generation requires engineering students to develop differenttypes of reasoning during their education. Deductive reasoning is essential to establishingself-regulated judgments based on reasoned argumentation. This paper aims to describeand illustrate the process by which a test of multiple-choice, open-response verbal mathematicalproblems was designed, applied, and validated to assess the deductive reasoning ofsecond-semester students of two engineering degrees from a university in a region of southernChile. The research used a non-experimental, cross-sectional approach focused on psychometricaspects. The evaluation instrument was developed on the basis of a typology ofmathematical problems and a model of deductive reasoning. The resolutions of types of problemsare classified according to their nature, routine and non-routine, and according to theircontext, real, realistic, fantasy, and purely mathematical, while the deductive argumentativemodel comprises the phases of data, claim, and warrant. The results guarantee sufficient contentand construct validity, item discrimination, and reliability; therefore, they represent auseful tool for measuring the level of deductive reasoning among first-year engineering studentsduring the process of solving a type of mathematical problem.