Identifying Scientific Reasoning Skills of Science Education Students

This article discusses a study carried out to investigate scientific reasoning skills among 82 science pre-service teachers at the Faculty of Education, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), one of the public universities in Malaysia. Undeniably, the development of general scientific abilities is critic...

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Published in:Asian Journal of University Education
Main Author: Zulkipli Z.A.; Mohd Yusof M.M.; Ibrahim N.; Dalim S.F.
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: UiTM Press 2020
Online Access:https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85099960425&doi=10.24191%2fajue.v16i3.10311&partnerID=40&md5=d65ad7a893cf240e2c81c1af9336d9da
id 2-s2.0-85099960425
spelling 2-s2.0-85099960425
Zulkipli Z.A.; Mohd Yusof M.M.; Ibrahim N.; Dalim S.F.
Identifying Scientific Reasoning Skills of Science Education Students
2020
Asian Journal of University Education
16
3
10.24191/ajue.v16i3.10311
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85099960425&doi=10.24191%2fajue.v16i3.10311&partnerID=40&md5=d65ad7a893cf240e2c81c1af9336d9da
This article discusses a study carried out to investigate scientific reasoning skills among 82 science pre-service teachers at the Faculty of Education, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), one of the public universities in Malaysia. Undeniably, the development of general scientific abilities is critical to enable students of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to successfully handle open-ended real-world tasks in their future careers. Teaching goals in STEM education include fostering content knowledge and developing general scientific abilities. One such important ability is scientific reasoning. Scientific reasoning encompasses critical thinking skills as a vital learning outcome in modern science education. Lawson (1978) categorized scientific reasoning into four domains: Conservative Concept, Proportional Concept, Control Variable and Probabilistic Thinking, and Hypothetical-Deductive Reasoning. An instrument by Lawson (1978) was adapted for this study. The findings show that a majority of the science pre-service teachers possess low ability in scientific reasoning. It is also found that there was no significant difference among the science pre-service teachers of the physics, biology and chemistry disciplines when examined. The findings showed that Physics students had developed a higher ability in Conservative Concept, Proportional Concept, and Hypothetical-Deductive Reasoning and chemistry students had a higher ability in Control Variable and Probabilistic Thinking, whereas biology students had a moderate ability in the four scientific reasoning patterns. © 2020. All rights reserved.
UiTM Press
18237797
English
Article

author Zulkipli Z.A.; Mohd Yusof M.M.; Ibrahim N.; Dalim S.F.
spellingShingle Zulkipli Z.A.; Mohd Yusof M.M.; Ibrahim N.; Dalim S.F.
Identifying Scientific Reasoning Skills of Science Education Students
author_facet Zulkipli Z.A.; Mohd Yusof M.M.; Ibrahim N.; Dalim S.F.
author_sort Zulkipli Z.A.; Mohd Yusof M.M.; Ibrahim N.; Dalim S.F.
title Identifying Scientific Reasoning Skills of Science Education Students
title_short Identifying Scientific Reasoning Skills of Science Education Students
title_full Identifying Scientific Reasoning Skills of Science Education Students
title_fullStr Identifying Scientific Reasoning Skills of Science Education Students
title_full_unstemmed Identifying Scientific Reasoning Skills of Science Education Students
title_sort Identifying Scientific Reasoning Skills of Science Education Students
publishDate 2020
container_title Asian Journal of University Education
container_volume 16
container_issue 3
doi_str_mv 10.24191/ajue.v16i3.10311
url https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85099960425&doi=10.24191%2fajue.v16i3.10311&partnerID=40&md5=d65ad7a893cf240e2c81c1af9336d9da
description This article discusses a study carried out to investigate scientific reasoning skills among 82 science pre-service teachers at the Faculty of Education, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), one of the public universities in Malaysia. Undeniably, the development of general scientific abilities is critical to enable students of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to successfully handle open-ended real-world tasks in their future careers. Teaching goals in STEM education include fostering content knowledge and developing general scientific abilities. One such important ability is scientific reasoning. Scientific reasoning encompasses critical thinking skills as a vital learning outcome in modern science education. Lawson (1978) categorized scientific reasoning into four domains: Conservative Concept, Proportional Concept, Control Variable and Probabilistic Thinking, and Hypothetical-Deductive Reasoning. An instrument by Lawson (1978) was adapted for this study. The findings show that a majority of the science pre-service teachers possess low ability in scientific reasoning. It is also found that there was no significant difference among the science pre-service teachers of the physics, biology and chemistry disciplines when examined. The findings showed that Physics students had developed a higher ability in Conservative Concept, Proportional Concept, and Hypothetical-Deductive Reasoning and chemistry students had a higher ability in Control Variable and Probabilistic Thinking, whereas biology students had a moderate ability in the four scientific reasoning patterns. © 2020. All rights reserved.
publisher UiTM Press
issn 18237797
language English
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