Characterizing Secondary Students' Reasoning About Data in Science

• In Event: Poster Session 3
  In Poster Session: Scientific Practices and the Learning of Science

Abstract

The study aimed to characterize junior secondary students’ scientific reasoning, focusing on their evaluation of sufficiency of data to evaluate knowledge claims, especially in relation to their prior beliefs about Newton’s First Law. 324 participants from grades 6-8 completed conceptual questions and a reasoning task involving evaluation of a claim using data. The claim varied in its consistency with their prior beliefs, and the data varied in quality. Four meaningful strategies in reasoning about data have been identified: (1) evaluate data quality; (2) evaluate claim correctness; (3) refer to own claim; (4) give general epistemic comments. Results suggest that participants’ strategy use vary with their prior beliefs and data quality. Implications of teaching students reasoning about data are discussed.

Authors

• Guanzhong Ma, The University of Hong Kong

• Jan van Aalst, The University of Hong Kong

• Carol K. Chan, University of Hong Kong