Assessing Mechanistic Reasoning

• In Event: 53.082 - Poster Session 10
  In Poster Session: 53.082-3 - Special Topics in Engineering and Computer Science: Engineering Design, Computational Thinking, and Assessment

Abstract

Science education reform has long focused on assessing student inquiry. Moreover, there has been progress in developing tools to specifically assess experimentation and argumentation. However, I suggest the need for attention to and assessment of another aspect of inquiry, mechanistic reasoning. Scientific inquiry focuses on understanding causal mechanisms that underlie natural phenomena. This study describes the findings from an assessment and cognitive interview that characterize elements of individuals’ mechanistic reasoning.
This study builds on Russ and colleagues (2008) domain-general framework for characterizing mechanistic reasoning. However, the present assessment characterizes this form of reasoning within specific systems, which illuminates what is easy and difficult about this practice as well as why domain-general principles may be limited.

Author

• Paul Jason Weinberg, Dr.