Understanding the Complex Relationship between Critical Thinking and Science Reasoning among Undergraduate Thesis Writers.

ABSTRACT: Developing critical-thinking and scientific reasoning skills are core learning objectives of science education, but little empirical evidence exists regarding the interrelationships between these constructs. Writing effectively fosters students' development of these constructs, and it offers a unique window into studying how they relate. In this study of undergraduate thesis writing in biology at two universities, we examine how scientific reasoning exhibited in writing (assessed using the Biology Thesis Assessment Protocol) relates to general and specific critical-thinking skills (assessed using the California Critical Thinking Skills Test), and we consider implications for instruction. We find that scientific reasoning in writing is strongly related to inference, while other aspects of s

SUBMITTER: Dowd JE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6007780 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature