This article reports on a controlled study to investigate the efficacy of incorporating explicit discussions about the duality of human reasoning and its implications for learning in physics instruction. The central goal is to probe to what extent, if at all, such discussions improve student performance on tasks that tend to elicit intuitively…

BrainPOP Science is a research-based program that has been shown to be effective in improving and quickly developing students' scientific reasoning skills. This white paper presents a comprehensive case study conducted in school districts in the Southeastern United States. BrainPOP Science is one of the leading supplemental middle school programs.…

We developed a Quantum Mechanics Conceptual Understanding Survey (QMCUS) in this study. The survey was conducted using a quantitative methodology. A multiple-choice survey of 35 questions was administered to 338 undergraduate students. Three experienced quantum mechanics instructors examined the validity of the survey. The reliability of our…

Scientific reasoning refers to the thinking skills involved in conceiving and conducting an investigation. This study examined how proficiency in performing these skills develops during the upper-elementary school years. A sample of 157 children (age 7-10) took a performance-based scientific reasoning test in three consecutive years. Four distinct…

The use of scientific modeling has been shown to be highly effective in the learning of science content in multiple disciplines for non-English Learners (EL). However, the benefits of using this pedagogy with ELs have not been heavily explored. This article discusses the use of modeling-based evolution and population ecology pedagogical units in a…

We present a multiple-choice test, the Montana State University Formal Reasoning Test (FORT), to assess college students' scientific reasoning ability. The test defines scientific reasoning to be equivalent to formal operational reasoning. It contains 20 questions divided evenly among five types of problems: control of variables, hypothesis…

This study had two research purposes. First, we examined the scientific reasoning gains of prospective science teachers who are concrete, formal, and postformal reasoners in an argumentation-based physics inquiry instruction. Second, we sought conceptual knowledge and achievement gaps between these student groups before and after the instruction.…

Preinstruction SAT scores and normalized gains (G) on the force concept inventory (FCI) were examined for individual students in interactive engagement (IE) courses in introductory mechanics at one high school (N=335) and one university (N=292), and strong, positive correlations were found for both populations (r=0.57 and r=0.46, respectively).…