Analytical tool to evaluate students' cognitive abilities in research activities

Abstract

The objective of this study was to develop and validate an analysis tool to evaluate students' investigative Skills when developing research activities in the Science disciplines. The need to produce the instrument arose after searching the literature for a tool to analyze the performance of students who participated in a Jr Scientific Initiation project and did not find tools that were fully adequate to meet the requirements that we had proposed to analyze. The literature has sought to establish the characteristics that should guide research activities to establish the basis of the instrument. For the validation of content, the instrument was analyzed by 20 judges, ten of them Brazilian and ten Portuguese from the area of Natural Sciences. The results point out the pertinence of the constructs and domains proposed in the instrument to evaluate the students with regard to inquiry teaching.