Investigation of Thai university students' scientific reasoning abilities

Abstract

The study aimed to explore scientific reasoning abilities of engineering freshmen in Thailand (N = 680) using 24 multiple-choice questions of Lawson's Test of Scientific Reasoning (LTSR) and find its relation with high school grade. It was found that male students (N = 442; 73±16%) outperformed female (N = 238; 67±18%) for LTSR scores. Overall, dimension 1 of LTSR about the conservation of mass and volume (80±27%), and dimension 4 about the probabilistic thinking (80±24%) were the highest ability dimensions. In contrast, dimension 6 involving the hypothetical-deductive thinking and reasoning was the lowest ability dimension (50±27%). Moreover, the results revealed no correlation between the LTSR score and high school grade. The findings suggest improving classroom activities which not focus solely on science content knowledge but rather on the scientific reasoning abilities as crucial aspects needed for lifelong learning.