Science-P II: Modeling Scientific Reasoning in Primary School

Abstract

Basic scientific reasoning abilities in primary-school children have been documented in numerous studies. However, an empirically tested competence-structure model has not been developed, most likely due to the difficulty of capturing conceptual understanding in paper-and-pencil tasks. The Science-P project contributes to this research area by constructing and testing a theoretical model of the development of scientific reasoning in primary school. Based on our own competence-structure model, derived from developmental research, we constructed a comprehensive inventory of paper-and-pencil tasks that can be used in whole-class testing. This chapter provides an overview of the development of our inventory, and reports three central findings: (1) the convergent validity of our inventory, (2) the significant development of scientific reasoning in primary school from Grades 2 to 4, and (3) empirical proof of our competence-structure model.