Scientific Reasoning Abilities of Undergraduate Science and Engineering Students at King Faisal University

摘要

Science is a discipline that uses experimentation and thought to study various aspects of nature. A major prerequisite for training young students to be future scientists is to hone their scientific reasoning abilities. In addition, students enrolled in engineering studies should be acquainted with scientific reasoning abilities in order to form creative solutions and applications. The present study was conducted at KFU to assess scientific reasoning abilities among first-year engineering and science undergraduate students. A Scientific Reasoning Test was administered, then the students were categorized into three levels of scientific reasoning: Empirical Inductive (low-level), Transitional (average), and Hypothetico Deductive (high-level). As a result, most of the students fell into the Empirical Inductive level and no significant difference was depicted between science and engineering students. Furthermore, in the Test, items regarding 'Conservation of weight' have the highest percentage of right answers (95.12%), followed by items about 'Conservation of displaced volume' (63.4%). On the other hand, the lowest percentages of right answers correspond to items of'Identification and control of variables' (20.7%) and items of'Hypothetico-deductive thinking' (19.5%).