Correction: Mahler et al. Preservice Biology Teachers’ Scientific Reasoning Skills and Beliefs about Nature of Science: How Do They Develop and Is There a Mutual Relationship during the Development? Educ. Sci. 2021, 11, 558

In the original version of the paper [...]

Scientific reasoning skills (SRS): Predictor to the student’s problem-solving in the biology classroom?

Scientific reasoning and problem-solving have become primary interests in 21st-century education. These skills have an essential role in preparing students to face global competition. This study aims to determine the correlation between scientific reasoning and problem-solving skills of biology students in animal classification and whether scientific reasoning can be used to predict problem-solving skills. The participants were 56 undergraduate students of Biology Education. The scientific reasoning and problem-solving skills of students were assessed with the pre and post-test. A simple linear regression test using the SPSS 16.0 was applied in data analysis. The results showed a p-value of 0.00 < 0.05, so there is a correlation between scientific reasoning and argumentation skills. R-value indicates 0.523, which means a strong correlation. The contribution of scientific reasoning to argumentation skills was 27.3%, while other variables explained the rest.

Preservice Biology Teachers’ Scientific Reasoning Skills and Beliefs about Nature of Science: How Do They Develop and Is There a Mutual Relationship during the Development?

Scientific reasoning (SR) skills and nature of science (NOS) beliefs represent important characteristics of biology teachers’ professional competence. In particular, teacher education at university is formative for the professionalization of future teachers and is thus the focus of the current study. Our study aimed to examine the development of SR skills and NOS beliefs and their mutual relationship during teacher education. We applied paper-and-pencil tests to measure SR skills and NOS beliefs of 299 preservice biology teachers from 25 universities in Germany. The results of linear mixed models and planned comparisons revealed that both SR skills and NOS beliefs develop over the course of the study. Nevertheless, the development of SR skills and multiple aspects of NOS beliefs proceeds in different trajectories. Cross-lagged models showed a complex picture concerning the mutual relationship between SR skills and NOS beliefs during their development (both positive and negative). The current study contributes to the existing research because it is based on longitudinal data and allows—in contrast to cross-sectional research—conclusions about the development of SR skills and NOS beliefs.

LAWSON CLASSROOM TEST OF SCIENTIFIC REASONING AT ENTRANCE UNIVERSITY LEVEL

The Lawson classroom test of scientific reasoning is a quite popular and widely used tool that measures the level and development of the student's scientific reasoning skills. In this contribution, the results of this test for the N=446 students of the Faculty of Science Palacký University Olomouc from the years 2018–2020 at the beginning of their study were analysed. Calculation of the standard characteristics of the test items (difficulty index, discrimination index and point biserial coefficient) confirms that the test meets the required criteria for the included questions and its overall consistency. Performing the Mann-Whitney rank test with a standard significance level α = .05, the statistically significant difference between males and females was found, on the other hand, no statistically significant difference between the students preparing for their prospective teacher careers and those with technical specializations in chemistry or physics was identified. This contradicts a common belief that students choosing teacher preparation programmes are generally worse in scientific performance and technical subjects. The results also show that about a quoter of the students come to university with a low level of their scientific reasoning skills which should be therefore supported and further developed in lecturing and teaching. Keywords: scientific reasoning, test evaluation, Lawson Classroom Test of Scientific Reasoning

Development of Quizizz-Based Interactive Questions to Measure Scientific Reasoning Skills

<p>This study aims to determine the feasibility level, students' scientific reasoning abilities, and students' responses to the use of quizizz-based interactive questions in measuring students' scientific reasoning skills. This research method uses the 4D model (Define, Design, Development, and Dissemination). The results showed that quizizz-based interactive questions to measure scientific reasoning skills developed were declared very feasible by the validators at a percentage of 82.6%. The results of the percentage of students' scientific reasoning skills on conservation reasoning indicators are 25%, probabilistic reasoning 20.83%, proportional reasoning 8.33%, correlation reasoning 4.17%, variable reasoning 8.33%, and hypothesis-deductive reasoning 12.50 %. The question has positive response criteria as seen from the results of the assessment of students by 88% with very interesting interpretations. Thus, it can be concluded that quizizz-based interactive questions to measure scientific reasoning skills are very feasible to use and get a positive response from students.</p>

Can Pre-Service Biology Teachers’ Professional Knowledge and Diagnostic Activities Be Fostered by Self-Directed Knowledge Acquisition via Texts?

In a diagnostic context of reasoning about instructional quality, scientific reasoning skills can be described as diagnostic activities, which require professional knowledge. Different approaches to enhance pre-service teachers’ professional knowledge (PCK, CK, PK), as well as diagnostic activities exist. However, results about their effectiveness are still inconsistent. We systematically investigated the effectiveness of self-directed knowledge acquisition via texts on PCK, CK, PK, and diagnostic activities of 81 pre-service biology teachers following an experimental design. Paper-pencil tests, measuring PCK, CK, and PK, and the video-based assessment tool DiKoBi Assess, measuring diagnostic activities in the context of diagnosing instructional quality, were used pre and post an intervention. Intervention included four treatments on self-directed knowledge acquisition via texts on (1) PCK, (2) CK, (3) PK, (4) combination PCK/CK/PK. Treatment (5) served as control. Mixed ANOVAs showed large time effects for PCK and CK, but no interaction effect concerning knowledge facets between time and treatment for any of the treatments. Time effects might be due to pre-service teachers’ scientific reasoning on biology instruction that activated knowledge. An ANCOVA showed no significant effect of treatment on diagnostic activities either. We conclude that scientific reasoning about instructional quality is more effective for knowledge acquisition than text-work.

Teacher-Student Interaction Patterns Change During an Early Science Teaching Intervention

This study aimed to explore the interaction between teachers and young students in terms of their question and answer patterns during science lessons and to investigate whether this changes over the course of an intervention called ‘Language as a Tool for learning science’ (LaT). It also compared experienced teachers with novices. A total of 16 teachers—of which 8 experienced and 8 novice teachers—and their students participated in this study. The teachers’ utterances were coded with regard to the use of questioning strategies, and the students’ reasoning skills were categorized by the use of three types of scientific reasoning skills (observations, predictions, explanations). Consistent with a complex dynamic systems orientation, we analyzed the interactions among these dimensions by means of state space grids (SSG). The results showed that before the intervention, the teacher-student interaction often took the form of a relatively rigid pattern in which teachers did not ask questions and students did not respond with reasoning expressions. In the course of the LaT intervention, a richer repertoire and a greater amount of interactions emerged in which knowledge was “co-constructed” by means of open-ended questions of the teacher and reasoning by the students. The results also suggest that the patterns of experienced and novice teachers were quite similar to each other.