Scientific reasoning in elementary school children: Assessment and relations with cognitive abilities

The primary goal of this study was the broad assessment and modeling of scientific reasoning in elementary school age. One hundred fifty-five fourth graders were tested on 20 recently developed paper-and-pencil items tapping four different components of scientific reasoning (understanding the nature of science, understanding theories, designing experiments, and interpreting data). As confirmed by Rasch analyses, the scientific reasoning items formed a reliable scale. Model comparisons differentiated scientific reasoning as a separate construct from measures of intelligence and reading skills and revealed discriminant validity. Furthermore, we explored the relationship between scientific reasoning and the postulated prerequisites inhibitory control, spatial abilities and problem-solving skills. As shown by correlation and regression analyses, beside general cognitive abilities (intelligence, reading skills) problem-solving skills and spatial abilities predicted performance in scientific reasoning items and thus contributed to explaining individual differences in elementary school children's scientific reasoning competencies.