THE ASSESSMENT OF STUDENT LOGICAL THINKING SKILLS NEEDED TO BUILD SCIENTIFIC LITERACY AND PROFICIENCIES FOR STEM CAREERS: IMPLICATIONS FOR KEY ASPECTS OF GEOSCIENCE EXPERTISE

Seven hundred and fifty students enrolled in a large enrollment (~75-100 students per section) general education Earth science course were assessed using the Group Assessment of Logical Thinking (GALT) instrument to determine their abilities in six catagories of logical thinking. As a result of their scores, thirty-one percent of the students were determined to be concrete logical thinkers, fifty percent were transitional logical thinkers and nineteen percent were abstract (formal) logical thinkers.

Deconstructing individual student scores reveal that on average they scored lowest in proportional and correlational reasoning skills. Specific geoscience topics such as the comparison of maps of different scales and the comparison of the relative motion of different tectonic plates build proportional reasoning skills. Engaging students in inquiry-based science activities and allowing them to practice building hypotheses, collecting and analyzing data they collect themselves in a real-world setting, and presenting conclusions are ways that help students build their abilities in correlational reasoning.

Recent studies have shown that students that have greater science content knowledge built by traditional lecture methods alone do not necessarily possess a greater ability to use logical thinking skills, including those of proportional and correlational reasoning. Inquiry based learning in the field and engaging students with real world situations are more useful for students in building logical thinking skills. These are exactly the strengths that geoscience inquiry-based learning can provide. By focusing on activities that build proportional and correlational reasoning skills geoscientists can build scientific literacy of the Earth system and foster the skills needed in the STEM workforce