Validation of an Instrument to Assess Deductive Reasoning in Solving Types of Problems

The accelerated pace of knowledge generation requires engineering students to develop dif-ferent types of reasoning during their education. Deductive reasoning is essential to establish-ing self-regulated judgments based on reasoned argumentation. This paper aims to describe and illustrate the process by which a test of multiple-choice, open-response verbal mathe-matical problems was designed, applied, and validated to assess the deductive reasoning of second-semester students of two engineering degrees from a university in a region of south-ern Chile. The research used a non-experimental, cross-sectional approach focused on psy-chometric aspects. The evaluation instrument was developed on the basis of a typology of mathematical problems and a model of deductive reasoning. The resolutions of types of prob-lems are classified according to their nature, routine and non-routine, and according to their context, real, realistic, fantasy, and purely mathematical, while the deductive argumentative model comprises the phases of data, claim, and warrant. The results guarantee sufficient con -tent and construct validity, item discrimination, and reliability; therefore, they represent a useful tool for measuring the level of deductive reasoning among first-year engineering stu- dents during the process of solving a type of mathematical problem.