Effects of academic training and gender on scientific reasoning skills of secondary school students: a pilot study

This study attempts to determine the level of scientific reasoning skills of secondary school students and analyze the influence of students' academic level and gender on these skills. It also intends to ascertain the skills that students found difficult. The scientific reasoning skills questionnaire proposed by Hanson (2016) was administered to 122 Spanish secondary school students in grades 8-11 (ages 13-17 years old). From the questionnaire scores obtained and the ANOVA performed, it can be concluded that: a) the average level of scientific reasoning skills does not seem appropriate; b) academic training has a significant effect on these skills; and c) gender does not produce significant differences. The most problematic skills for students were located through difficulty index of the items included in the questionnaire. Finally, the possible didactic implications derived from the study are discussed.