Scientific reasoning skills: A theoretical background on science education

Abstract

To enhance scientific content and investigative skills that help students to acquire problem solving and lifelong learning skills, the assessment of scientific reasoning in science education has gained momentum of late. The purpose of this paper was to review and synthesize empirical studies on scientific reasoning skills and science education with the view to help improve science education in Namibia. Different methods were used to select and identify studies for this review. First, the multi-dimensional reviews of studies were based on publications between the late 90s to March 2016. Second, the publications were searched from different academic databases, such as but not limited to, EBSCO, Science Direct, Web of Science, ERIC, and the search engine Google Scholar. Third, a wide range of search terms were employed in searching for diversified studies. Amongst others, the findings from the literature reveal that, science education is vital as it; i) promotes a culture of scientific thinking and inspires citizens to use evidence-based reasoning for decision making, ii) ensures that citizens have the confidence, knowledge and skills to participate actively in an increasingly complex scientific and technological world. The literature also reveal that inquiry based lessons promote scientific reasoning skills in students and that scientific reasoning skills have a long term impact on students’ achievement. Furthermore, it was found that in the K-12 education in the United States of America (USA), China and in most Organization for Economic Cooperation Development (OECD) countries, the development of scientific reasoning skills has been shown to have a long-term impact on students’ academic achievement.