RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN OBJECTIVE MEASURES OF LOGICAL REASONING ABILITIES AND SCIENCE ACHIEVEMENT OF STUDENTS IN A NONPUBLIC JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL IN SOUTH CAROLINA (BURNEY)

The Burney Logical Reasoning Test and the Science subtest of the Stanford Achievement Test were used in this study to investigate the relationships between objective measures of logical reasoning abilities and science achievement. All students in seventh grade life science (39), eighth grade general science (35), and ninth grade physical science (33) classes of a nonpublic school in South Carolina were tested with both instruments. Pearson product moment correlation coefficients were calculated to test directional hypotheses concerning the two objective measures.;An additional interest of the investigator was the relationship between specific logical reasoning abilities and science achievement. The Burney test items were grouped into four subtests. Although the total set of items had been validated, the subtests had not been statistically examined. Purportedly, seven of the items measured propositional logic, five assessed proportion reasoning, three assessed syllogistic reasoning, and six assessed analogical reasoning. The subtest raw scores were correlated with the Science subtest raw scores. The syllogistic items showed no relationship to science achievement. The analogy items were significantly and positively related in all of the grade groups. Proportional reasoning items were related in the eighth grade and the total population. Items dealing with propositional logic were related in the seventh and eighth grades as well as the total population.;A valid test of objective items measuring general logical reasoning abilities was significantly related to an objective measure of science achievement. The relationships between the subtests and science achievement may imply a need for the construction and validation of objective measures of specific logical reasoning abilities.;The total set of 21 multiple-choice items on the Burney test was designed to measure general logical reasoning abilities such as propositional logic, proportional reasoning, syllogistic reasoning, and analogical reasoning. The Science subtest of the Stanford Achievement Test contains 60 multiple-choice items designed for seventh, eighth, and ninth grade levels of achievement. Significantly positive r values were obtained from the raw scores of the seventh (.541), eighth (.702), and ninth (.386) grade groups. When the total population raw scores were correlated, the r value was .553.