Research On Measurement And Evaluation Of Biological Rational Thinking Ability In Secondary School

Rational thinking is a kind of thinking with purpose.It connects evidences and theoretical basis with actions and beliefs through reasonable and effective logic to achieve the purpose of understanding things or solving problems.It is one of the key competencies that should be cultivated in educational tasks.How to cultivate and evaluate rational thinking has become a key issue.At present,some scholars have conducted relevant researches on general rational thinking.However,the evaluation of rational thinking in specific disciplines is still lacking,especially in the field of biology.Therefore,in this study,we aimed to develop a framework and tool for assessing performances of biological rational thinking skills of secondary school students and try to expore their developmental features.Combining the characteristics of biology,we sumed up the connotations and core elements,then developed a framework conserning five dimensions of rational thinking skills,they are beliefs and actions,the awareness of using evidence,logical reasoning,concept recognition and critical reflection.We developed the assessment tools according to the framework and rasch theory.A test was conducted with 92 seventh-grade students,57 eighth-grade students,and 50 senior high school students in Shanghai.The Rasch model was used for optimizing the assessment tools and analysis.The results show that the evaluation tool of biological rational thinking ability has a relatively good quality,which can reflect the situations and characteristics to some extent.Analyzing the assessment data,we found that:in the sample range of this study,(1)Among the five dimensional elements,the easiest one for students is beliefs and actions,followed by the awareness of using evidence,then logical reasoning,and finally concept recognition and critical reflection.(2)The gender differences of the ability change with the rise of grades.The younger girls have stronger ability than boys.With increase of grades,boys gradually catch up with girls and may have a trend of overtaking.(3)The ability increases with the increase of grades,and there are extremely significant differences among them.In this study,we used Rasch model to develop the tools for evaluation of rational thinking in the field of biology and explored the characteristics,which is of great theoretical and practical significance for the following study.