Natural-scientific cases as an instrument for assessment of logical thinking

Abstract

Logic is the basis of both critical thinking and the scientific method of nature cognition, so it can be effectively developed when studying natural science disciplines. The existing tools for assessing logical thinking require a lot of time to work with materials that are barely related to natural science. Instead, it is proposed to use natural science cases, which can serve simultaneously as both a development tool and a diagnostic tool for logical thinking. The aim of the study was to test the criterion validity of such cases for assessing logical thinking. The study involved students of the Master’s program “Modern Natural Science” of the Moscow Pedagogical State University and the bachelor’s program of the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia. The diagnostic results showed a high degree of correlation between the results obtained by the subjects when solving cases with the results of four independent assessments: Test of Logical Thinking, the Group Assessment of Logical Thinking, solving a set of logical problems and expert assessment of students’ work on a natural science project.