A study published in Science magazine last week shows that American college freshmen majoring in science know few facts about science and have poor scientific reasoning skills.
The study, which tested nearly 6,000 American students, compared Americans’ test scores to Chinese students’ scores and found that while Chinese students also have poor reasoning ability, they had more fact-based knowledge of science than American students.
Chinese students scored better on tests overall, but the study found both American and Chinese students ill-prepared for college science courses.
“In general, we have found the difficulties in science for freshmen trace to a poor math ability, not so much science facts,” University physics professor James Schombert wrote in an e-mail. “Math is the language of science, and the ability to reason out science problems will depend on a person’s ability to process analytic knowledge.”
Lei Bao of Ohio State University headed the study and recommended in it that both educational systems take more inquiry-based approaches to teaching science in high schools and give students more opportunities to practice scientific reasoning by asking open-ended questions they must work through to answer.
“I think junior and senior level (high school) courses that are project and inquiry-based would improve the scientific literacy of incoming students,” said chemistry instructor Dean Livelybrooks.
However, Livelybrooks said, some high school students elect to take additional and more advanced science courses, and are well-equipped with scientific reasoning abilities.
Schombert added that treating science more seriously in high schools might encourage change in the science curriculum.
“It would not be allowed to call yourself intelligent and admit to not understand grammar or spelling or history, or admit you can’t read,” Schombert wrote. “However, it seems perfectly OK to claim complete ignorance of math and science, yet consider yourself an intelligent person. I would change that attitude as a first step.”
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