Cognitive development in a secondary science setting

Abstract

Observations were made of the progressive change in the cognitive development of 141 students over the course of their secondary education in an Australian private school. Cognitive development was measured in years 8, 10 and 12 using Bond's Logical O-erations Test. Rasch analysis of each of the data sets provided ability estimates for students in the )ear groups of 1993 (year 8), 1995 (year 10) and 1997 (year 12). Twenty-nine students from the year group of 1993 were tested on all three occasions. We analysed data from these 29 students in order to investigate the children's cognitive development across years 8, 10 and 12. We also examined the influence of the Cognitive Acceleration through Science Education (CASE) Thinking Science program on the cognitive development and scholastic achievement of these students. We found increased mental growth between years 8 and 10 for most students in the Thinking Science cohort, which could not be predicted from their starting levels. There was a significant correlation between cognitive development and the scholastic achievement of these students. Although boys as a group were more advanced in cognitive development than girls in years 8 and 10, no difference was found in the rate of cognitive change based on sex up to year 10. However girls showed cognitive gains across years 10-12 which were not found in boys. The students who were new to the school also showed increased cognitive development in years I 1 and 12. Students who had experienced the Thinking Science course were more eognitively developed than students who joined the school after the intervention had taken place. This study supports the claim of Adey and Shayer that there is a relationship between cognitive development and scholastic achievement, even though we used different measures of cognitive development and scholastic achievement.

Changing Science Outcomes: Cognitive Acceleration in a US Setting

“…We reported in this journal similar results for enhanced cognitive development and improved scholastic achievement from a version of the CASE program delivered in a private secondary school in North Queensland (Endler and Bond 2001). A workshop given by Dr. Philip Adey in Townsville in 1992 inspired the first author to adopt the CASE lessons with her high school science classes and later provided data for a Masters degree.…”

“…It could be argued that the high correlation between cognitive ability and scholastic achievement seen in Table 3 might be influenced by the similarity of format (multiple choice) of the BLOT and Oregon state mandated tests. However, comparable correlations (p<0.01) were found between BLOT ability estimates and achievement scores of 12th grade students in the Queensland Core Skills (QCS) Test in our Australian CASE study (Endler and Bond 2001). The QCS test comprised four papers, two in multiple choice format, one paper of short answer questions, and a writing task.…”

“…More recent research in other countries such as the United Kingdom (Adey and Shayer 1994), Australia (Endler and Bond 2001), and Pakistan (Iqbal and Shayer 2000) indicates that little has changed over the last 30 years in this regard. It follows that a mismatch frequently occurs between cognitive ability and the cognitive demands of science curricula for the many students whose thinking skills are still developing in secondary school.…”

Using Rasch theory to guide the practice of survey development and survey data analysis in science education and to inform science reform efforts: An exemplar utilizing STEBI self‐efficacy data

“…In science education, Rasch techniques have been used in the analysis of multiple‐choice test data (Planinic, Boone, Krsnik, & Beilfuss, 2006), survey data (Donnelly & Boone, 2007; Nehm & Schonfeld, 2008), and partial credit data sets (Liu, 2007). The Rasch model has been utilized by science education researchers to evaluate both relatively small samples of responses, and the model has aided evaluation efforts of very large data sets with thousands of respondents, such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress (Lee, 2004), Third International Math and Science Study (Endler & Bond, 2001) and the Program for International Student Assessment (Bond & Fox, 2007).…”

The CASE Programme Implemented Across the Primary and Secondary School Transition in Ireland

“…The effectiveness of CASE has been reported in other countries also, including Australia (Endler & Bond, 2001), USA (Endler & Bond, 2007), Pakistan (Iqbal & Shayer, 2000), Finland (Hautamäki, Kuusela, & Wikström, 2002) and Malawi (Mbano, 2003).…”