Inferring and Hypothesizing in a Biological
Context
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Inferring
and Hypothesizing in a Biological Context
Risa
L. Reyes
National Institute for Science and Mathematics Education Development
University
of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City 1101 Philippines
risreyes@ismed.upd.edu.ph
IntroductionMethodologyResults
and FindingsConclusions
RecommendationsReferences
Abstract
This
study determined the different ways 20 third-year high school students
performed the thinking skill of inferring within a biological context.
Their written answers to a standardized, open-ended questionnaire and
audiotaped self-reports on how they went about answering the thinking
skills constituted the raw data. The researcher’s observation and the
subjects’ verbal answer to clarificatory questions in the course of
one-on-one interviews complemented such data and became the bases for
analysis and conclusions drawn in this study.
Four
different ways of answering the question on inferring emerged from the
data, one of them actually classifiable as an exercise in generating and
testing alternative hypotheses. In answering the question on generating
and testing alternative hypotheses, the subjects exhibited five different
ways depending on their analysis (of plant parts) and proposed tests for
each hypothesis. These different patterns are described, characterized and
analyzed in terms of their constituent skills, accompanying behaviors,
possible relationships to ability groupings, and interaction with content.
Recommendations include specific suggestions for the deliberate teaching
of thinking skills in the classroom.
IntroductionMethodologyResults
and FindingsConclusions
RecommendationsReferences