THE NATURE OF FORMAL REASONING AMONG JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL PUPILS IN SELECTED INTEGRATED SCIENCE LOGIC TASKS

ABSTRACT 

This study was carried out to determine the nature of formal reasoning among junior high school pupils in some selected schools in the Effutu Municipality. This study thus used logical reasoning tests in integrated science and in general knowledge as well as an interview protocol in collecting data. The integrated science logic tasks were based on topics chosen from the integrated science syllabus for form one, two and three pupils. However, the general logic tasks were based on general knowledge with the level of pupils taken into consideration. In choosing the sample for the study, 150 pupils were randomly selected from five public junior high schools in the Effutu Municipality. They were then served with different items based on their syllabus. Cronbach-Alpha reliability values of 0.750, 0.780, 0.860 and 0.916, 0.826, 0.783 were obtained in the ISLT and GLT for form 1,2 and 3 respectively. The validity of the instruments was established by supervisors and other senior lecturers in the Department of Science Education, University of Education, Winneba. Out of the total sample, 30 pupils were randomly selected for the interview. The results of the two tests and the interview were used to determine the nature of their formal reasoning pattern. It was found that most pupils were operating at the concrete operational level of reasoning with just a handful being at the formal operational level of reasoning. Again the few pupils who could do formal reasoning mostly exhibited conservational, probabilistic and combinatorial reasoning with few pupils doing correlational, controlling variables and proportional reasoning. On the whole, the form one pupils did more formal reasoning than form two and form three in the general logic tasks. The trend however changed in the integrated science logic tasks as the form three pupils did more formal reasoning than the form one and two pupils. It was also found that on the average all pupils performed better in the integrated science logic tasks than in the general logic tasks, implying that pupils‟ formal reasoning was subject oriented.