Researchers testing 6,000 freshmen majoring in science and engineering at seven universities, four in the United States and three in China, found that while Chinese students know more science facts, neither group is particularly skilled in scientific reasoning, Science Daily reports. This suggests that educators in both countries must go beyond teaching science facts if they hope to boost students’ reasoning ability. “Our study shows that, contrary to what many people would expect, even when students are rigorously taught the facts, they don’t necessarily develop the reasoning skills they need to succeed,” said Lei Bao, associate professor of physics at Ohio State University and lead author of the study. In the United States, only one third of students take a yearlong physics course before graduating from high school. The remainder study physics within general science courses. In China, every student takes five years of continuous physics from grades 8 through 12. Chinese students outperformed American students on factual knowledge of physics — averaging 90 percent on one test, versus the Americans’ 50 percent — but in a test of science reasoning, both groups averaged around 75 percent.
Read more: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090129140840.htm