Assessing expert-like attitudes and scientific reasoning skills with multiple instruments

This was a longitudinal study comparing assessments of the effects on student expert-like attitudes and scientific reasoning skills produced by two instructional interventions in a general education physics course. Expert-like attitudes were measured by the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey (CLASS) and scientific reasoning skills were measured by Lawson's Classroom Test of Science Reasoning (CTSR) and Montana State University's Formal Reasoning Test (FORT). Earlier results showed low correlations between pre- and posttest CLASS and posttest CTSR results. Additional results were obtained from pre- and posttest scores from Montana State University's Formal Reasoning Test (FORT). Low correlations between results from all three instruments were observed. Comparison of results from two control and eight treatment semesters of data from the CLASS, CTSR, and FORT are presented along with implications for instruction given this apparent decoupling of expert-like attitudes and reasoning skills.