Enseñanza y aprendizaje del razonamiento deductivo e inductivo a través de las ciencias naturales

Purpose: To identify whether the teaching of deductive and inductive reasoning through natural sciences leads to significant learning progress in fifth-grade primary school students at an Educational Institution. Method: A quasi-experimental design was selected, including two intact groups (an experimental group and a control group) and the use of a pre-test and a post-test. Natural science contents were taught to the experimental group for the purpose of encouraging deductive and inductive reasoning, whereas the same contents were taught to the control group but with no stimulation of deductive and inductive reasoning. Findings: Statistically significant progress was observed in the experimental group, as assessed by the Kruskal–Wallis test. Discussion and Conclusions: The study showed that significant learning progress is achieved when deductive and inductive reasoning is used in natural science content teaching. This can be explained if we consider the active role of the teacher, who sought student cognitive involvement by means of deductive and inductive reasoning, in addition to the time devoted to the practice of such reasoning