In order to clarify the reasoning ability in deductive explanation by junior and senior high school students, the following investigation was carried out.
Hypothesis: 90% of junior and senior high school students have a reasoning ability in deductive explanation.
Sample: The sample was composed of 85 junior high and 91 senior high school students.
Method: Subjects were given two different laws on P-wave and S-wave of earthquake in two separate instructions. Free answer method was used during the class.
Result: The following are the results of the present study.
1) 11% of junior high school students gave the correct responses.
2) 33% of senior high school students performed correctly.
Considering these results, we may conclude the following two points.
1. The rate of correct responses was much lower than hypothesized prior to the present study.
2. The rate of correct responses by senior high school students was much higher than that of junior high students.