Instruments of the empirical studies: a general description of the test

In the first study, we used two figurative tests: a mouse skill test and an inductive reasoning skill test. The tasks were adapted from a Hungarian item bank. Figure 5.1. shows two tasks from the mouse skill test. In the tasks, pupils could listen to the instructions using headphones and the tasks required pupils to do the operations of clicking and drag-and-drop.

Figure 5.1. Sample items from the mouse test (instruction for the left item: students need to click on the apple and the cup. Instruction for the left item: students need to click on the hole in the bucket.)

Figure 5.2. shows two items from the inductive reasoning test applied in the first study. The items have been adapted to be suitable to the Palestinian context in format and language. Similar to the tasks of the mouse skill test, pupils received the instructions in Arabic using the headphones. The tasks were adapted to the Arabic context regarding the used direction in the tasks too (see Figure 6.3 in Chapter 6.1.2.2). The inductive reasoning items were in two formats: series and analogy.

In the second study, the main focus was on extending the age-range of the pupils and measuring their inductive reasoning. We changed the way the instructions were delivered to written texts as presented in Figure 5.3, so a certain level of reading comprehension was also required to understand what is needed to solve the task. We kept the items exclusively on figurative level.

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Figure 5.2. Inductive reasoning items from the first study (Instruction for the left item: students need to figure out the rule from the above two boxes to be able to solve the third box. Instruction for the left item: students need to figure out the rule from the series to be able to fill in the empty yellow box.)

Figure 5.3. Sample items from the inductive reasoning test in the second study (Instruction for the left item: students need to figure out the rule from the above two boxes to be able to solve the third box. Instruction for the left item: students need to figure out the rule from the series to be able to fill in the empty yellow box.)

Based on the analyses, time-on-task, and achievement data, we decided to develop the IR test further by including more and more difficult items too. Apart from the figural items we included number series and number analogy items too. We adapted these items also from the Hungarian item bank developed in the eDia system, based on the psychometrical properties of the tasks (difficulty level and discrimination index). Some adaptation was again necessary regarding the language of the instructions and the numeral system as it can be seen in Figure 5.4. The Eastern Arabic numeral system was applied

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as it is used in the Palestinian school textbooks in order to eliminate any obstacles that might be related to the shape of the numbers.

Figure 5.4. Sample items from the number analogies and number series subtest

administered in the third study (Instruction for the left item: students need to figure out the rule from the above two boxes to be able to solve the third box. Instruction for the left item: students need to figure out the rule from the series to be able to fill in the empty yellow two boxes.)

Parallel, we started to work on the development of the training tasks. We started to adapt tasks developed on behalf of a Hungarian training programme for inductive reasoning (Pásztor, 2016) and based on these tasks we developed new training tasks too, whose content fit to the Palestinian school curriculum. The structure of the final training programme is similar to Klauer’s original training. It consists of 120 learning tasks using the following operations: generalisation, discrimination, cross-classification, recognising relations, discriminating between relations, and system formation. Table 5.2. summarizes the instruments used in the studies.

A background questionnaire (see appendix C) was given to the participating pupils to fill in the requested information with the help of their parents or any family member. The mothers’ background was on focus because we expected it to play a major role in influencing pupils’ inductive reasoning skills in case of the Palestinian school children. We looked at other factors as well (gender difference and school achievement) for the purpose of comparison.

The instruments in the four studies were completely adapted to the Palestinian context in format and in language as mentioned earlier. Professional teachers in Hungary

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and in Palestine helped in recording and translating the texts from Hungarian to English and from English to Arabic. Professional programs were also used to change the direction of the tasks without any loss.

Table 5.2. The instruments used in the four studies

Study Grade Instrument Method Description

Study 1 2 & 3

Mouse usage & IR (Molnár et al., 2013;

Pásztor et al., 2017) eDia platform

Items in the mouse usage tasks require pupils to do clicking and drag-and-drop. IR tasks - domain general and culture-free content reasoning tasks. Study 2 2, 3 & 4 IR (Molnár et al., 2013; Pásztor et al., 2017; Molnár & Pásztor, 2015b) eDia platform

IR tasks - domain general and culture-free content reasoning tasks.

Study 3 4 & 5 IR (Molnár & Csapó,

2019a). eDia platform

IR tasks - domain general and culture-free content reasoning tasks. Numerical items included.

Study 4 4 & 5

IR training (Pásztor, 2016).

(Molnár, Pásztor, & Csapó, 2019). IR test (Csapó & Molnár, 2019; Molnár & Csapó, 2019a).

eDia platform & eLea online training platforms

IR tasks - domain general and culture-free content reasoning tasks. Numerical items included.

IR training - it consisted of 120 learning tasks as Klauer’s original programme.