Running head : STUDENTS ’ REASONING & LEVEL OF INTERACTIVITY 1 Students ’

As part of a study of the science preparation of elementary school teachers, we investigated the quality of students’ reasoning and explored the relationship between sophistication of reasoning and the degree to which the courses were measured to be interactive. First, we devised written content exam questions, which were open ended and required students to apply recently learned concepts in a new context. All the questions developed were based on a common template that required students to recognize and generalize the relevant facts or concepts and apply them. To evaluate students’ answers, we developed a rubric based on Bloom’s taxonomy as revised and expanded by Anderson et al. Along with analyzing students’ reasoning, we visited 20 universities, observed the courses and used the RTOP to determine their level of interactivity. Statistical analyses indicate some relationship between the students’ reasoning on the exams and the level of interaction in the class.