As shown by correlation and regression analyses, beside general cognitive abilities (intelligence, reading skills) problem-solving skills and spatial abilities predicted performance in scientific reasoning items and thus contributed to explaining individual differences in elementary school children's scientific reasoning competencies.
A recent review has discussed the potential pitfalls of using SCT as a valid tool to measure clinical reasoning competencies, among which is implicitly discouraging the seeking of empirical evidence for the scoring key since this test assumes no single correct answer for any item [33].
While functional competencies look at the cognitive skills of individuals, such as problem solving or analytical reasoning, social competencies focus on interpersonal skills required for effective teamwork.
Rather, evolutionary reasoning is a core competency just as anatomy and communication skills are core competencies for most physicians.
The AAMC/HHMI 2009 report, Scientific Foundations for Future Physicians, identified the ability to "apply quantitative knowledge and reasoning" as a key competency for those entering medicine (AAMC/HHMI, 2009).
These findings are particularly relevant to medical education because clinical reasoning is a core competency and because the practice session used in this study represented a close approximation of a typical practice opportunity for students enrolled in the ICR course.
US and China are reforming mathematics teaching by shifting from students' attainment of facts and procedures toward development of competencies in reasoning, communication, connections, and problem solving, and application of these in real life contexts.
Both improve student quantitative competencies and reasoning and can contribute to the future success of these students.
For students to achieve more expert-like competency in evolutionary reasoning, then, they must consider both adaptive and non-adaptive processes as possible contributors to evolutionary causation.
