• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.501-515
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• 2018

In this study, the method of multiple working hypotheses (MMWH) as a method of earth scientific inquiry was applied in a context of abductive reasoning about the formation of a rock with a specific structure, and the characteristics of MMWH revealed in the reasoning process were explored. Participants were 31 senior undergraduate students enrolled in a course in a university of education. As part of the course, the participants performed abductive inquiry with multiple working hypotheses about the formation of a rock. The students were asked to record both the processes and results of their reasoning in sketchbooks. The content of the students' sketchbook reports was analyzed according to the principle of analytic induction. Results demonstrated four assertions. First, the participants' working hypotheses were suggested in the use of resource models, and the adaption of the resource models often occurred in this process. Second, the perceptual properties of evidence influenced the activation of the resource models. Third, the kinds of observed evidence and the different interpretations of evidence resulted into different judgments on working hypotheses. Fourth, sometimes new hypotheses were generated by the combination of alternative hypotheses. Implications of these findings for earth science education and relevant research were discussed.