Undergraduate geoscience education research: Evolution of an emerging field of discipline-based education research

Discipline-based education research (DBER) conducted by faculty within geoscience departments can address identified needs in undergraduate geoscience education. This study explores the evolution of undergraduate geoscience education research (GER) from 1985 to 2016, primarily in terms of the types of published research and secondarily in terms of the insights this literature offers on the evolution of GER as a scholarly discipline. Stokes&rsquo; (1997) quadrant model of research types is used as a theoretical framework for the former and Kuhn&rsquo;s (1970) model of disciplinary paradigm for the latter. An exploratory sequential mixed-methods approach to a systematic literature review of 1,760 articles is utilized. The period 1985-2000 is characterized by proto-research as evidenced by the abundance of instructive and informational education articles rather that research articles. From 2000 to 2011, GER underwent a growth period characterized by the presence of applied, use-inspired, and pure basic research. The period 2011-2016 appears to be a period of relative steady-state conditions in the normalized number of GER publications per year. Existing gaps in knowledge about geoscience education, the evident unfamiliarity with education and social science research methodologies among authors of GER articles, and efforts to build consensus about what GER is and how to conduct it suggest that GER is pre-paradigmatic or at a low paradigm state. That is, GER is an immature discipline as far as the evolution of a discipline goes. A path forward is proposed for the continued evolutionary growth of GER. This study provides new perspectives on the emergence of GER as a discipline that can be used as a basis for studies on cross-disciplinary DBER comparisons.</p

Mental Models Of Groundwater Residence: A Deeper Understanding Of Students’ Preconceptions As A Resource For Teaching And Learning About Groundwater And Aquifers

There is a growing need for public understanding about groundwater resources.&nbsp;Knowing what groundwater and aquifers are is fundamental to understanding more complex issues such as groundwater quality and availability.&nbsp; However, groundwater and related concepts are among the topics that instructors most struggle to teach.&nbsp; Although constructivist theories suggest that students’ preconceptions or misconceptions can be used as teaching tools, the question about exactly how remains.&nbsp; A resource perspective on this question states the first step involves understanding students’ preconceptions.&nbsp;To gain a deeper understanding of college students’ pre-instructional mental models about groundwater residence, 215 students enrolled in introductory-level environmental geoscience courses taught at two large US state universities were surveyed.&nbsp; An open-ended questionnaire asked participants to draw and label a concept sketch.&nbsp; Follow-up interviews asked participants to elaborate upon their concept sketches.&nbsp; Eight categories of mental models emerged from the analysis of the collected data.&nbsp;These results were interpreted through the lens of cognitive schema theory, which generated to four patterns of mental models.&nbsp; These patterns emphasize key aspects of students’ pre-instructional mental models about groundwater residence.&nbsp; Instructors can use this information to design instructional activities about groundwater and aquifers using a resource perspective

Drawing As A Method To Facilitate Conceptual Change In Earth Sciences Education

Communicating even fundamental scientific concepts can be challenging. Furthermore, student mental models are often difficult to uncover even by the most talented teacher or researcher. Drawing is a universal process skill widely used by scientists to refine their conceptions about a wide range of topics, communicate ideas, and advance scientific thought in their disciplines. Just as drawing is useful to scientists for refining their conceptions, it has the potential to be useful for revealing misconceptions when teaching from a conceptual change perspective of science students’ mental models. Using a design study methodology and framed within the knowledge integration perspective of conceptual change, this longitudinal study investigates the efficacy of a delimited-sketch activity on the conceptual change of novices’ mental models about groundwater residence. A delimited-sketch activity, the focal case of this study, involves (i) students drawing to expand upon a provided partially-drawn concept sketch and then (ii) collectively debriefing the ideas communicated in the completed student-expanded concept sketches. The activity’s efficacy at facilitating conceptual change is tested with two different sample populations at two different large public universities in the USA. The first population is drawn from an introductory-level college geoscience course designed for non-science majors and the second population is drawn from a similar course designed for science majors. The activity has a large significant impact on moving students away from novice-like toward more expert-like conceptions of groundwater residence. The impact is observed even two months after the activity concludes

Geoscience Education Perspectives on Integrated, Coordinated, Open, Networked (ICON) Science

Practitioners and researchers in geoscience education embrace collaboration applying ICON (Integrated, Coordinated, Open science, and Networked) principles and approaches ICON principles and approaches have been used to create and share large collections of educational resources, to move forward collective priorities, and to foster peer-learning among educators. These strategies can also support the advancement of coproduction between geoscientists and diverse communities. For this reason, many authors from the geoscience education community have co-created three commentaries on the use and future of ICON in geoscience education. We envision that sharing our expertise with ICON practice will be useful to other geoscience communities seeking to strengthen collaboration. Geoscience education brings substantial expertise in social science research and its application to building individual and collective capacity to address earth sustainability and equity issues at local to global scales The geoscience education community has expanded its own ICON capacity through access to and use of shared resources and research findings, enhancing data sharing and publication, and leadership development. We prioritize continued use of ICON principles to develop effective and inclusive communities that increase equity in geoscience education and beyond, support leadership and full participation of systemically non-dominant groups and enable global discussions and collaborations

Novice Explanations Of Hurricane Formation Offer Insights Into Scientific Literacy And The Development Of Expert-Like Conceptions

The ability to explain scientific phenomena is a key feature of scientific literacy, and engaging students’ prior knowledge, especially their alternate conceptions, is an effective strategy for enhancing scientific literacy and developing expertise. The gap in knowledge about the alternate conceptions that novices have about many of Earth’s complex phenomena (National Research Council, 2012), however, makes this type of engagement in geoscience courses challenging. This study helps to fill this gap by identifying and describing how novices to geoscience explain a complex scientific phenomenon, hurricane formation. Using a pragmatism methodology, 326 students in introductory-level geoscience courses at two public universities in the United States of America, in Georgia (n=168) and Nebraska (n=158), were surveyed. The questionnaire was designed to target and collect novices’ explanations of a single complex Earth phenomenon – hurricane formation. Constant comparative analyses of textual content and diagrams revealed a variety of alternate conceptions. The data suggests that novices seldom invoke scientific first principles, which students matriculating through the education system are expected to learn before college, in their explanations. Two theoretical models synthesize the alternate conceptions and illustrate pathways of conceptual change along which students might move from more novice-like to more expert-like ways of scientific thinking. Our findings provide a basis for the development of instructional activities that aid students in developing more expertlike conceptions of hurricane formation and other complex Earth phenomena