Student difficulties in learning geoscience

A small-scale pilot study with three institutions (from the UK, USA and Canada) tested a methodology for identifying student and staff perceptions of difficulties in learning geoscience. A mixed-methods approach was used with questionnaires, interviews and a card-sort exercise. Seven difficult topics were identified by both students and staff: •mineralogy, •crystallography, •maps, •structural geology, •space/time relationships, •chemistry / geochemistry, •metamorphism. Also, six reasons for learning difficulties were found in common across all participant groups: •terminology and memorisation, •spatial literacy, •problems with maths/science, •abstract concepts, •issues with teachers or learners, •understanding the depth of geological time. The methodology has established some categories above, but additional tools, including checklists and problem-solving exercises are required to better quantify the extent of the difficulties across the student population and to explore more deeply the reasons for these difficulties

Are Women Always More Interpersonally Sensitive Than Men? Impact of Goals and Content Domain

Two studies examined motivation and content domain as possible influences on sex differences in interpersonal sensitivity. Although much research has found women to excel on tasks measuring interpersonal sensitivity, most of the tasks have measured accuracy in female-relevant domains such as emotion. The present studies measured interpersonal sensitivity, defined as accurate recall of another person, for both female-relevant and male-relevant content domains and also included motivational manipulations intended to influence men and women differently. Study 1 measured accuracy of recalling information in a written vignette about a person, and Study 2 measured accuracy of recalling details about an interaction partner. Both studies supported hypotheses about domain specificity and gender-relevant motivation. However, even for male-stereotypic content and for tasks framed to favor men's motivation to perform well, men's accuracy never exceeded women's