28 research outputs found
The Opportunities and challenges in development of a multi-agency program to monitor and assess reef fish populations in the Florida Keys coral reef ecosystem
Simultaneous approximation of a set of complex-valued functions in a normed vector space
THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE EARLY TENURIAL AND TERRITORIAL DIVISIONS OF THE LANDSCAPE OF NORTHERN ENGLAND
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