Mapping the increasing sophistication of students’ understandings of plate tectonics: A learning progressions approach

McDonald, Scott; Bateman, K.; Gall, Helen; Tanis-Ozcelik, Arzu; Webb, Aubree; Furman, Tanya

doi:10.1080/10899995.2018.1550972

Cited by 16 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…It is perhaps surprising that so few empirical research studies on geology's central theme of plate tectonics exist. As experienced geology teachers ourselves, we expected to find widespread in the literature the tacit notion shared by many of our colleagues that novice students frequently exhibit a natural preconception that the edge of continents represent the plate boundaries; yet, we found little empirical research in the literature clearly identifying this well-known misconception beyond McDonald et al (2019), Dolphin and Benoit (2016), Ford and Taylor (2006), and Marques and Thompson (1997a).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…Most recently McDonald et al (2019) identified students' misconceptions around plate tectonics using a learning progressions approach. After conducting 309 conceptual interviews with middle school students, they found that although most students understand that plates move, they have difficulty understanding the dynamic system of plates (system motion).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Geology misconceptions targeted by an overlapping consensus of US national standards and frameworks

Guffey

Slater

2020

International Journal of Science Education

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In the past few decades, scientific and educational entities in the United States have repeatedly expended considerable fiscal and human resources in an effort to establish contemporary education standards, curriculum frameworks, and assessment tools. These efforts are intended to reform the quantity and quality of K-16 Earth science education across the U.S. including, most recently, the Next Generation Science Standards. Most of the reform efforts enthusiastically recommend a constructivist-oriented approach to instruction that requires educators to clearly identify their learning targets. At the same time, a contemporary approach to instruction requires educators to be aware of misconceptions, misunderstandings, naïve beliefs, and alternative frameworks students bring to the learning experience. Although several dated surveys of learners' geology misconceptions exist across the scholarly literature landscape, little of the geology misconceptions literature is systematically organised around the current collections of U.S. national standards and frameworks. Geoscience educators, curriculum developers, and assessment specialists benefit from summaries of misconceptions research organised around various national reform efforts.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 91%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geology misconceptions targeted by an overlapping consensus of US national standards and frameworks

Guffey

Slater

2020

International Journal of Science Education

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“…and Maynard [37] on celestial motion and the seasons. Covitt et al [38] studied formative assessment based on learning progression in teaching about water, while McDonald et al [39] sought to map a learning progression in student understanding of plate tectonics. The learning progressions in these studies are identified by means of assessments given to students of various ages from 9 to 18 years old (depending on the study).…”

Section: The Research Questionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Pattern of Progression in Geoscience Fieldwork can be Recognised by Geoscience Educators?

King

2019

Geosciences

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The question in the title was addressed by dividing the elements of geoscience fieldwork into eight different strands and then subdividing these into different items addressed during fieldwork. Separate small groups of experienced geoscience educators (mainly geology teachers of 16–18-year-old and younger students) were then asked to sort the items for each strand into order, from the most simple to the most difficult, and then to assign the items to levels of difficulty identified in the progression of scientific skills given in the National Curriculum for Science in England. The results indicate that, whilst those involved found the exercise fairly difficult, nevertheless it was possible to identify an agreed progression in each of the strands. It is hoped that this exercise will provoke geoscience educators to carry out further research into progression in geoscience fieldwork education, enabling them to confirm such a progression. Meanwhile raising awareness amongst teachers of geoscience fieldwork that there is the opportunity to teach elements of fieldwork in order of increasing difficulty, as identified in the research, should enable them to plan more effective progression in their fieldwork teaching. The strategy and methodology used could also enhance professional development in the teaching of geoscience fieldwork.

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“…These errors are assumed to discourage teachers and guide them to wrong interpretations of the phenomena [5], resulting in the formulation of their alternative ideas, which are disseminated to students through instruction. According to McDonald et al [30], instructional cause is the main source responsible for most of the students' misunderstandings in ESS due to their few everyday experiences with ESS phenomena, like plate tectonics. What students understand or misunderstand is more likely to root from instructional patterns rather than students' inability to apprehend more complicated concepts.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…What students understand or misunderstand is more likely to root from instructional patterns rather than students' inability to apprehend more complicated concepts. Specifically, McDonald et al [30] report that the building approach part-to-whole generates reverse cause understandings when teaching ESS phenomena to students. For example, when volcanos and earthquakes are taught individually at first and later on integrated to plate motion, then it is most likely for students to consider plate motion as the result of volcanos and earthquakes (events).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Existing and Emerging Students’ Alternative Ideas on Geodynamic Phenomena: Development, Controlling Factors, Characteristics

2021

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This paper studies Greek junior high school students’ alternative ideas, both initial and synthetic, on geodynamic phenomena. It comments in detail on students’ concepts on Earth structure, earthquake occurrence, volcano formation, and relief change. Additionally, it attempts to trace and interpret how and why these ideas form (concept development), presenting that initial and synthetic ones are indissolubly attached and utterly directed by environmental interaction. Data analysis verifies that curriculum inadequacy and false scientific terminology in textbooks enforce the generation of alternative ideas. New synthetic alternative ideas on geodynamic phenomena are presented which are mainly characterized by intermittent and fragmentary perspective. Furthermore, the characteristics of both initial and synthetic alternative ideas are outlined, giving emphasis on the facts that students represent geodynamic phenomena as instantaneous events and that they are able to describe the repeatability of the phenomena, but they show difficulty in capturing their continuity. Finally, more factors that control alternative idea development on geodynamic phenomena are highlighted—such as (i) lack of continuous thinking, (ii) distribution, intensity and frequency of geodynamic phenomena, and (iii) current affairs (i.e., pollution, technology evolution, human intervention)—hoping that their revelation will lead to alternative ideas’ decomposition and thus to pure scientific knowledge.

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Mapping the increasing sophistication of students’ understandings of plate tectonics: A learning progressions approach

Cited by 16 publications

References 36 publications

Geology misconceptions targeted by an overlapping consensus of US national standards and frameworks

Geology misconceptions targeted by an overlapping consensus of US national standards and frameworks

What Pattern of Progression in Geoscience Fieldwork can be Recognised by Geoscience Educators?

Existing and Emerging Students’ Alternative Ideas on Geodynamic Phenomena: Development, Controlling Factors, Characteristics

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