‘ Global’ Geoscience Education

1. ‘Global’ Geoscience Education A selected look at the global status of geoscience education Glenn Vallender Teacher of biology and science at Ashburton College. Doctoral student at Curtin University’s Science and Maths Education Centre, Perth, WA Contact: ge.vallender @ xtra.co.nz 25 June 2004

2. WHAT ABOUT IGEO? • “Promoting Geoscience Education Worldwide” • Started in 1993, IGEO is now affiliated to the IUGS. • There is no membership fee for IGEO. Do you want to join? • Conferences have been in : • Southampton 1993 Hilo 1997 • Sydney 2000 Calgary 2003 • Bayreuth 2006 • There are conference proceedings available for each of the four conferences. Does your library have copies? • IGEO has a new website hosted by Keele University, UK. • http://www.esci.keele.ac.uk/igeo/links.htm

3. INTERNATIONAL GEOSCIENCE EDUCATION ORGANISATION: Survey 2002Does your country have a defined National Earth Science educational standard?

4. What barriers are there in Establishing Earth Science Standards?

5. What changes do you expect to see in the next three years: Selected Responses

6. What Are The Main Conclusions? • More data is needed from Africa, Central Europe and West Asian countries. But this is difficult to obtain. • About 70% of countries have a national Earth Science standard • Historical influence of geography and low status given to the Earth Sciences within most national (and state) curricula. • Lack of awareness of the importance of the Earth Sciences. • Lack of ES trained and qualified teachers. • Lack of teaching resources, funding and inservice training. • Teaching needs to be innovative, enthusiastic, motivational and pedagogically sound.

7. A Perspective View: USA v’s NZwww. agiweb.org/education/statesurveys www. minedu.govt.nz/statistics In a recent survey of Ontario, there are 80,000 students at year 13 but only 1674 or 2% study Earth and Space Science (CGN).

8. UK Case Study(King, 2003) Proportion of UK National Science Curriculum Statements Devoted to Each Subject Area Key stage 3 (age 11-14) Key stage 4 (age 15-17)

9. UK Teacher Attitudes to Teaching ES (after Lydon & King, 2003) 52% lack confidence and nearly 60% said they did not enjoy teaching ES Likert Scale 5 is high N = 202 teachers

10. Some NZ Teacher Attitudes to Teaching ES Response Rate y9 n = 47 y10 n = 60 y11 n = 61 y12 n = 16 y13 n = 15 Note: Year 11 is NCEA level 1 (age 15) Attitude Scale (5 is high) 1 ‘hate it’ 2 ‘disinterested’ 3 ‘interested’ 4 ‘enthusiastic’ 5 ‘Very enthusiastic’ [Vallender, (1997)Royal Society Report]

11. Average number of hours teaching Earth Science in the UK (Lydon and King, 2003) Overall av’g = 5.1 = 2 weeks? Note: UK year 10 = NZ year 11

12. ES Teaching Time for Some NZ schools N = 18 schools (Vallender, 1997)

13. Earth Science in Japan: another case study(Goto and Shimono (2003), in Geoscied IV proceedings) • A New course of study for ES introduced in 2002. • Schools offer ES as an elective. • Decrease in Science hours means less ES. • Low numbers (about 10%) study ES because of lack of trained and qualified ES teachers and low status of ES within the curriculum. • ES has compulsory fieldwork and this is a barrier for many teachers. • Earth Systems Education (ESE) is now offered as an integrated science programme, but uptake is slow. • Key for ES education is effective, relevant and prescribed teacher training programmes.

14. A DEPOSITIONAL CHALLENGE • You get one shot at this challenge • Draw a plan view of the set up and sketch the pattern of the sand you would expect to see after the water has been stirred and circulated. • Explain and discuss your pattern. • Assessment: • Non achieve = no picture • Achieve = A correct picture drawn • Merit = Correct picture plus explanation • Excellence = Correct picture plus a discussion and evaluation of given picture

15. A Bit About Conceptual Change • Conceptual change is about how people learn and change the way they perceive the world. It is an underpinning paradigm in educational research. • The seminal work of Posner et al in 1982 (and argued about ever since), identified four key factors in the process of shifting conceptions and these can be applied to the way we think about curriculum issues, assessment issues and management issues. These four factors are: • Dissatisfaction with existing conceptions • New conception must make some sense (be intelligible) • New conception must seem like it could be true (be plausible) • New conception must have a future (be fruitful) • Is Earth Science as a subject at a conceptual change point?

16. Questions That This Forum Might Like To Consider • How should Earth Science as a subject be defined? • What are the core contents and contexts of ES? • How important is ES to science literacy? • How important is ES to a national curriculum? • What are the resources needed to teach ES effectively? • What are the relationships of ES to geography, environmentalism, Sc.,Tech and Soc, Phys, Chem & Biol? • How can subject associations and the Geoscience community develop and promote ES in schools? • What is a sustainable, and realistic future for ES within a standards based curriculum framework?

17. Some Useful Websites The IGEO website (still under construction) http://www.esci.keele.ac.uk/igeo/links.htm Earth Science Education unit (ESEU) for teachers at Keele Univ. UKhttp://www.earthscienceeducation.com/ The Earth Science Teachers Association in UK http://www.esta-uk.org/ The American National Association of Geology Teachershttp://www.nagt.org/jge.html The current journal of the American Geological Institute http://www.geotimes.org/current/ The Joint Earth Science Education Initiative http://www.chemsoc.org/networks/learnnet/jesei/index2.htm