This study aims to examine preschool teachers' earth and space science practices and the expected achievements of children in these practices. The research was conducted with a phenomenological pattern. Participants of the study consisted of 28 preschool teachers working in public schools and determined by the criterion sampling method, one of the…

The international situation of history didactics as an academic discipline is characterized by the fact that many basic disciplinary concepts often differ considerably: The same or similar terms denote different concepts or vice versa comparable concepts not only have various names but also hold different positions in the respective disciplinary…

Natural history includes the period from the formation of the Earth to recent times and all the changes it has gone through throughout this vast period. The biggest challenge in understanding natural history is the age of the Earth. Even though natural history is quite difficult to understand, pre-service science teachers are expected to be…

This chapter describes InTeGrate, a national sustainability curricular development program, and the influence of the program on instructors who created the curriculum as well as those who utilized the InTeGrate curriculum in their courses.

This study explores a third-grade teacher's (Deb) developing knowledge and practice for incorporating representations into her teaching of science over the course of 2 years. Data was gathered from the same science unit (Rock Formation) over 2 years, and consisted of video of seven lessons, one of which was the same lesson taught over both years.…

This study was aimed at assessing the research trends in the family resemblance approach to the nature of science (FRA-to-NOS). This was accomplished through bibliometric analysis using the R program and a literature review employing the analysis framework. The findings demonstrated that the field of FRA-to-NOS has been experiencing growth, with…

This paper examines the pedagogical integration of Virtual Microscopes (VMs) in Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs), to identify best practice and improve online pedagogy. It has captured the perspectives of 12 Health and Earth Science university teachers, through in-depth interviews, about the current integration of the VM in online teaching,…

Recent studies have identified an incomplete student understanding of how elastic rebound causes earthquakes. We hypothesized that realistic imaging of spatial patterns in ground motions over the course of the earthquake cycle would improve student understanding. Incorporating spatial change information in the form of both motion vectors and…

Autism is a complex neurodevelopmental condition which can affect communication, attention, perception, and cognitive processing, and thus has an impact on learning in higher education. This study investigated the experiences of geosciences students in U.K. higher education, using a novel qualitative methodology designed to be inclusive for…

What emerges when climate-related displacement is positioned in conversation within the relational practices of collective resistance and oral tradition? In this article, I consider climate displacement and community placement through multiple layers within present day ecologies, narrative texts, and longer views of time. Situated within Black…

At a time when traditional fieldwork is coming under pressure, be it from shrinking budgets, reducing carbon footprints, increased concerns for personal safety or the desire to make field skills accessible to all, how do we ensure that the key skills of observation, data collection and landscape analysis can still be developed in our students?…

Efforts to diversify STEM fields have not completely eliminated higher rates of women leaving certain science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines, such as geosciences. A diverse mentorship network is linked to persistence in STEM among college students, but little is known about how it leads to persistence. In particular,…

In response to geoscience education research and calls for the need to reform STEM teaching in higher education, many geoscience faculty are adopting research-based pedagogies to improve student learning in their courses. Our own effort to reform our introductory geology course included daily student-centered activities and other reforms we…

Math anxiety involves moderate to extreme fear, anxiety, and occasionally physical pain associated with anticipating or performing mathematical tasks. High levels of math anxiety have been tied to students taking lower levels of math and choosing less quantitatively challenging courses and careers. In a small geoscience program in a primarily…

The undergraduate geoscience program concludes with a field-based capstone course that equips the graduating geologist with basic field-mapping abilities. However, many of the field-based geoscience programs have been temporarily halted or converted to an online version because of the COVID-19 outbreak. The South Dakota Mines created an online…