Synthesis of Research on Thinking and Learning in the Geosciences

Kim Kastens, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and Cathy Manduca, SERC, Carleton College, PIs

This project will synthesize existing knowledge and articulate unanswered questions in critical areas of research on cognition and learning relevant to the Geosciences. Geosciences encompass the study of the oceans, atmosphere, and solid earth, plus interactions between these physical systems and living systems. Within the domain of geoscience learning, our study will focus on four themes:

• geological time,
• complex systems of the Earth,
• spatial thinking in Geosciences and
• field-base learning.

Each of these areas plays a central role in how human beings think about the Earth and learn to think about the Earth, and each poses substantial cognitive challenges. In addition, we seek to understand how geoscientists integrate these different types of learning in drawing inferences about the Earth.

The centerpiece of our work plan is to gather a small group of experts in geosciences, geoscience education, research on learning, and cognitive science at an isolated field station for a week-long learning/brainstorming/writing retreat. The writing retreat will be preceded by a smaller two-day planning and scoping meeting, at which we articulate major questions on each of our four themes, and identify a subset that have sufficient research base to be ripe for synthesis. Our findings will be disseminated through a suite of papers in a special issue of the Journal of Geoscience Education, on the widely-used "Teach the Earth" Web Portal, and in a journal that reaches the learning sciences community. This plan builds on four years of continuing effort to strengthen the cognitive and learning sciences research base underpinning geoscience education.