The need for geoscience students to develop a quantitative skillset is ever increasing. However, this can be difficult to implement in university-style lecture courses in a way that is both manageable for the instructor and does not involve lengthy, potentially repetitive, question sheets for the students. Here, a method for teaching dimensional…

While interdisciplinary collaboration is desired among researchers, traditional science instruction generally results in science disciplines being taught as separate entities. This study focuses on student understanding of concepts at the intersection of two isolated disciplines--geoscience and bioscience--across two purposeful samples of…

Learning how cave formations, such as dripstone, take shape can be a valuable pedagogical tool in chemistry and geochemistry. Grasping the underlying processes requires students to synthesize knowledge of several different topical areas. The activity presented here uses an innovative experiment to connect chemistry concepts with an interesting…

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…

Glaciers and ice ages are important topics in teaching geomorphology, earth history, and climate change. As with many geoscience topics, glacier formation, glacier movement, glacial morphology, and ice ages consist of a wide variety of processes and phenomena. Accordingly, it must be decided which of those processes and phenomena should be part of…

One of the important roles of HE institutions is to train graduates who will smoothly enter the labour market. The literature review demonstrates that one effective method to facilitate this transition is to ensure students acquire professional experience. The aim was to establish the scale and characteristics of employers' demand for work…

Today, earth sciences engineering education programs face with serious problems. It is often not possible to provide experience on different geographical environments or materials. Considering these problems of earth science related engineering education programs, virtual reality environment potentially can provide technology enhanced training…

This article explores the influential role of planning on recognition-primed decision-making. Considerable prior thinking occurs and there is a need to trace and account for the cognitive processes that precede and guide decisions in dynamic outdoor environments. Seven expert leaders from four countries were interviewed about memorable decisions…

To date, there has only been little conceptual change research regarding conceptions about glaciers. This study used the theoretical background of embodied cognition to reconstruct different metaphorical concepts with respect to the structure of a glacier. Applying the Model of Educational Reconstruction, the conceptions of students and scientists…

Our ability to identify even complex scenes in rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) is astounding, but memory for such items seems lacking. Rather than pictures, we used streams of more than 200 verbal stimuli, rushing by on the screen at a rate of more than 12 items per second while participants had to detect infrequent names (Experiments 1…

We are delighted to welcome you to the International Conference on Education and New Developments 2015-END 2015, taking place in Porto, Portugal, from 27 to 29 of June. Education, in our contemporary world, is a right since we are born. Every experience has a formative effect on the constitution of the human being, in the way one thinks, feels and…

Geoscience topics are playing an increasingly important role with regard to the future of our planet. Consequently, they have been moving into the educational foreground because of their societal relevance. The question is, however: Are pupils interested in these topics? This is important didactically, for interest is both a prerequisite and a…

Trying to implement interdisciplinary geoscience curriculum materials in geography and science education we asked how they fit into teachers' existing practices, their needs for support and strategies to plan instruction. The focus of our case study has been the identification of the goals teachers pursue with the materials, of strategies for…

IN THIS SPECIAL EDUCATION ISSUE, JOHN SNYDER IDENTIFIES THE NEED FOR RADICAL REVISIONS IN THE TEACHING OF GEOLOGY AND DISCUSSES (1) RESEARCH ON TEACHING OF GEOLOGY, (2) CURRICULUM RESEARCH, (3) INCREASED EXPENDITURES, AND (4) EDUCATION OF THE PUBLIC. T. NEVILLE GEORGE COMPARES UNIVERSITY GEOLOGY PROGRAMS IN FRANCE, ENGLAND, AMERICA, GERMANY, AND…