Teaching Geology Using the History and Philosophy of Science: Enhancing Conceptual Understanding

by Glenn Dolphin, Robert Kelly (Contribution by), Nicole Ladue (Contribution by)

Overview

This book provides a case study on how to design and build an introductory geology course for non-science majors. The book presents a foundation with the status of geoscience education and research in geoscience conceptual development as a backdrop for the design process. It then describes the instructional goal-setting process and development of the structural components of the course based on the determined goals. The book presents the three historical narratives (the earth is a historical entity, the earth is very old, and the earth is dynamic) that form the foundation of instruction. It also describes examples of the implicit, explicit, and reflective treatments of the nature of science to help student develop a better sense of the process of geology. Finally, the book gives preliminary results from some innovative approaches to research on student learning within the domains of geological content knowledge and NOS content knowledge within the course.  

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783031686672
Publisher:	Springer-Verlag New York, LLC
Publication date:	10/02/2024
Series:	Science: Philosophy, History and Education
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	30 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Glenn Dolphin is an Associate Professor in Geoscience at the University of Calgary, Canada. He previously worked as a geologist for a groundwater consulting company, and then as a 9th-grade Earth Science teacher in New York State, USA. He currently teaches geology at the University of Calgary and does research in how students learn in geology classes. Glenn's particular areas of focus are using the history and philosophy of geology to teach both geological content as well as the nature of science. He also studies the influence of conceptual metaphors on both teaching and learning. Finally, he has begun researching the use and efficacy of virtual outcrop models for teaching geological content and process skills. Glenn has supervised students in research and constructing historical case studies for teaching geology. He as also supervised students in collecting and analyzing student data to understand their processes in learning. Glenn is the author of an introductory geology textbook entitled, Stories in geology: What we know and how we figured it out, published by Kendall-Hunt. 

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Introduction.- Chapter 2. Challenges in geoscience education.- Chapter 3. Backwards design and goals setting.- Chapter 4. Centring HPS in the course design process.- Chapter 5. Text and the structure of the course (braiding history, inquiry and MBL).- Chapter 6. Evaluating student learning in both geology content and NOS.