Grand Challenges Community Feedback

Project Overview »

Geoscience Educators and Education Researchers:

As an emerging STEM education research field, the GER community is examining the current state of their research and considering the best course forward so that it can have the greatest collective impact on advancing undergraduate teaching and learning in the geosciences. As part of an NSF-funded effort to meet this need, 40 researchers drafted priority research questions, or "Grand Challenges", that span 10 geoscience education research themes. In addition, recommended strategies have been proposed to address each theme's Grand Challenges. This draft framework has undergone one round of peer-review and is now ready for the broader community to critically examine. We seek perspectives from geoscience education researchers, scholars, and reflective educators. This open comment period is an opportunity for public examination and peer review of the NSF and NAGT-supported draft framework. Your feedback is valued by the project leaders and working group teams. To learn more about the background, purpose, and next steps of this project go to the project overview button at the top of this page.

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Provenance: Kristen St. John, James Madison University
Reuse: This item is offered under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ You may reuse this item for non-commercial purposes as long as you provide attribution and offer any derivative works under a similar license.

You can access topic-specific chapters of the draft framework by going to the Research Priority links below. Please visit the chapters that most align to your areas of research expertise and interest and give feedback, make suggestion, and ask questions. Consider the following questions as you review:

- Are the proposed grand challenges "right"? Are they research questions of high importance? Does your work fit within them?

- Do the proposed strategies help move the community forward? What additional strategies can you recommend to address those challenges?Are there specific opportunities to rapidly and effectively address these challenges?

- What other peer-reviewed publications and reports inform the introduction to the theme(s) and/or the rationale behind the grand challenges for that theme?

Comments can be entered in the 'Discussion' box directly on the webpages for each of the ten topical areas. The Open Comment period has been extended - it will now close on Monday February 12, 2018.

Research Priorities

• Research on Students' Conceptual Understanding of Geology/Solid Earth Science Content
• Research on Students' Conceptual Understanding of Environmental, Ocean, Atmosphere, and Climate Science Content
• Research on Elementary, Middle, and Secondary Earth Science Teacher Education (working with teachers and future teachers in all settings)
• Research on Teaching about Earth in the Context of Societal Problems
• Research on Access and Success of Under-Represented Groups in the Geosciences
• Research on Cognitive Domain in Geoscience Courses: Temporal and Spatial Reasoning (Cog A)
• Research on Cognitive Domain in Geoscience Courses: Problem Solving, Quantitative Reasoning, and Use of Models (Cog B)
• Research on Instructional Strategies to Improve Geoscience Learning in Different Settings and with Different Technologies (e.g., place-based instruction, teaching large lectures, online instruction)
• Research on Geoscience Students' Self-Regulated Learning/Metacognition and Affective Domain
• Research on Institutional Change and Faculty Professional Development, TA Training