Students’ mental model development during historically contextualized inquiry: how the ‘Tectonic Plate’ metaphor impeded the process

ABSTRACT

At present, quality earth science education in grade school is rare, increasing the importance of post-secondary courses. Observations of post-secondary geoscience indicate students often maintain errant ideas about the earth, even after direct instruction. This qualitative case study documents model-building activities of students as they experienced classroom instruction that braids history, inquiry, and model-based-learning within the context of earth dynamics. Transcripts of students’ conversations, and their written work indicate students primarily employed model accretion to enhance their mental models. Instances of accretion were descriptive, pertaining to what their model consisted of, as opposed to how it explained the target phenomenon. Participants also conflated “continent” with “tectonic plate” and had difficulty attributing elastic properties – the mechanism for earthquakes – to rocks or “plates”. We assert that the documented learning difficulties resulted from use of the metaphor “tectonic plate”, reinforced by other everyday experiences and meanings. We suggest students need time with new models or concepts to develop strong descriptions before developing explanations. They need concrete experiences and explicit discussions concerning mapping those experiences to concepts. Lastly, because students often apply common meanings to scientific terms, we should not ask if they understand, but ask how they understand the concept.

KEYWORDS:

• Metaphor
• geoscience education
• earthquakes
• plate tectonics
• model-based learning
• embodied cognition

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

G. Dolphin coming to Calgary with a PhD in science education from Syracuse University, Glenn has a background in both geology and teaching secondary-level Earth science. He currently holds the Tamaratt Chair in Geoscience where he conducts research on the use of metaphor in teaching and learning geology. He also researches the development and use of historical case studies for teaching geoscience and NoS.

W. Benoit is an instructor in the Department of Chemistry and the natural sciences program at the University of Calgary. She teaches courses on introductory chemistry, organic chemistry, science writing, and approaching scientific problems. Her scholarly interests are focused on teaching and learning through metacognitive and reflective approaches and striving to dispel myths and misconceptions that surround many aspects of science.

Notes

1. For example, visualizations: http://www.iris.edu/hq/programs/education_and_outreach/visualizations, a view of seismic wave form data from multiple locations on Earth: http://rev.seis.sc.edu/, patterns of earthquake epicenters on Earth's surface: http://www.iris.edu/ieb/index.html, and a kinesthetic model of P and S waves for understanding how they inform geoscientists of the earth's interior: http://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/roleplaying/examples/seismic.html.

2. The term is actually derived from Chamberlin's (1919) use of thin-shelled and thick-shelled mountain ranges, again, only designating the supposed depth of deformation in the crust (Rodgers, 1949).

3. See http://www.iris.edu/hq/inclass/lesson/brittle_vs_ductile_rocks.