Research to reveal the Earth Using research to reveal the Earth – a UK experience Chris King Director of the Earth Science Education Unit Senior Lecturer, Keele University, Keele, UK

Research to reveal the Earth How can you change the educational world?  One answer lies in making a good case to the rich and powerful who can help you to make these changes. And how do you make this good case?  The answer lies in research.

Research to reveal the Earth Earth science in the National Curriculum for Science  There is a small but significant amount of Earth science in the National Science Curriculum - very pleasing

Research to reveal the Earth  Most teachers teaching Earth science are biology, chemistry or physics specialists

Research to reveal the Earth  Most teachers (>80%) had received little or no Earth science teaching

Research to reveal the Earth  Their feelings about their Earth science teaching were ‘moderate’

Research to reveal the Earth  However, the content of practical/field work in their lessons was small

Research to reveal the Earth  The main sources of information for the teachers was pupil textbooks and their science colleagues

Research to reveal the Earth  Thus the Earth science taught was often poor, uninspired, dull and even wrong - through no fault of the teachers, who had never received training in Earth science  The use of resources produced by third parties is small.  Effective INSET involves an integrated approach including visits to schools.

Research to reveal the Earth Common alternative conceptions, from Thompson (1996) ‘… students’ ideas on the nature of the Earth, life, volcanoes, earthquakes, oil and soil’  more than 1/3 thought life originated on continents  40% believed Earth and life began at the same time  many thought that volcanoes and earthquakes occur where temperatures are high  young pupils thought that oil came from water, coal, forests, and mud as well as unicellular organisms  pupils’ understanding of soil was hampered by images in everyday language such as ‘soiled’ clothes and ‘feeding’ soil.

Research to reveal the Earth Understanding of plate tectonics shown by teachers of plate tectonics  Many teachers have major errors in their levels of Earth science understanding

Research to reveal the Earth  Analysis of 200 staff development programmes (Joyce and Showers, 1984) showed that measurable effects only occurred with coaching

Research to reveal the Earth A bid to the Oil Industry  These findings were used as the basis of a bid to the oil industry (UKOOA)  They funded a 2 year pilot project to take interactive Earth science workshops to schools in three regions in England and form the Earth Science Education Unit  Over the 2 years, some 100 workshops were presented to more than 800 teachers and 500 pre-service teachers  The evaluation data from these workshops was very positive  Evaluation scores averaged 1.5 on a 1 (high) to 5 (low) scale

Research to reveal the Earth  Meanwhile, ESEU was carrying out research into the value and accuracy of of science textbooks UK schools  51 of the most commonly used textbooks were surveyed

Research to reveal the Earth  The quality of Earth science coverage in science textbooks is low  Less than 50% of the Earth science is adequately covered

Research to reveal the Earth  The error level of Earth science in commonly used science textbooks is high  It averages 1 error per page

Research to reveal the Earth Funding for a 5 year national rollout  The findings from the 2-year pilot were used as the basis of a bid for 5 year funding to make the programme available nationally  This was successful  A full time administrator and a full time research and development officer have been appointed  28 regional workshop facilitators have been appointed and trained  Most of England and all of Wales is now covered  The rollout will continue into the rest of England and Scotland next year with the appointment of more facilitators

Research to reveal the Earth  ESEU research continues  The most recent is into the science coverage of newspapers - showing the Earth science is as commonly covered as physics - and more than chemistry.

Research to reveal the Earth Conclusion  Research was crucial to the underpinning and funding of the ESEU initiative  The initiative has produced a range of interactive, practical workshops given to whole school science departments to ‘reach the reluctant teacher’  Evaluations continue to be very positive  The national profile of Earth Science education has been raised  Research into the impact of the initiative to underpin its future development is continuing - particularly with the work of the ESEU researcher

Research has provided the base for raising the profile of Earth science education:  on the national agenda in the UK  and to ‘reveal the Earth’ to teachers and educators  at both ‘grass roots’ and national levels. For a copy of this PowerPoint, contact: Research to reveal the Earth Chris King, Keele University, UK.