Evaluating constructivist based methods to teach senior undergraduate geoscience classes

Abstract

Traditionally geoscience subjects have been taught using a top down, transmission approach. We have attempted to use a more interactive approach to teaching and learning by placing the responsibility for learning squarely on the shoulders of the students. One of the main aims of using such an approach was to encourage the students to reflect on their knowledge about the Earth System and to challenge their thinking about it. This approach is based on the idea that learning is about changes in conceptions (Ramsden, 1988): Learning should be seen as a qualitative change in a person’s way of seeing, experiencing, understanding, conceptualizing something in the real world – rather than as a quantitative change in the amount of knowledge someone possesses. (p. 271) Our role as teachers was to encourage students to become deep rather than surface learners. That is we wanted our students to develop a firm understanding of what they learned so that they could relate what they learned to concepts they already had, and then develop these concepts, rather than regarding learning as a series of discrete occurrences, done to achieve a short term requirement. The teaching approach used in this subject was based on constructivist principles of learning. In the last two decades science education has been greatly influenced by a constructivist approach to learning and teaching. Constructivist learning theory acknowledges that all learners (including children, scientists and teachers) construct their own ideas about their world (Biddulph and Osborne, 1984; Fensham, 1989; Osborne and Wittrock, 1985; von Glasersfeld, 1989). Learners actively ‘construct’ knowledge and meaning from their interpretation of what is happening around them, based on their own experiences and understandings. Learning is regarded as an interpretive process that entails challenging and enriching one’s own thinking. Although many researchers agree that no one teaching approach is always the most suitable, they also agree that a constructivist epistemology is an important underpinning for effective teaching, and that it demands a teaching style which differs greatly from the traditional ‘chalk-and-talk’, teacher centred, transmission approach (Fensham et al., 1994; Kirkwood and Symington, 1996; Wadsworth, 1997). In an attempt to put these pedagogical skills into practice and evaluate their effectiveness, an action research project was devised for the subject Global Systems. The subject is a final year, final semester subject for students doing an Applied Science degree in environmental management at the University of South Australia. The subject was revamped so that it took into account the students’ views. It encouraged interpretive discussions and de-emphasised the traditional content driven approach to the subject. In a deliberate change of role, the lecturer’s role moved to facilitator, and the student’s role changed from that of absorber of knowledge to active participant who takes responsibility for her/his learning.