Which geoscience knowledge at the end of upper-secondary school? Results from an Italian survey

ALESSANDRA BORGHINI, FABIO PIERACCIONI, LUCA BASTIANI, ELENA BONACCORSI, ANNA GIONCADA

Abstract

Monitoring basic geoscience skills at the end of upper-secondary school is necessary, when we consider that understanding geoscience issues is today required to face the changes affecting our planet. We present here the application of a screening tool - IMES2 or ‘Individuation of Misconceptions in Earth Sciences 2’ - designed for surveying geoscience knowledge at the end of upper-secondary school. It was applied to screen 403 students enrolled in the first year of different courses at the University of Pisa (Italy) in the academic year 2020-21. The results indicate that, at the end of the upper secondary school, several misconceptions regarding endogenous and exogenous geological processes and the geological time, already reported in the geoscience education literature, are present.

Keywords

Earth science curriculum, student learning, quality assessment, misconceptions, survey development

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.26220/mje.3963

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