Geoscience Education Research: Community Synthesis and Planning Project

James Madison University, Harrisonburg VA

Investigators

Abstract

The Geoscience Education Research (GER) Community Synthesis and Planning Project will advance the production of a synthesis of GER to date and prioritize future geoscience education research needs via community input. It responds to recent calls for action in the geoscience education research community, and builds on outcomes and needs identified in the 2012 National Research Council analysis of discipline-based education research, and on a recent NSF-funded project (#1513519 Shaping the Future of GER). The project will impact a wide cross section of the geoscience education community, including geoscience education scholars at 2-year and 4-year colleges and research universities, as well as cognitive scientists and geoscience education practitioners. Project activities will include digitization of past issues of the primary peer-reviewed GER journal, the Journal of Geoscience Education; this digitization will increase access to a valuable resource for current geoscience education researchers, as well as practitioners, education researchers in other STEM disciplines, and international scholars who are interested in geoscience education research and curriculum and instruction scholarship. In addition, the project will seek and compile input from the GER community via a broadly disseminated online survey and a summer workshop on what is most needed to support current and future geoscience education researchers. An online GER methods "toolbox" will also be developed to begin addressing needs of those new to GER. Collectively, these efforts will result in a synthesis of GER and a prioritization of the needs of the GER community, and will support current and future geoscience education researchers by offering forums for discussion and resources for their use. This synthesis can be used to help prioritize the next steps in GER, to improve research approaches and foster collaborations, and ultimately to improve teaching and learning in the geosciences. Digitizing decades of past print-only articles in JGE will increase access to foundational GER studies, and expand the timeframe and number of studies for inclusion in GER literature reviews for a Journal of Geoscience Education theme issue on Synthesizing Results and Defining Future Directions of GER. The online survey is expected to reach most of GER researchers in the US, which will ensure broad community input in developing a prioritized list of needs to support current and future geoscience education researchers. The workshop at the 2016 Earth Educators' Rendezvous will bring 40 geoscience education researchers together to discuss survey results and GER findings, and share ideas for future research projects and collaborations. By designing an online GER toolbox, the project will develop a resource that will begin to address a GER community need. By drawing from findings in the collections of theme issue papers, from results of the broadly disseminated survey of geoscience education researchers and practitioners, and from the 2015 and 2016 EER GER workshops, the project will be able to identify important outcomes from GER, key research gaps, and critical needs of the GER community of practice.