This paper will report on an investigation into the application of a constructivist approach to teaching and learning in undergraduate geoscience classes. Traditionally the geosciences have employed a transmission approach to the teaching of pre-college and college level courses. There is little information in the research literature to indicate that other approaches to learning have been successfully implemented and there is a widely held concern that using a constructivist approach can result in loss of curriculum control. The main part of the paper documents the first two years of an action research project, which is using a constructivist approach to teaching and learning. Using this approach we encouraged a class of final year undergraduate students to reflect on their prior knowledge, to record their thoughts, ideas and questions, and to use these reflections to identify and then research a question about the earth system.

Qualitative research methods were used and data were collected using a number of strategies such as subject evaluation questionnaires, students’ reflective diaries, discussion groups, field notes and participant observation. The results of this study that was used to pilot the suitability of the research methods and the teaching methodology will be presented.