ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES FOR A UNIVERSITY-LEVEL PHYSICAL GEOLOGY COURSE: UTILIZING CONCEPT MAPS AND INTERVIEWS

The purposes of this study were: 1) to use concept maps and interviews to assess progress and exit knowledge and skills of students taking their first university level physical geology course and 2) to determine whether students corrected initial misconceptions. In the first week of the course, students were asked to create a concept map using geology as the key concept. These concept maps and key concepts derived from analysis of our National Science Foundation-sponsored and American Geological Institute-assisted national survey of geology professors provided the basis for the questions used in the initial interview that took place during the first three weeks of the course. Students revised their concept maps approximately at mid-term and again during the final week of the course. Then exit interviews were conducted during the final two weeks of classes. Both the interviews and concept maps were analyzed statistically using rubrics we developed based on examples published on the NISE website (http://www.wcer.wisc.edu/nise/CL1/flag/cat/catframe.asp).

We identified a number of misconceptions that reflect undergraduate's fundamental lack of understanding of key geologic concepts. These include hydrologic misconceptions, such as rivers flowing from oceans onto the land, and time and earth history misconceptions, such as the coexistence of hominids and dinosaurs and the formation of all mountains before the origin of life. The exit interviews showed acceptance of prevailing geologic concepts and theories. Analysis of the three concept maps showed an increasing level of geologic sophistication longitudinally. There is a statistically significant difference in means between the first and third concept maps (p < 0.001, n=40) and an increase in means between each of the maps (x1=4, x2=5, x3=6).