TEACHING DEEP TIME AND FOUNDATIONAL PRINCIPLES OF GEOLOGY: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND METHODOLOGY

Conveying an understanding of the big ideas in geology and the biography of the Earth through teaching geologic time (deep-time) and associated principles is a critical component of teaching geoscience (Dodick, 2003a; Ervin-Blankenheim, 2021; Guffey et al., 2016; Libarkin & Kurziel, 2004; Zen, 2001). This study examined the teaching practices of college and university instructors and professors in teaching deep-time and related concepts (plate tectonics and evolution). The theoretical framework for the study was grounded in the pragmatist, progressivist, and constructivist paradigms.

This research was conducted through a case study mixed-methods approach (Guetterman & Fetters, 2016; Stake, 2005). The study examined instructor practices through a quantitative survey, qualitative semi-structured interviews, and instructors’ experiences and reflections on teaching deep time and associated concepts with three experiential laboratories developed for the study. Sequential explanatory mixed methods were used to provide qualitative rich and thick descriptions (Pontorotto, 2006) of the quantitative data gathered from the instructor survey. Grounded theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967, 2017; Strauss, 1987) was employed to analyze the information from the transcripts in an inductive approach to develop codes, themes, and categories. Situational analysis, rooted in grounded theory (Clarke, 2005; Clarke et al., 2018), was then used to process the information and examine study results from a broader vantage, find gaps within the qualitative information, and provide further inquiry.

The first research query focused on how instructors teach deep time and related concepts through an online Qualtrics instrument. The second query asked a subset of instructors to share their experiences teaching the topics through semi-structured interviews, and the third query inquired into instructor experiences using the laboratories developed in the pre-data collection phase.

The results of the quantitative data from the geoscience instructor survey provided breadth for the study, and the qualitative information supplied depth, comprising an account of how geologic time and deep-time principles have been taught through instructor experiences. The qualitative information added dimensionality and richness to the quantitative data.