THE NATURE OF GEOSCIENCE: AN EMERGING FRAMEWORK FOR PROMOTING GEOSCIENTIFIC INQUIRY AND GEO-CULTURAL KNOWLEDGE

What we do as geoscientists, why and how we do it, and the characters and agents involved are critical to knowledge construction about the nature of geoscience. Current discipline-based education research and the scholarship of teaching and learning by the Earth Sciences Education Research Lab at Indiana University Indianapolis on the nature of geoscience shows promising implications for using the construct as an effective framework to help students develop geoscience content and research knowledge, skills, awareness, and the human nature of geoscience practice. In this presentation, I will share the various frameworks drawn from the philosophy of geoscience and research methods that the lab is using to explore and develop contextual theories around the nature of geoscience. Findings from evaluation of related constructivists’ research innovations that faculty at Indiana University Indianapolis are using to help undergraduate students to develop the nature of geoscience knowledge will also be shared. The presentation will highlight the inherent connection between the nature of geoscience and the vision and change for the future of undergraduate and graduate geoscience education.