Eleonora Paris

Teaching Earth Sciences in Italian liceo high schools following the 2010 reform: a survey

Following the recent upper secondary school reform (2010) in almost every Italian liceo high school there is a Natural Sciences curriculum (including Earth Sciences, Biology and Chemistry) spread over five years. The Ministry of Education issued guidelines without chronological separation between the three different subjects.Given the novelty of the context, we decided to investigate how teachers are implementing the new Earth Sciences curriculum through the five teaching years by means of a survey. This has been administered as an anonymous on-line questionnaire between January and March 2014. The sample was chosen by randomisation from the population of science teachers working in Italian public liceo high school. Sample schools have been stratified according to geographical location and density of schools, 120 questionnaires from 76 schools (4.5% of the school population) have been collected.The sample shows that the compliance with Ministry guidelines on the prescribed topics is highest in the 1st biennium, lower in the 2nd biennium (> 90% vs 72 -77% - according to the topics) and very low in the 5° year (73, 17 and 20% - according to the topics), in which teachers choices appear heterogeneous. The topics deemed indispensable by the sample were the ones already present in curricula before the reform. Teaching organization seems affected by the limited weekly teaching time, and practical activities such as laboratory and fieldwork appear extremely reduced.Regarding chosen textbooks, sample teachers generally indicate a few specific authors, while others are seldom chosen.When asked about their knowledge of Earth Sciences, teachers expressed an overall positive self-perception, accompanied by interest for in-service training offer, preferably in mixed format (in attendance and on-line)This survey suggests that, due to the lack of guidance, the new curricula are being implemented autonomously by teachers, substantially grounding upon old curricula. The heterogeneous choices for the final year could be affected by uncertainty about the first post-reform state exam.The study also indicates the need to start or enhance in-service teacher training. Novel strategies for implementing the new curricula are an opportunity to overcome old teaching practices largely based on a theoretical approach.

A space-time journey through the composite Conero Geosite (Marche, Italy): a tool for teaching Earth Sciences at school

This work is part of a PhD project devoted to promoting the study of Earth Sciences at schools by presenting significant geosites in the Marche Region. The Mount Conero geosite, with several outcrops and geological trails, offers teachers prime locations for showing the most interesting moments of the geological evolution of the region, from the Cretaceous to the Pleistocene, and can serve as a springboard for introducing a variety of geoscience topics related to the major themes of Earth sciences courses at schools. These outcrops also meet certain requirements for school field trips, in terms of logistics, appeal, availability of data, and they can be modulated for students of different ages. Teachers can avail themselves of general, specific, and interdisciplinary teaching material at different school levels (http://d7.unicam.it/teachingearthsciences/) for the field trips and class activities.

Can a website make high school teachers without a geological background more self confident towards Earth Sciences teaching

The structure of this work has been designed in the following chapter sequence. nChapter 1 – This chapter presents the general background nand motivation of the project, in relation with the Italian situation concerning Earth science teaching at high school. A brief explanation of the International nEarth Sciences Olympiad (IESO) is also present. nChapter 2 - This chapter focuses on the research design nand the methods adopted to develope the project through all its phases. Especially the selection of the sampling ngroup of teachers, the way questionnaires are developed nand tested, the criterion for the selection of the nmaterials and for the data analysis are reported. nChapter 3 xad‐ This chapter presents the results of the npreliminary investigation about teachers’ attitudes ntoward Earth sciences teaching. Due to the particular norigin of the sampling group of teachers, a section nis dedicated to the Natural Science Olympiad explanation. nSpecial attention is given to identify teachers’ needs nof webxad‐based didactical tools for Earth sciences teaching. nChapter 4 xad‐ This chapter focuses on the construction nof the website. The technical procedure used for developing the website and its structure are explained. nA detailed description of the different kind of learning nobjects is the central part of the chapter. nChapter 5 xad‐ In this chapter the first testing activity nis presented, discussing the feedback received by the nteachers about the Plate Tectonics didactical pilot nunit. The evaluation of each different learning object nis reported and the level of teachers’ satisfaction with nthe website as well. nChapter 6 - This chapter includes the results and the ndiscussions of the final teachers’ feedback, received nonce all the four didactical units were uploaded to the nwebsite. nChapter 7 – This chapter presents the results and the noutcomes of this work. The limitations of the project nare underlined and some suggestions about further studies nthat could be developed at a later stage are proposed nas well. nAppendix – The appendixes include the three questionnaires, the list of the lessons and the list of nthe didactical extra movies developed during the project. nMedia resources – This includes an example of one lesson, nincluding all the different kind of files: ppt, pdf, videoxad‐lessons, exercises and extra movies. All the rest nof the material is available at the link: http://d7.unicam.it/teachingearthsciences/.