Reading the articles which describes the development of established assessments can be a great starting point to understanding common student difficulties!
See below for other articles which discuss student difficulties with various geological concepts.
- Dr. Julie Libarkin leads the Geocognition Research Lab at Michigan State University. Dr. Libarkin has been instrumental in the development of the Geoscience Concept Inventory.
- A full list of Dr. Libarkin’s publications is available here
- From this list, the following papers discuss student difficulties with geological concepts:
- Libarkin et al., Revisiting the Geoscience Concept Inventory: A call to the community (2011)
- Libarkin et al., College student conceptions of geological time and the disconnect between ordering and scale (2007)
- Libarkin, College student conceptions of geological phenomena and their importance in classroom instruction (2006)
- Libarkin and Anderson, Development of the Geoscience Concept Inventory (2006)
- Libarkin et al, Ontology and the teaching of earth system science (2006)
- Truscott et al., The concept of time: can it be fully realised and taught (2006)
- Libarkin et al., Assessment of learning in entry-level geoscience courses: Results from the Geoscience Concept Inventory (2005)
- Libarkin et al, College students' ideas about geologic time, Earth's interior, and Earth's crust (2005)
- Libarkin, Conceptions, cognition, and change: Student thinking about the Earth
- Dahl et al., Digging into Earth Science: Alternative conceptions held by K-12 teachers (2005)
- Libarkin et al., Qualitative analysis of college students' ideas about the Earth: interviews and open-ended questionnaires (2005)
- Kurdziel et al., Research methodologies in science education: Training graduate teaching assistants to teach (2003)
- From this list, the following papers discuss student difficulties with geological concepts:
- Additionally, the following papers discuss student conceptions of various geology topics and/or student attitudes toward geology/science:
- R. M. Clary, et al., Students' Geocognition of Deep Time, Conceptualized in an Informal Educational Setting (2009)
- R. Teed and W. Slattery, Changes in Geologic Time Understanding in a Class for Preservice Teachers (2011)
- G. Smith and S. Bermea, Using Students' Sketches to Recognize Alternative Conceptions About Plate Tectonics Persisting From Prior Instruction (2012)
- S. Clark et al., Alternative Conceptions of Plate Tectonics Held by Nonscience Undergraduates (2011)
- J. Hererra and E. Riggs, Identifying Students' Conceptions of Basic Principles in Sequence Stratigraphy (2013)
- L. Nadelson and K. Viskupic Perceptions of the Nature of Science by Geoscience Students Experiencing Two Different Courses of Study (2010)
- S. Rakkapao et al, Thai University Students' Prior Knowledge About P-waves Generated During Particle Motion (2009)
- D. McConnell et al., Affective Domain and Student Learning in the Geosciences (2011)
- E. Rappaport, What Undergraduates Think About Clouds and Fog (2009)
- D. Capps et al., Alternative Conceptions Concerning the Earth’s Interior Exhibited by Honduran Students (2013)
- L. Arthurs and A. Templeton, Coupled collaborative in-class activities and individual follow-up homework promote interactive engagement and improve student learning outcomes in a college-level Environmental Geology course (2009)
- E. Burton and G. Mattietti, Cognition and Self-Efficacy of Stratigraphy and Geologic Time: Implications for Improving Undergraduate Student Performance in Geological Reasoning (2011)
- K. Kortz and D. Murray, Barriers to College Students Learning How Rocks Form (2009)
- S. Gill et al., Model My Watershed: Connecting Students’ Conceptual Understanding of Watersheds to Real-World Decision Making (2014)
- K. Cheek, How Geoscience Novices Reason About Temporal Duration: The Role of Spatial Thinking and Large Numbers (2013)
- J. Sexton, College Students' Conceptions of the Role of Rivers in Canyon Formation (2012)