Presentation from the Geological Society of America focused on how middle grades students (grades 4-9) understandings of Plate Tectonics develop. Includes an opening section on some traditional assumptions about learning that are challenged by this approach.

1. U N D E R S TA N D I N G S T U D E N T S
I D E A S A B O U T P L AT E T E C T O N I C S
A L E A R N I N G P R O G R E S S I O N S A P P R O A C H
S C O T T M C D O N A L D
K A T H RY N B A T E M A N
A R Z U TA N I S O Z C E L I K
H E L E N G A L L
A U B R E E W E B B
TA N YA F U R M A N

2. L E A R N I N G P R O G R E S S I O N S
• descriptions of student learning across multiple years
• built on contemporary learning theory
• challenge implicit assumptions
• empirical
• accounts for complexity of learning
• descriptive, compact, coherent and incomplete

3. C H A L L E N G E A S S U M P T I O N S
T E A C H I N G
• What should we be teaching students?
A S S E S S M E N T
• How do we know they understand it?

4. A S S U M P T I O N S , PA R T 1
T E A C H I N G
Students must be taught the facts,
including definitions of key terms and
then can assemble them into a
explanation (much) later

5. “Hawaii is a chain of volcanic islands.”

6. “There is magnetic striping along the ocean floor.”

11. E N E R G Y F R O M T H E S U N
WA R M S T H E WAT E R A N D
L A N D N E A R T H E E Q U AT O R
( W H E R E H A WA I I I S ) ,
M A K I N G I T H O T A N D
C A U S I N G V O L C A N O E S
“Hawaii is a chain of volcanic islands.”

12. T H E E A R T H H A S A
M A G N E T I C C O R E T H AT
C A U S E S T H E P L AT E S T O
M O V E A R O U N D AT T H E
S U R FA C E
“There is magnetic striping along the ocean floor.”

13. The goal is not correct facts.
The goal is increasingly less wrong
explanations.

14. A S S U M P T I O N S , PA R T 2
A S S E S S M E N T
If students know the facts it means they
know and understand the explanation
(you have given them)

17. If you want to know in what ways your
students understand the facts, your
students have to explain them.
Ask about the house they built, not the
bricks they built it out of.

18. L E A R N I N G P R O G R E S S I O N S
• descriptions of student learning across multiple years
• empirical
• have a goal (upper anchor) that is a Big Idea
• doesn’t only describe “normative” ideas
• considers relationship to teaching
• descriptive, compact, coherent and incomplete

19. “Volcanoes, earthquakes and mountains
are the surface manifestations of large-
scale movement of both solid and near-
solid earth materials. Such movements can
be explained as a natural consequence of
the initial formation of the planet, its
subsequent differentiation into chemically
distinct units (crust, mantle, core), and the
continual transfer of heat from the interior
of the planet to the surface.”

20. 51 interviews
38
15
Hypothetical
LP
Empirical
LP 4
Empirical
LP 1
Empirical
LP 2
Empirical
LP 3
46 pre
46 post
video of teaching (2)