91 Current Advances in Geoscience Education Research

This session will highlight empirical research being done in the field of geoscience education. We welcome submissions from geoscience education researchers at all career stages to showcase projects that highlight current areas of interest in the discipline.

Monday, 20 October 2025
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
HBGCC, 301B

How does student learning and affect scale with student centered instruction?

Paper number: 91-9
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 10:10 AM – 10:25 AM

Authors

Abstract

Few studies have measured and correlated student learning gains and affect with instructional practices as measured by teaching observation instruments. We have developed five introductory geology lessons and are studying student learning when those lessons are taught at three levels of reform (e.g. active learning) as defined by the RTOP and COPUS observational instruments. The aim of this project is to quantify the relationship between reformed teaching and student learning and affect. Over the course of the project, geoscience instructors at four diverse institutions measured variations in student learning as they teach the same lesson at three different instructional categories (student centered, transitional/interactive lecture, and teacher centered/didactic). Student learning is measured with two sets of questions: 1) pre- and post-class period (clicker questions), and 2) a pre-course survey and final exam. Student interest and learning self-assessments are also collected pre- and post- class period.

Instructional categories of each lesson are measured with direct observations using RTOP and COPUS instruments. Previous work has established three instructional categories based on natural breaks in observational data but new work presented here attempts to correlate instructional categories with student learning. While RTOP observation numerical scores are easily compared, COPUS observation results are presented as instructional profiles. We reconfigured COPUS observation codes into three categories (student passive, individual learning and collaborative learning coded items) to be able to compare multiple COPUS observations with each other and with RTOP scores. There is a good correlation between RTOP and COPUS observations. 

Preliminary data suggest that student learning as measured by exam questions is greater than for learning measured during class (clicker questions) and that this difference is larger when student learning is in lessons with student centered instruction than for transitional instruction. Students’ perceptions of their learning were larger for lessons taught with student centered instruction than for transitional instruction. Preliminary data for interest are mixed for different instructional categories, but in all areas, additional data and analyses will interrogate these preliminary results.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 57, No. 6

doi: 10.1130/abs/2025AM-414493

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