Belief Systems as Barriers to Learning in Geological Education

Abstract

The constructivist view of learning acknowledges the importance of the interaction between students' prior knowledge and incoming information in attempts to understand new situations. Belief systems held by students are likely to influence the ways in which they process new information during instruction. Learning outcomes are then mediated by their beliefs in unanticipated ways. A survey has been carried out among some 1,000 fourteen- to sixteen-year-old students living in Liguria, a non-volcanic region in Northern Italy. The aim of the investigation was to discover: 1) the students' ideas on the volcanism of the areas in which they live, and 2) the way they formed their opinions and how deeply rooted they are. The findings show that a great many of the students firmly believe they live in a volcanically active area. Mass media are the most important source of this idea, followed by classmates and other laypeople. Clearly these pre-(mis-)conceptions will affect subsequent learning. The ideas will also in...