Probing Understanding in Physical Geology Using Concept Maps and Clinical Interviews

Abstract

Using concept maps and clinical interviews, we assessed the extent to which undergraduate students restructure their conceptual knowledge at progressively more sophisticated levels over the course of a two-semester lecture-based physical geology sequence. Students completed concept mapping exercises and clinical interviews at regular intervals throughout the two semesters and data indicated that the course did not address integration of concepts into student knowledge domains. Concept maps and clinical interviews both illustrated acquisition of geologic concepts longitudinally with a disproportionately small increase in integration of those concepts into frameworks of understanding. However, concept maps and clinical interviews appear to be viable and complementary approaches in determining the degree to which student accomplishment objectives are being met.