TITLE:
Geoscience Education in an Irish Context: A Need for Research
AUTHORS:
Emer Emily Neenan, Joseph Roche
KEYWORDS:
Geoscience Education, Scientific Literacy, Geoscience in Society, Geoscience Outreach, Ireland
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection,
Vol.4 No.6,
June
7,
2016
ABSTRACT: Perception
and understanding of geoscience in Ireland by non-geoscientists have not been
studied in depth, and an improvement in understanding how geoscience is
perceived and engaged with will have significant impact on Ireland’s ability to
meet a range of challenges, including hotly debated geoscience issues such as
fossil fuel dependency, raw mineral management, water security, and shale gas
extraction (particularly fracking). Geoscience plays an important role in
society, and the understanding of geoscience of an average Irish person will be
based on formal education (at primary and secondary level) and informal
education through public outreach and news media. Geoscience is expanding in
formal education and informal education is increasingly delivered online.
Geoscience education in Ireland has not been studied in detail, and a better understanding
of the state of geoscience education could improve connections between
geoscientists and non-geoscientists. This paper discusses the scope of
potential research into geoscience education in Ireland that could and should
be undertaken in order to best understand and describe the state of geoscience
education, and geoscience in society. Mixed-method research should be
undertaken to study geoscience education at multiple levels and targeting
multiple publics. This research into the state of geoscience education in
Ireland would be valuable, to geoscientists and educators.