Holistic approach of the curriculum of Greek junior high school on lithosphere and the implementation of the GeoCause – PaP – CoRe baseline approach on geoscience curriculum development

Abstract

This paper examines the effectiveness and the thoroughness of the Greek curriculum on lithosphere of 1st class of junior high school. It discusses the curriculum and textbook ambiguities that lead to conceptual and cognitional gap. We list the criteria (new, revised, existing) for the development of geoscience curriculum. We propose a revised lithosphere curriculum mainly based on a new approach named GeoCause – PaP – CoRe, which considers Earth as a giant geosystem and emphasizes on the cause, parameters, processes and result of the phenomenon. During the pilot implementation of the experimental lithosphere curriculum, we used the GCI tool in order to enhance and revise it. The preliminary results of the research showed that students constructed a robust cognitive framework which consequently led to conceptual change. This approach can become the baseline for the construction of all geoscience curricula and the teaching and learning techniques. The GCI tool can offer continuous feedback and revise of geoscience curricula in general.