Do University Students Aiming to Acquire a Teacher’s License for Science Understand “Weathering”?

Abstract

“Weathering”, a term that is also used figuratively in Japan, is treated in upper secondary school according to the curriculum guidelines. This study clarified that university students enrolled in teacher training courses and majoring in science education do not have a correct or complete understanding of the definition of weathering in scientific terms. We conducted a questionnaire survey of the students in the compulsory science teacher licensing course, and asked them to hypothesize about how the decomposed granite soil, which was formed by weathering the granite, was formed. As a result of the questionnaire survey, only 37% of the respondents chose the correct definition of weathering, while 53% of the respondents chose the wrong definition of rock movement and change due to the action of wind. Only 16% of the descriptions were based on explanations from lower and upper secondary school textbooks, 42% of the descriptions related to erosion, transportation, and sedimentation, and 21% of the descriptions were related to collision. University students aiming to become science teachers may, further, confuse weathering with grain refinement due to crushing and abrasion that occurs during transportation. It is thus desirable to consider the development of teaching materials that foster a correct understanding of weathering and the revision of the corresponding sections of the curriculum guideline.