2024 Volume 65 Issue 2 Pages 495-502
The acquisition of time scales for five Earth science phenomena related to “changes in the Earth’s interior and land surface,” which are covered from elementary to lower secondary school, was surveyed among students wishing to become science teachers. The results showed that the percentage of correct answers was generally less than 20%, except for “weather changes” that occur on everyday time scales, and the time scales of the answers varied widely. There was a histogram peak in the correct answer for “Formation of plateaus and terraces”. As for “rate of strata deposition,” respondents tended to regard it as significantly longer than the reality. Although the respondents tended to view the time scale of geological phenomena as being longer than the human time scale, 43.2% of the respondents cumulatively answered that the activity period of active faults was less than 100 years, suggesting that they may be confused with that of ocean-trench earthquakes. Other than “strata deposition,” we assumed that the phenomena were related to the Japanese Islands. However, about 10 to 20% of the responses exceeded 100 million years, suggesting that the students perceived the phenomena as requiring a longer time than the formation of the Japanese Islands, which is another issue for future study.
