Student-centered teaching in paleontology and geoscience classrooms

Research on learning and cognition in geoscience education research and other discipline-based education communities suggests that effective instruction should include three key components: activation of students' prior knowledge on the subject; an active learning pedagogy that allows students to address any existing misconceptions and then build a new understanding of the concept; and metacognitive reflections that require students to evaluate their own learning processes during the lesson.

This book provides an overview of the research on student-centered pedagogy in introductory geoscience and paleontology courses and gives examples of these instructional approaches.