EGU Geoscience Education Field Officer (GEFO) initiative in Germany – results of the first year of activity

Geoscientists know that their scientific understanding of the Earth as a system is important for the sustainable development of planet Earth. In Germany they expressed their concern about the state of geoscience education in 1996 (Leipziger Erklärung) and in 2023 (Positionspapier der GEOUNION und des Dachverbandes der Geowissenschaften). Explicit geoscience education expertise is still lacking at all levels of the educational system: education research at the universities, teacher training, professional development of teachers, syllabus commissions.

In 2019 the European Geoscience Union - Education Commission (EGU-EC) launched an initiative by appointing Geoscience Education Field Officers (GEFO) to support science and geography teachers that are interested in teaching geosciences. The GEFO are trained to offer in service and pre service teacher training according the teacher training method developed by the Earth Science Education Unit originally based at Keele University (UK). It provides interactive hands-on workshops and access to a wealth of teaching resources that are freely available through a website. The workshops are evaluated by an online questionnaire. (Correia et al. 2020).

In 2022 the EGU-EC appointed a GEFO for Germany. Measures of cooperation have been established and first workshops conducted. Cooperation partners as well as German teachers show a high level of interest in the workshops. The workshop schedule will be explained and first evaluation results presented.

Source:

Correia, G. P. et al. (2020) Geoscience Education Field Officer international programme – the first year of activity (May 2019 – April 2020). ASE International. 10. 11-21.