The Social Sense of Geological Literacy

Main Article Content

Héctor Luis Lacreu

Abstract

Ways and methodologies to teach geology are widely debated and are frequent topics in geoscientific discussion, whereas there is much less attention to the subject of geological literacy.

It is more and more frequent to hear complaints by university teachers regarding the deficient geological knowledge of incoming university students, and this is especially the case in Argentina's universities. Teachers simply characterize the problem affirming: “the students do not know anything about geology” or “in high school nobody taught them geology”. Additionally, most geologists consider that it is not their problem and consider secondary teachers as uniquely responsible. Nevertheless, the matter is more complicated than this and deserves a different approach for resolution.

In this contribution I table reflections on the need to address the lack of preparation and the scarcity of geological knowledge in terms of geological literacy, rather than in terms of teaching geology.

Article Details

How to Cite
Lacreu, H. L. (2018) “The Social Sense of Geological Literacy”, Annals of Geophysics, 60. doi: 10.4401/ag-7558.
Section
SPECIAL ISSUE: Geoethics at the heart of all geoscience