Alejandro Gómez Gonçalves

Universidad de Salamanca

Author Statistics

Papers

Citation

H-Index

i-10 index

Research Trends

Author Order

Document Type

Co-Authors

Juan Antonio García González

University of Castilla-La Mancha

Isabel María Gómez Trigueros

University of Alicante

Diego Corrochano

Universidad de Salamanca

Jaume Binimelis Sebastián

Universitat de les Illes Balears

Anne-Marie Ballegeer

Universidad de Salamanca

MÃ

Miguel Ãngel Fuertes

Universidad de Salamanca

Cooperative Institutions

Universidad de Salamanca

University of Alicante

Macquarie University

Universitat de Barcelona

University of Castilla-La Mancha

Tecnológico de Monterrey

Fundación Miguel Lillo

Hospital Universitari Sant Joan D'Alacant

ORCID

Ministry of Education

Author Statistics

Papers

Citation

H-Index

i-10 index

Research Field

How Long Has It Taken for the Physical Landscape to Form? Conceptions of Spanish Pre-Service Teachers

Education Sciences (2020)

Alejandro Gómez Gonçalves Diego Corrochano Miguel Ãngel Fuertes Anne-Marie Ballegeer

This paper analyses the conceptions of a group of students about geological time and its relation to physical landscape formation, focusing on the frequency and rate of a number of geological processes that have shaped our planet over time and that are involved in the formation of the current relief. Data were collected by means of a questionnaire that was administered to 199 university students from a Spanish public university. A total of 185 of them were pre-service teachers and 14 were geology students. Results demonstrated that pre-service teachers had trouble correctly answering questions about the current relief, but especially those questions related to landscapes throughout the history of Earth. Data analysis was done, taking into account pre-university students’ tuition, and results showed that those who had taken a high school branch of sciences and technology obtained better results than those who had taken a humanities and social sciences branch. These latter also obtained better results than those who had taken arts as a high school branch. Furthermore, pre-service teachers had difficulties mastering mid-time magnitudes, which ended up making it difficult for them to understand how the physical landscapes were formed. Finally, from the obtained results, some curricula implications are discussed.

Physical science

10.3390/educsci10120373

Cite

Citations (4)

How Glaciers Function and How They Create Landforms: Testing the Effectiveness of Fieldwork on Students’ Mental Models—A Case Study from the Sanabria Lake (NW Spain)

Geosciences (2019)

Diego Corrochano Alejandro Gómez Gonçalves

This paper analyzes the impact of fieldwork on the development of students’ mental models concerning glaciers and their effects on the landscape. Data were collected by means of an open-ended questionnaire that was administered to 279 pre-service teachers before and after an educational field trip, which analyzed its impact on short-term and long-term outcomes. In general, students’ mental models about how glaciers function and how they create landforms are relatively simplistic and incomplete. Students are unaware of the major erosional properties associated with glaciers and many of them do not specify that glaciers are bodies of ice that have a tendency to move down slope. The analysis of the data yielded four mental model categories. Fieldwork influenced the short-term effects on mental model development even though its positive impact decreases over time. Mental models including scientific views were only found in the post-instruction group. On the other hand, the pre-instruction group was strongly influenced by a catastrophic event that occurred in the region in 1959 (the Ribadelago flooding), which interferes with students’ mental reasoning on the formation of landscape features. This way of thinking is reinforced and/or mixed with a religious myth (Villaverde de Lucerna legend), which also invokes a catastrophic origin of the lake. In this case, this includes mystic flooding.

Landform

10.3390/geosciences9050238

Cite

Citations (4)

La geo-alfabetización sobre la división territorial española de los futuros maestros de Educación Primaria en la Universidad de Salamanca

Estudios Geográficos (2021)

Alejandro Gómez Gonçalves Jaume Binimelis Sebastián Juan Antonio García González Isabel María Gómez Trigueros

Existe un creciente interés por medir el conocimiento previo y la adquisición de competencias y contenidos por parte del alumnado y del futuro profesorado, algo que, en los últimos años, también se ha extendido al ámbito de la geografía. El objetivo de esta investigación es analizar la alfabetización en geografía de una muestra de estudiantes universitarios del grado en Maestro de Educación Primaria por su posible efecto multiplicador, ya que serán ellos quienes enseñen geografía a las generaciones futuras. Para alcanzar el objetivo formulado se contó con la participación de 168 estudiantes de la Universidad de Salamanca, que respondieron un cuestionario compuesto por preguntas de carácter sociodemográfico y por una pregunta en la que debían dibujar un mapa mental sobre la división político-administrativa de España. Los resultados indican que los encuestados tienen ciertas dificultades para situar las provincias de nuestro país, especialmente aquellas más alejadas de su lugar de procedencia.

10.3989/estgeogr.202079.079

Cite

Citations (3)

Geographic literacy in spain with mental maps

Journal of Geography in Higher Education (2021)

Juan Antonio García González Alejandro Gómez Gonçalves Isabel María Gómez Trigueros Jaume Binimelis Sebastián

There is growing interest in assessing the knowledge acquired by students. More often and in diverse disciplines it is necessary to know the level of the students through different types of testing. In the case of teaching of geography in Spain, there is a decrease and loss of such learning for various reasons. The aim of this research is to analyze the literacy in geography of university students in the Grado en Maestro de Educación Primaria (Degree in Elementary Education Teaching) for its possible multiplier effect, since they will be the ones who teach geography to future generations. In order to achieve this, our data source is based on a sample of 629 mental maps from students from four Spanish universities located in different autonomous communities in Spain. The knowledge of the assessed administrative unit was taken into value, but also its location and representation, showing the importance of the where in geography. Results show the inconsistent knowledge of the future teachers depending on the place of residence and which level of the structure of the country they are asked about. In turn, these results reinforce the usefulness of mental maps as an optimal method to assess geographic knowledge.

Mental mapping

Sample (material)

Scientific Literacy

Value (mathematics)

10.1080/03098265.2021.2001643

Cite

Citations (8)