Assessment of Knowledge and Learning Difficulties in Metamorphism Among Future Teachers

: The present research focuses on evaluating the knowledge and learning difficulties in metamorphism among future teachers. To address our issue, we selected a sample from students at the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Marrakech and employed a questionnaire as our investigative tool. The obtained results indicate that students face learning problems in metamorphism. These difficulties arise in understanding certain key concepts of metamorphism, such as metamorphic facies and migmatite. We also observed that students struggle to establish connections between metamorphism and other geological phenomena. These learning difficulties can be attributed to language barriers, didactic transposition, the persistence of certain misconceptions, and the discipline itself, such as problems in comprehending geological space and time. This research could aid university professors in understanding these difficulties and in designing teaching scenarios that would help students better grasp geological concepts


Introduction
The teaching of Earth sciences, which aims to explain the functioning of the Earth and reconstruct its history, presents a certain number of difficulties, more or less specific, among students (Devallois, 2004).Some research in didactics has focused on learning difficulties in Earth sciences among students and future
On the other hand, metamorphism is one of the internal geological phenomena that represent manifestations of plate tectonics.This geological phenomenon plays an important role in reconstructing the Earth's history.Metamorphic rocks are witnesses to the thermal evolution of the lithosphere over time and space.Indeed, the study of metamorphic rocks allows for an understanding of the Earth's geodynamic evolution.Furthermore, this metamorphic process holds a significant place in the high school and university earth sciences curriculum.For a more effective didactic transposition of this discipline, we require competent and welltrained teachers.All of these observations have led us to conduct this study, which aims to assess the knowledge and identify the difficulties of future teachers regarding the concept of metamorphism.Our issue can be presented in the form of the following questions:

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What are the knowledge and conceptions of future teachers relating to metamorphism?

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What are the learning difficulties faced by future teachers in metamorphism?

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What are the causes of these difficulties?

Study Population
The population studied in this work consists of life and earth sciences students from the Ecole Normale Supérieure of Marrakech.The students in our sample are referred to as future teachers because they have studied modules in didactics and educational sciences that enable them to succeed in the CRMEF (Regional Centers for Education and Training Professions) competitions.The studied sample consists of 93 students (46 boys and 47 girls) who belong to two different levels of education: master's (15) and bachelor's (78).The heterogeneity of our sample does not influence the obtained results as all students have studied metamorphism in their first or second year of university.

Research Instrument
In this study, the questionnaire is used as an investigation tool.The administration of the questionnaire was carried out directly by ourselves during class sessions with the permission of the teachers.The questionnaire comprises open-ended and closed-ended questions, which are grouped into 6 sections.

Data Analysis
For entering the questionnaire results, we utilized an Excel spreadsheet, and for statistical data processing, we employed the SPSS software, one of the most widely used programs for statistical analysis.

Definition of Metamorphism
To better analyze the respondents' answers, we have broken down the definition of metamorphism into four key elements: transformation, in solid state, temperature, and pressure.The results are summarized in the following table:

Table 2. Student Responses to the Question Regarding the Definition of Metamorphism
Only two students (2.15%) did not respond to this question.Among the majority (97.85%) who answered this question, only 18.27% of students are able to correctly define metamorphism, while 79.58% provided an incomplete definition.Almost all students (94.6%) state that metamorphism is a process of mineralogical transformations.However, only 29% of students demonstrated that the process involves the solid-state recrystallization of rocks.Over half of the student's assert that this phenomenon is due to variations in temperature and pressure.

Types of metamorphism
Student responses to this question are summarized in the table below.The majority of incorrect or incomplete student responses are based solely on the factors of metamorphism: pressure and/or temperature.

Geothermal gradient
68.82% of the students answered this question correctly, while 26.88% of the students provided incorrect answers, and 4.30% of the students did not respond.The incorrect answers from the students are varied: "temperature and pressure increase." "multiple points at depth having the same temperature degree." "temperature variation through decrease or increase.""it's a metamorphic sequence.""it's the rock's melting temperature.""it's the thermal flux.""it's a kind of climate warming caused by gases." These results show that some students have confusion between the geothermal gradient and other concepts such as thermal flux, metamorphic sequence, isotherm, climate warming, and rock melting.

Solidus
The majority of students (61.29%) answered this question correctly; however, 36.35%answered incorrectly, and 2.15% did not respond.These results confirm that over a third of the students do not differentiate between the solidus and the liquidus.

Migmatite
77.42% of the students did not respond to this question, whereas 15.05% of the students provided incorrect answers, and only 7.52% of the students answered this question correctly.These results affirm that nearly all students are unable to determine the relationship between migmatite and metamorphism.

Subduction zone metamorphism
Only 44.09% of the students provided a correct answer, whereas 50.54% of the students gave an incorrect answer, and 5.37% of the students were unable to answer this question.

Metamorphism and plate tectonics
48.38% of the students answered this question correctly, while 18.20% of the students provided incorrect answers, and 33.33% of the students did not respond.

Importance of Geological Field Trip
All students affirm that geological field trips help to better understand metamorphic rocks and the mechanisms of their formation.The table below presents the responses of some students to this question.

Origins of Learning Difficulties in Geology
The majority of students describe geology as a difficult discipline to comprehend.They attribute these difficulties to several reasons (Table 5).

Origins of Difficulties Examples of Student Responses
The first cause is related to didactic transposition in high school.

"At high school, I didn't understand well because the teachers don't explain geological phenomena properly." "I didn't fully grasp the geology course in high school. I think the time is insufficient."
The second cause is related to geological time.

"It's a difficult discipline because geological phenomena unfold over millions of years." "Organisms have short lifespans and can be studied easily, whereas in geology, phenomena have occurred over a long time."
The third cause is related to space.

"The study locations in geology are inaccessible." " Geological phenomena are invisible."
The fourth cause is linked to modeling.

"Geology is based on modeling." " Geology is based on imagination." The fifth cause concerns geological field trips and practical work.
"There is a lack of practical work and geological secondfield trips."

Discussion
The metamorphism course is rich in scientific concepts.It is closely linked to other geological phenomena such as tectonics and magmatism.The results show that future teachers have learning difficulties in metamorphism:

Lack of Knowledge and Misconceptions
Most students were unable to provide a correct and comprehensive definition of metamorphism, despite this concept being studied in high school and at the university level.
The concept of metamorphic facies also appears to be problematic for students.The majority of them confuse facies, sequence, and metamorphic series.The same issue is observed with the question regarding the relationship between metamorphism and the geodynamic context.We also find among students some mistaken conceptions regarding the geothermal gradient, the solidus, and migmatite.Other researches affirm that future teachers hold misconceptions about geological concepts ( Eddif, Selmaoui, & Ouazzani, 2016;Lhoste, Peterfalvi, & Orange, 2007).

Expression and Writing Difficulties
Students encounter challenges with expression and writing in geology.Some of them provide incomplete sentences, while others offer expressions that are not well-structured.Generally, students struggle with answering open-ended questions compared to closedended questions.

Difficulties in Perceiving Time and Space
Understanding the geologic time scale, which spans billions of years, can be a learning barrier for many students.According to (Bouganmi, 2009), future teachers do not conceive the importance of geological time in the explanation of natural phenomena and their processes.
On the other hand, the majority of students have difficulty distinguishing between the different types of metamorphism: contact and regional metamorphism.Contact metamorphism is very limited in space while regional metamorphism spreads over large areas.Moreover, many students fail to determine that migmatite represents the ultime stage of regional metamorphism.Indeed, in the ground, migmatite makes it possible to locate the transition zone between the domain of metamorphic rocks and the domain of igneous rocks.
Furthermore, most students have difficulty making the connection between different geological phenomena, for example, the relationship between magmatism and the different types of metamorphism (regional and contact).The same difficulty arises regarding the connection between metamorphism and plate tectonics.
These encountered difficulties and knowledge deficits can be explained by various reasons:

Language
The French language poses a learning barrier for certain students, resulting in a poor understanding of geological concepts and difficulties in expression and writing.According to (Haidar, 2015), students arrive at the university without knowing how to speak or write the French language correctly.

Persistence of Certain Misconceptions
The lack of basic knowledge and the accumulation of certain misconceptions lead to difficulties in understanding geological events that are closely interconnected.

Insufficiency of Practical Work and Geological Field Trips
The allotted time for practical work and geological field trips is inadequate.According to (Mogk & Goodwin, 2012), learning geology in the field facilitates the development of practical skills such as observation, sketching, sampling, measurements, and mapping.

Modeling
Explaining the functioning of the Earth involves the modeling of geological phenomena and simulation, which can also be a source of learning difficulties for students.According to (Sanchez, 2007), there exists a close relationship between modeling and conceptualization.

Didactic Transposition
Didactic transposition can be a source of learning difficulties in geology, as well as in other teaching domains.According to (Devallois, 2004), didactic transposition is a significant didactic difficulty in earth sciences education.

Conclusion
The results obtained from our research affirm that future teachers encounter learning difficulties in metamorphism.These difficulties are found at the level of understanding certain key concepts of metamorphism, such as metamorphic facies and migmatite.Indeed, the results demonstrate the persistence of some misconceptions among certain students.Additionally, students have difficulties in establishing connections between metamorphism and other geological phenomena.These learning difficulties can be attributed to modeling, didactic transposition, the persistence of certain misconceptions, and the discipline itself, such as problems in comprehending geological space and time.To overcome these learning difficulties, we propose the following recommendations: • Enhance students' language skills and scientific communication.

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Increase the amount of time allocated to practical work and geological field trips.
• Generate greater interest in teaching geology at the high school level by promoting ongoing teacher training.