These were questions that geoscience teachers and students from Norway and Sweden discussed in workshops and interviews that we organized. Backed up by their teaching experience, many of the teachers that we talked to, provided accounts of difficult geoscience concepts that seem problematic to many students. The students mainly shared experiences on how their own learning in geosciences was effectively enhanced through specific ways of teaching. Disciplinary ways of teaching and learning are referred to as the signature pedagogies of the discipline.

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We identified typical challenging geoscience course contents. Such knowledge often stems from neighboring disciplines within the natural sciences. For instance, it is an advantage to master knowledge developed in Physics to be able to grasp the concept of crystallography in a geological exercise (see full report for more examples). Educational literature sometimes labels difficulties that challenge the learner in this way troublesome knowledge of the discipline.

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Other learning difficulties come across as more profound. They revolve around core concepts that are inherently present in most geosciences, although rarely explicitly mentioned in schedules and course plans. In education literature, such difficulties may constitute threshold concepts. Here a learning obstacle may prevent the learner from progressing. The student becomes stuck, and will not sense that there is more to grasp. When a large proportion of the students in the discipline experiences such a learning hurdle, course designs and student activities should ideally illuminate the understanding of the challenging geological concept. Threshold concepts in the geosciences may for instance include the ability to comfortably handle spatial information (2D-3D-4D), or to be able to elaborate on drastically different magnitudes of geological time (see full report for more examples). To cope, students need to experience a learning situation that triggers an aha-experience (again, the need for geoscience signature pedagogies).

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In summary, our study reveals characteristics of key geoscience learning hurdles. We leave it to Norwegian geoscience students and teachers to continue the conversation. Is there a match between learning challenges and the course activities? Where could the course design be developed to help students overcome the learning hurdles?

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Read the iEarth Education Research Publication here (pdf)