Cliffs with memory: historical and social teacher training via climatic and environmental transformations

Abstract

This paper presents a project relating to teaching innovation and research in the context of primary teacher training. It takes Place-Based Education theory as a point of reference. Over the course of severa! academic years (191 pupils), an experiment has been carried out by way of which schoolchildren learn about a series of geomorphologically unique formations on the coast of Galicia (NW Spain). These formations, currently ac­tive cliffs, are Quaternary deposits which provide a significant amount of information on climatic and environmental changes which took place during the last Ice Age and the Holocene. Toe research deriving from this intervention is mainly qualitative in nature, supported by documents created by the students, in which it is possible to find: a) the leve! of prior knowledge of the trainee teachers; b) their reflections and evaluations on these formations and their educational ahd civic dimension; e) their role as disseminators of the scientific and heritage value of these deposits by way of ideas and proposals for educational interventions.