• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.61-74
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• 2020

The purpose of this study was to compare rock descriptors used by students in two different task contexts and to suggest the characteristics of a task suitable for learning of rocks. Twenty-four 3^rd grade students were given descriptive and inferential tasks about three types of sedimentary rocks, and the rock descriptors used by the students were analyzed from a resources-based view (RBV) about students' conceptions. The result showed that the number of students using everyday descriptors to describe properties of the rocks and the frequency of using the everyday descriptors decreased in the inferential task. It was also revealed that the students using disciplinarily more appropriate descriptors were more likely to infer the process of rock formation in scientifically valid ways. By contrast, student inferences lacking scientific validity were mostly those that used everyday descriptors to express properties of the rocks. Based on these findings, it was concluded that inferential tasks would be suitable for student learning of rocks which is to be authentic to the essential features of earth science practices.