CRITERIA OF EXCELLENCE FOR GEOLOGICAL INQUIRY - THE NECESSITY OF AMBIGUITY

According to Gowin, a curriculum properly derives its authority by rep resenting the ''criteria of excellence'' for evaluating the claims pro duced within a field of inquiry. Gowin's epistemology applied to examp les from geological inquiry yields criteria of excellence responsive t o the demands characteristic of geological problems. Student efforts t o learn these criteria hold the promise of making progress toward inde pendence in accessing, using, and evaluating knowledge. This understan ding contributes to the reformation of the concept of inquiry as a ''s tep beyond science as process'' called for in the National Science Edu cation Standards and reinforces the need to consider the diversity as well as unity of styles of scientific reasoning. Geological inquiries differ from those of other sciences because they refer to objects with histories. These histories create a demand for concepts that necessar ily contain an irreducible element of ambiguity, thus permitting compa rison and contrast of geological objects. A case study of how geologis ts apply analogies, impose boundaries on categories of thought, and co nstrain the ambiguity of key concepts in reasoning about the accumulat ion of sediments at a continental margin is used to support this argum ent. Such examples of geological reasoning support a skeptical attitud e toward interdisciplinary curricula that omit or oversimplify criteri a of excellence. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.