Defining Misconceptions in Earthquake Engineering Education

Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) is the development of better understanding of the misconceptions that people hold that often confuse a person's deeper understanding of a concept. In earthquake engineering, these misconceptions can result in engineers making poor choices in their engineering decisions due to unclear application of code requirements, physical phenomena, and mathematical reasoning. While PDK has been established over several years for K-12 education, its' application to higher education and professional development is still under development. This paper looks at misconceptions held by college engineering undergraduate and graduate students while learning basic concepts of earthquake engineering. Many of the misconceptions likely apply to professional engineers, especially those not closely involved in earthquake engineering research and code development. Currently, the state of PDK development is at the preliminary stage, that of defining likely misconceptions and developing suitable instruments to monitor understanding. These preliminary steps will lead to better assessment of student capabilities and improved instructional strategies to help remove misconceptions and allow better conceptual understanding. This paper addresses issues related to engineering faculty teaching both higher education and professional development workshops. The audience will learn basic concepts of PDK, insights into struggles engineering students have with earthquake engineering concepts, and methods of monitoring student progress.