Critical Thinking and People-Place Relationships in Citizen Science

公民科学中的批判性思维和人地关系

• 批准号: 2031884
• 负责人: Julia Parrish
• 金额: $ 29.23万
• 依托单位: University of Washington
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-04-15 至 2023-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2031884&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Critical; Thinking; People; Place; Relationships

As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. This includes providing multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences, advancing innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments, and developing understandings of deeper learning by participants. This pilot and feasibility project will explore whether participation in informal science initiatives like citizen science, which is a form of Public Participation in Scientific Research, can foster or enhance participant attachment to the natural places participants investigate via these programs. The project also examines if participant attachment to place influences the development or application of critical thinking skills among adult learners. Critical thinking skills and the factors that enhance critical thinking skills are important areas of inquiry within the informal STEM learning community. Existing scholarship suggests that three components may be linked: (1) feelings of connection to specific places, (2) intentional exploration and investigation of those places (in this case via citizen science), and (3) understanding of complex socio-ecological systems, which is predicated on critical thinking skills ability. However, the degree to which these aspects are related to each other, the scale at which they occur (local to global), and the specific dimensions of place connection or informal science experiences implicated is not known. Working with the Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team (COASST) citizen science program, this project advances collaboration among experts from disparate fields to examine if and how citizen science contributes to increases in connection to place and higher-order critical thinking skills among participants and the potential links between those hypothesized outcomes. The ultimate goal of the project is to inform design of Public Participation in Scientific Research programming that optimizes participant learning, interest, and retention; produces societal outcomes like critical thinking in support of science literacy; and creates high quality data of the scale and grain needed to address questions and issues across the basic-applied science continuum. This research focuses on the degree to which Public Participation in Scientific Research, specifically citizen science, may foster the presence or intensity of place attachment felt by participants for the sites and settings investigated through these programs and to what extent place attachment may be linked to higher order critical thinking skills among adult learners. A three-pronged mixed-methods research strategy will include: (1) a re-analysis of existing survey and interview data for markers of three-dimensional (personal, social, natural) place attachment as well as critical thinking skills and dispositions; (2) an assessment survey to test for the presence and intensity of place attachment and critical thinking skills; and (3) in-depth interviews to better understand the qualitative nature and development of place attachment and critical thinking skills in a citizen science context. The survey and interview sample will be drawn from participants in the COASST citizen science program and will be stratified into four groups as a function of time engaged in the program, including new, novice, and long-term participants. An independent external advisory board and a committee of visitors comprised of experts in informal science, education, and sense of place will critique and help guide this work. Results are expected to reveal important factors that impact the learning and behavioral outcomes of informal STEM initiatives by probing questions about the essential experiences, exposures, and COASST program components that facilitate deeper critical thinking skills and place attachment. Synthesizing theoretical frameworks from the fields of geography, science education, and educational psychology while testing a unique methodological approach to best measure critical thinking skills and place attachment in an informal citizen science setting will enhance knowledge-building among research and practitioner communities. In a globalized and increasingly technologically complex world, the ability of citizens to interrogate and interpret scientific evidence, views, and values is critical. That is, scientific literacy is essential for the maintenance of robust and healthy economic, social, and environmental systems in the twenty-first century. Informal science learning fills an important gap in national educational efforts to cultivate a scientifically literate populace as research suggests that formal science training is not always capable of fostering the type of higher order critical thinking skills that undergird such scientific competency. This project aims to strengthen infrastructure and build capacity among informal science practitioners by clarifying whether specific aspects and forms of Public Participation in Scientific Research, especially those relating to people-place connections, are implicated in the development and/or application of critical thinking skills in STEM settings. This effort may expand opportunities to strengthen informal science learning program outcomes, including the cultivation of numerous 21st century skills like information literacy and social skills like conflict management. Through a greater understanding of the individual components that shape informal learning experiences and outcomes, this project also has the potential to support the broadening of participation in STEM fields by providing the groundwork for further research on whether or not underrepresented or traditionally marginalized groups of people experience and/or relate differently to both the "places" most common in citizen science and the practice of informal science programming itself.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

作为增强非正式环境中学习的整体战略的一部分，前进的非正式STEM学习（AISL）计划旨在推进对非正式环境中STEM学习的设计和开发的新方法和基于证据的理解。这包括提供多种途径，以扩大对STEM学习经验的访问和参与度，推进对非正式环境中STEM学习的创新研究，并发展参与者对更深入学习的理解。该试点和可行性项目将探讨参与公众参与科学研究的一种非正式科学倡议，是否可以通过这些计划来培养或增强参与者对参与者的参与者的依恋。该项目还研究参与者是否会影响成人学习者中批判性思维技能的发展或应用。批判性思维能力和增强批判性思维能力的因素是非正式STEM学习社区中重要的调查领域。现有的奖学金表明，可以将三个组成部分联系起来：（1）与特定位置的联系，（2）对这些地方的有意探索和调查（在这种情况下是通过公民科学），以及（3）对复杂的社会生态系统的理解，这是基于批判性思维技能能力的。但是，这些方面彼此相关的程度，它们发生的规模（本地与全球）以及所涉及的位置连接或非正式科学经验的特定维度。该项目与沿海观察和海鸟调查团队（COASST）公民科学计划合作，从不同领域的专家之间进行了合作，以检查公民科学是否以及如何促进参与者之间与地点和高阶批判性思维技能以及这些假设的结果之间的潜在联系。该项目的最终目的是为公众参与科学研究计划的设计提供优化，以优化参与者学习，兴趣和保留；产生社会成果，例如支持科学素养的批判性思维；并创建了所需的规模和谷物的高质量数据，以解决基本申请的科学连续体中的问题和问题。这项研究的重点是公众参与科学研究，特别是公民科学的程度，可能会促进参与者对通过这些计划进行调查的站点和环境感受到的地点依恋的存在或强度，并且在多大程度上可能与成人学习者的高阶批判性思维能力有关。三方面的混合方法研究策略将包括：（1）对三维（个人，社会，自然）地点依恋以及批判性思维技能和性格的标记的现有调查和访谈数据的重新分析； （2）一项评估调查，以测试地点依恋和批判性思维技能的存在和强度； （3）深入的访谈，以更好地了解公民科学背景下地点依恋和批判性思维技能的定性性质和发展。调查和访谈样本将从COASST公民科学计划的参与者中获取，并将分为四组，这是从事该计划的时间的函数，包括新手，新手和长期参与者。独立的外部顾问委员会和由非正式科学，教育和地点意识专家组成的游客委员会将批评并帮助指导这项工作。预计结果将揭示重要因素，这些因素通过探讨有关基本经验，暴露和COASST计划组件的问题，从而影响非正式STEM计划的学习和行为成果，从而促进更深入的批判性思维技能和地位依恋。从地理，科学教育和教育心理学领域中综合理论框架，同时测试一种独特的方法学方法来最好地衡量批判性思维技能，并将其依恋在非正式的公民科学环境中，将增强研究和从业者社区之间的知识建设。 在一个全球化且技术上越来越复杂的世界中，公民质疑和解释科学证据，观点和价值观的能力至关重要。也就是说，科学素养对于在二十一世纪维持健壮和健康的经济，社会和环境系统至关重要。非正式科学学习填补了国家教育努力的重要差距，以培养科学识字的民众，因为研究表明，正规的科学培训并不总是能够培养具有这种科学能力的高级批判性思维技能的类型。该项目旨在通过澄清公众参与科学研究的特定方面和形式，尤其是与人联系的人，涉及在STEM环境中的批判性思维技能的发展和/或应用批判性思维技能，以增强非正式科学从业人员之间的基础设施和建立能力。这项努力可能会扩大机会来加强非正式科学学习计划的成果，包括培养众多21世纪的技能，例如信息素养和冲突管理等社交技能。通过对塑造非正式学习经验和成果的个体组件有更多的了解，该项目还可以通过为进一步的研究提供基础研究来支持扩大参与STEM领域的参与，以进一步研究代表性不足或传统上的人群是否经历和/或在公民科学方面的统治和统计学的统计数据，并与之相关地是不同的。认为值得通过基金会的智力优点和更广泛影响的评论标准来评估值得支持。

项目成果

Shapeshifting attachment: Exploring multi-dimensional people–place bonds in place-based citizen science

变形依恋：在基于地方的公民科学中探索多维人与地方的联系

• DOI: 10.1002/pan3.10174
• 发表时间: 2021
• 期刊: People and nature
• 影响因子: 6.1
• 作者: Haywood, Benjamin;Parrish, Julia;He, Yurong
• 通讯作者: He, Yurong