Collaborative Research: The Role of Culture and Experience in Children's Understandings of the Biological World

目前的项目旨在发现如何在不同的学习环境和不同的文化群体中理解基本的生物学概念。对主流的欧美人和美洲原住民进行比较，以发现不同的信仰体系和实践如何塑造对自然世界的概念；对城市和农村人口进行比较，以发现与自然世界的直接接触和对流行媒体的接触如何影响学习和推理。调查人员试图梳理出：a)各种环境输入来源(例如，与自然世界、母语和信仰系统的习惯性接触)；b)各种正式和非正式的背景(例如，学校和家庭环境)；以及c)各种传播媒介(例如，书籍、视频和对话)。研究方案包括一系列分类和推理任务，这些任务已经过调整，以适应每个社区的文化特征。此外，该项目还涉及对父母和教师向儿童提供的文化习俗和投入的分析。这一建议的重点内容是儿童对人类在自然界中的位置的直觉(例如，人类中心主义)以及他们从事生态或分类推理的倾向。这项研究计划的一个组成部分是整合代表性不足的社区成员，并建设基础设施，以支持他们长期参与研究。

The current project is designed to discover how fundamental biological concepts are understood in different learning contexts and across different cultural groups. Mainstream European-American and Native-American populations are compared to discover how concepts of the natural world are shaped by different belief systems and practices; urban and rural populations are compared to discover how both direct contact with the natural world and exposure to popular media influence learning and reasoning. The investigators attempt to tease apart: a) various sources of environmental input (e.g., habitual contact with the natural world, native language, and belief systems); b) various formal and informal contexts (e.g., school and home settings); and c) various media of transmission (e.g., books, videos, and conversation). The research protocol includes an array of categorization and reasoning tasks that have been adapted to suit the cultural profiles of each community. In addition, the project involves an analysis of the cultural practices and the input that parents and teachers provide to children. Focal content points of this proposal are children's intuitions about the place of humans in the natural world (e.g., anthrocentrism) and their tendency to engage in ecological or taxonomic reasoning. An integral component of this research program is its integration of members of under-represented communities and building of infrastructures to support their lasting involvement in research.