An investigation of the impact of culture and experience on reasoning about complex ecological phenomena among students from diverse backgrounds

调查文化和经验对不同背景的学生推理复杂生态现象的影响

• 批准号: 1713368
• 负责人: Douglas Medin
• 金额: $ 74.94万
• 依托单位: Northwestern University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-09-01 至 2022-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1713368&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: investigation; impact; culture; experience; reasoning

As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program funds innovative research, approaches and resources for use in a variety of settings. The project will conduct research designed to deepen our fundamental knowledge about culture, experience, and ecosystems cognition and to develop innovative practices and approaches to support learning about changing ecological systems and environmental decision making. Work on cultural differences in the production of complex systems knowledge is severely lacking. This gap in knowledge may contribute to the continued reproduction of inequities in science education. More broadly findings from this project will have clear implications for theories of cognitive development, especially those pertaining to how knowledge is shaped by culture and experience. Focusing on ecosystems may represent an opportunity to not only increase engagement and achievement in science among non-dominant communities and Native youth specifically, but also advance effective learning for all communities. The primary deliverables for the project are conference presentations and research publications. However, the project will also develop additional resources freely available to researchers, educators, and the general public. These will include summer curricular materials and teaching tools, professional development workshops, practitioner briefs about research findings that can be used in professional development workshops and shared share more broadly, and evaluation reports.A deeper understanding of cultural influences on conceptions of the natural world can serve to advance the educational needs of children, including children from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Project research will include two interrelated series of studies designed to expand knowledge about human cognition of complex ecosystems and the affordances of informal STEM learning environments in developing and supporting the critical 21st century skill of ecological systems level reasoning. The first consists of a series of experiments focused on ecological cognition and the role of humans in nature. The second consists of design-based research interventions in informal settings, summer workshops for youth and the communities, focused on ecological systems level thinking and socio-environmental decision making. The project will recruit and engage both child and adult participants from two broad cultural communities, Native Americans and European Americans living in urban and suburban communities, in part because it affords a sharp test of human-nature relations. Sampling from two different urban communities will avoid simple Native-non-Native comparative binaries and to conduct Native-to-Native comparative analysis. Based on results from this, the project will result in: 1) foundational knowledge about human learning and reasoning and ecosystems and environmental decision making, 2) culturally responsive models of learning and practice about complex ecosystems for indoors and outdoors informal learning environments, and 3) insights about research-practice-community partnerships. One important objective of the research is to broaden participation and close opportunity gaps for under-represented groups in STEM fields broadly and more specifically for Indigenous people. Members of Indigenous communities, who provide strong role models for other aspiring scholars, will be involved as postdoctoral fellows, research assistants and graduate fellows.

作为加强非正式环境中学习的总体战略的一部分，推进非正式 STEM 学习 (AISL) 计划资助创新研究、方法和资源，以供在各种环境中使用。该项目将开展研究，旨在加深我们对文化、经验和生态系统认知的基础知识，并开发创新实践和方法，以支持了解不断变化的生态系统和环境决策。关于复杂系统知识生产中的文化差异的工作严重缺乏。这种知识差距可能会导致科学教育不平等的持续再现。更广泛地说，该项目的发现将对认知发展理论产生明确的影响，特别是那些与文化和经验如何塑造知识有关的理论。关注生态系统可能是一个机会，不仅可以提高非主流社区和土著青年在科学方面的参与度和成就，而且可以促进所有社区的有效学习。该项目的主要交付成果是会议演讲和研究出版物。然而，该项目还将开发额外的资源，免费提供给研究人员、教育工作者和公众。其中包括暑期课程材料和教学工具、专业发展研讨会、可在专业发展研讨会中使用并更广泛共享的研究成果从业者简介以及评估报告。更深入地了解文化对自然世界概念的影响可以有助于满足儿童的教育需求，包括来自不同语言和文化背景的儿童。项目研究将包括两个相互关联的系列研究，旨在扩展人类对复杂生态系统的认知以及非正式 STEM 学习环境在开发和支持 21 世纪生态系统水平推理关键技能方面的可供性。第一个包括一系列专注于生态认知和人类在自然中的作用的实验。第二个包括在非正式环境中基于设计的研究干预、为青年和社区举办的夏季研讨会，重点关注生态系统层面的思考和社会环境决策。该项目将招募和吸引来自两个广泛文化社区（居住在城市和郊区社区的美洲原住民和欧洲裔美国人）的儿童和成人参与者，部分原因是它对人与自然关系进行了严峻的考验。从两个不同的城市社区进行抽样将避免简单的本地人与非本地人的比较二元性，并进行本地人与本地人之间的比较分析。基于此结果，该项目将产生：1）关于人类学习和推理以及生态系统和环境决策的基础知识，2）关于室内和室外非正式学习环境的复杂生态系统的文化响应学习和实践模型，以及3）关于研究-实践-社区伙伴关系的见解。这项研究的一个重要目标是扩大 STEM 领域代表性不足群体的参与范围，并缩小机会差距，更具体地说是为土著人民。土著社区的成员为其他有抱负的学者提供了强有力的榜样，他们将以博士后研究员、研究助理和研究生的身份参与其中。

项目成果

Children’s Play with a Forest Diorama as a Window into Ecological Cognition

儿童通过森林立体模型游戏了解生态认知

• DOI: 10.1080/15248372.2017.1392306
• 发表时间: 2017
• 期刊: Journal of Cognition and Development
• 影响因子: 2.1
• 作者: Washinawatok, Karen;Rasmussen, Connie;Bang, Megan;Medin, Douglas;Woodring, Jennifer;Waxman, Sandra;Marin, Ananda;Gurneau, Jasmine;Faber, Lori
• 通讯作者: Faber, Lori

Relational epistemologies in land-based learning environments: reasoning about ecological systems and spatial indexing in motion

陆地学习环境中的关系认识论：关于运动中的生态系统和空间索引的推理

• DOI: 10.1007/s11422-019-09922-1
• 发表时间: 2019
• 期刊: Cultural Studies of Science Education
• 影响因子: 1.2
• 作者: Pugh, Priya;McGinty, Megan;Bang, Megan
• 通讯作者: Bang, Megan

Should social scientists be distanced from or engaged with the people they study?

社会科学家应该与他们研究的人保持距离还是接触？

• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1721167115
• 发表时间: 2018
• 期刊: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
• 作者: Nzinga, Kalonji;Rapp, David N.;Leatherwood, Christopher;Easterday, Matthew;Rogers, Leoandra Onnie;Gallagher, Natalie;Medin, Douglas L.
• 通讯作者: Medin, Douglas L.

If Indigenous Peoples Stand with the Sciences, Will Scientists Stand with Us?

• DOI: 10.1162/daed_a_00498
• 发表时间: 2018-03-01
• 期刊: DAEDALUS
• 影响因子: 1.7
• 作者: Bang, Megan;Marin, Ananda;Medin, Douglas
• 通讯作者: Medin, Douglas