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）计划旨在推进非正式环境中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，扩大STEM学习经验的获取和参与，推进非正式环境中STEM学习的创新研究和评估，以及发展参与者对深度学习的理解。这个试点和可行性项目将探讨参与非正式的科学项目，如公民科学，这是一种公众参与科学研究的形式，是否可以培养或增强参与者对通过这些项目进行调查的自然场所的依恋。该项目还考察了参与者对地方的依恋是否会影响成人学习者批判性思维技能的发展或应用。批判性思维技能和增强批判性思维技能的因素是非正式STEM学习社区中重要的调查领域。现有的学术研究表明，三个组成部分可能是相互联系的：(1)与特定地点的联系感；(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）；(3)对复杂社会生态系统的理解，这是基于批判性思维技能的能力。然而，这些方面相互关联的程度、它们发生的规模（从地方到全球）以及所涉及的地方联系或非正式科学经验的具体维度尚不清楚。与海岸观测和海鸟调查小组（co助理）公民科学计划合作，该项目促进了来自不同领域的专家之间的合作，以检查公民科学是否以及如何有助于增加参与者与地点和高阶批判性思维技能的联系，以及这些假设结果之间的潜在联系。该项目的最终目标是为公众参与科学研究项目的设计提供信息，以优化参与者的学习，兴趣和保留；产生社会成果，如批判性思维，以支持科学素养；并创建高质量的规模和粒度的数据，以解决基础科学和应用科学连续体中的问题和问题。本研究的重点是公众参与科学研究，特别是公民科学，在多大程度上可能促进参与者对通过这些项目调查的地点和环境的位置依恋的存在或强度，以及位置依恋在多大程度上可能与成人学习者的高阶批判性思维技能相关联。一种三管齐下的混合方法研究策略将包括：(1)重新分析现有的调查和访谈数据，以获得三维（个人、社会、自然）地点依恋以及批判性思维技能和倾向的标记；(2)对地方依恋与批判性思维技能的存在程度和强度进行评估调查；(3)深入访谈，以更好地了解公民科学背景下地方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co助理公民科学计划的参与者中抽取，并将根据参与计划的时间分为四组，包括新参与者，新手和长期参与者。一个独立的外部咨询委员会和一个由非正式科学、教育和地方感方面的专家组成的访问者委员会将对这项工作进行批评和指导。通过探究有关促进更深层次批判性思维技能和地方依恋的基本经验、暴露和co助理计划组成部分的问题，研究结果有望揭示影响非正式STEM计划学习和行为结果的重要因素。综合地理、科学教育和教育心理学领域的理论框架，同时在非正式的公民科学环境中测试一种独特的方法，以最佳地衡量批判性思维技能和地方依恋，这将加强研究和实践者社区之间的知识建设。在全球化和技术日益复杂的世界中，公民询问和解释科学证据、观点和价值观的能力至关重要。也就是说，科学素养对于在21世纪维持强劲健康的经济、社会和环境系统至关重要。非正式的科学学习填补了国家教育努力培养科学素养民众的重要空白，因为研究表明，正式的科学培训并不总是能够培养支撑这种科学能力的更高层次的批判性思维技能。该项目旨在通过澄清公众参与科学研究的具体方面和形式，特别是与人地联系有关的方面和形式，是否涉及STEM环境中批判性思维技能的发展和/或应用，来加强非正式科学从业者的基础设施和能力建设。这一努力可能会扩大加强非正式科学学习项目成果的机会，包括培养信息素养等众多21世纪技能和冲突管理等社会技能。通过对形成非正式学习经验和成果的各个组成部分的更深入了解，该项目还具有支持扩大STEM领域参与的潜力，为进一步研究代表性不足或传统上被边缘化的人群是否对公民科学中最常见的“地方”和非正式科学规划本身的实践有不同的体验和/或联系提供基础。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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