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 学习设计和开发的新方法以及基于证据的理解。这包括提供多种途径来扩大 STEM 学习体验的获取和参与，推进非正式环境中 STEM 学习的创新研究和评估，以及加深参与者对更深层次学习的理解。该试点和可行性项目将探讨参与非正式科学举措（例如公民科学，这是公众参与科学研究的一种形式）是否可以培养或增强参与者对通过这些项目调查的自然场所的依恋。该项目还研究了参与者对地方的依恋是否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 学习社区中重要的探究领域。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）对这些地点的有意探索和调查（在这种情况下通过公民科学），以及（3）对复杂的社会生态系统的理解，这取决于批判性思维能力。然而，这些方面相互关联的程度、它们发生的规模（本地到全球）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。该项目与海岸观测和海鸟调查小组 (COASST) 公民科学计划合作，促进不同领域专家之间的合作，以研究公民科学是否以及如何有助于提高参与者的地点和高阶批判性思维技能，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科学研究规划的公众参与设计提供信息，以优化参与者的学习、兴趣和保留；产生社会成果，例如支持科学素养的批判性思维；并创建解决基础应用科学连续体中的问题所需的规模和粒度的高质量数据。本研究的重点是公众参与科学研究，特别是公民科学，可以在多大程度上促进参与者对通过这些项目调查的地点和环境所感受到的地方依恋的存在或强度，以及地方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。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，以寻找三维（个人、社会、自然）场所依恋以及批判性思维技能和性格的标记； (2) 评估调查，测试地方依恋的存在和强度以及批判性思维能力； (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本质和发展。调查和访谈样本将从 COASST 公民科学项目的参与者中抽取，并将根据参与该项目的时间分为四组，包括新参与者、新手和长期参与者。一个独立的外部顾问委员会和一个由非正式科学、教育和地方感专家组成的访客委员会将批评并帮助指导这项工作。通过探究有关基本经验、接触和 COASST 计划组成部分的问题，结果有望揭示影响非正式 STEM 计划的学习和行为结果的重要因素，这些内容有助于加深批判性思维技能和地方依恋。综合地理学、科学教育和教育心理学领域的理论框架，同时测试独特的方法论，以最好地衡量批判性思维技能并在非正式的公民科学环境中建立依恋，将加强研究和从业者社区的知识建设。 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，科学素养对于维持二十一世纪强劲和健康的经济、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具有科学素养的民众的一个重要空白，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高阶批判性思维技能。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，特别是与人地联系相关的方面和形式是否与 STEM 环境中批判性思维技能的发展和/或应用有关，来加强非正式科学从业者的基础设施和能力建设。这项努力可能会扩大加强非正式科学学习计划成果的机会，包括培养信息素养等众多 21 世纪技能和冲突管理等社交技能。通过更好地了解塑造非正式学习体验和成果的各个组成部分，该项目还有可能支持扩大 STEM 领域的参与，为进一步研究奠定基础，了解代表性不足或传统上边缘化的群体是否与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。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并已被 通过使用基金会的智力优点和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，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