CAREER: Redefining Scientific Literacy at the Community Level - Researching Science Learning using a Social Network Approach

职业：在社区层面重新定义科学素养 - 使用社交网络方法研究科学学习

• 批准号: 2042142
• 负责人: Kirstin Busch
• 金额: $ 110.32万
• 依托单位: North Carolina State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-05-01 至 2026-04-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2042142&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Redefining; Scientific; Literacy; Community

Developing solutions to large-scale collective problems -- such as resilience to environmental challenges -- requires scientifically literate communities. However, the predominant conception of scientific literacy has focused on individuals, and there is not consensus as to what community level scientific literacy is or how to measure it. Thus, a 2016 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report, “Science Literacy: Concepts, Contexts, and Consequences,” stated that community level scientific literacy is undertheorized and understudied. More specifically, the committee recommended that research is needed to understand both the i) contexts (e.g., a community’s physical and social setting) and ii) features of community organization (e.g., relationships within the community) that support community level science literacy and influence successful group action. This CAREER award responds to this nationally identified need by iteratively refining a model to conceptualize and measure community level scientific literacy. The model and metrics developed in this project may be applied to a wide range of topics (e.g., vaccination, pandemic response, genetically-modified foods, pollution control, and land-use decisions) to improve a community’s capacity to make scientifically-sound collective decisions. This CAREER award is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) and the EHR CORE Research (ECR) programs. It supports the AISL program goals to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. It supports the ECR program goal to advance relevant research knowledge pertaining to STEM learning and learning environments. The proposed research will conceptualize, operationalize, and measure community level scientific literacy. This project will use a comparative multiple case study research design. Three coastal communities, faced with the need to make scientifically-informed land-use decisions, will be studied sequentially. A convergent mixed methods design will be employed, in which qualitative and quantitative data collection and analyses are performed concurrently. To describe the i) context of each community case, this project will use qualitative research methods, including document analysis, observation, focus groups, and interviews. To measure the ii) features of community organization for each community case, social network analysis will be used. The results from this research will be disseminated throughout and at the culmination of the project through professional publications and conference presentations as well as with community stakeholders and the general public. The integrated education activities include a professional learning certificate for informal science education professionals and STEM graduate students. This certificate emphasizes high-quality community-engaged scholarship, placing students with partners such as museums, farmer’s markets, and libraries, to offer informal learning programs in their communities. This professional learning program will be tested as a model to provide training for STEM graduate students who would like to communicate their research to the public through outreach and extension activities.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.

为大规模的集体问题（如对环境挑战的适应能力）制定解决方案需要具有科学素养的社区。然而，科学素养的主流概念侧重于个人，对于什么是社区水平的科学素养或如何衡量科学素养，尚未达成共识。因此，2016年美国国家科学院、工程院和医学院的一份报告《科学素养：概念、背景和后果》指出，社区层面的科学素养没有得到充分的理论和研究。更具体地说，委员会建议需要进行研究，以了解i)支持社区一级科学素养和影响成功群体行动的背景（例如，社区的物质和社会环境）和ii)社区组织的特征（例如，社区内部的关系）。这个职业奖通过不断完善一个模型来概念化和衡量社区水平的科学素养，回应了这一全国性的需求。本项目制定的模型和指标可广泛应用于各种主题（例如，疫苗接种、大流行病应对、转基因食品、污染控制和土地使用决策），以提高社区作出科学合理的集体决策的能力。该职业奖由推进非正式STEM学习（AISL）和EHR核心研究（ECR）项目资助。它支持AISL项目的目标，即推进非正式环境中STEM学习的设计和开发的新方法和基于证据的理解。它支持ECR计划的目标，即推进与STEM学习和学习环境有关的相关研究知识。拟议的研究将概念化、操作化和衡量社区水平的科学素养。本课题将采用多案例比较研究的研究设计。三个沿海社区面临着需要做出科学的土地利用决策，将按顺序进行研究。将采用融合混合方法设计，其中定性和定量数据收集和分析同时进行。为了描述每个社区案例的背景，本项目将使用定性研究方法，包括文献分析、观察、焦点小组和访谈。为了衡量每个社区案例的社区组织特征，将使用社会网络分析。这项研究的结果将通过专业出版物和会议演讲以及社区利益相关者和公众在整个项目中传播，并在项目结束时传播。综合教育活动包括非正式科学教育专业人员和STEM研究生的专业学习证书。该证书强调高质量的社区参与奖学金，将学生与博物馆、农贸市场和图书馆等合作伙伴一起，在他们的社区提供非正式的学习计划。这一专业学习计划将被测试为一种模式，为希望通过外展和推广活动向公众传播其研究的STEM研究生提供培训。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。