Targeting Children's Beliefs and Misconceptions Concerning COVID-19

针对儿童对 COVID-19 的信念和误解

• 批准号: 2055164
• 负责人: Susan Gelman
• 金额: $ 150万
• 依托单位: Regents of the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
• 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 2025-04-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2055164&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Targeting; Children; Beliefs; Misconceptions; Concerning

Developing effective means of educating children about disease transmission is a matter of vital concern, not only for scientific literacy, but also for public health. This project, conducted by researchers from the University of Michigan, will map out what children at different ages and their guardians understand about viral contagion, such as the transmission of COVID-19, and, based on the findings, will develop and test the effectiveness of a home-based educational intervention delivered by means of a picture book. Building on pilot research, three studies will provide a rigorous, cross-age assessment with US children in grades K-5 in three distinct community contexts. Research questions include: At what ages do children understand aspects of viral transmission that are non-obvious or invisible, such as asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic carriers, or the potential for objects and surfaces to carry infection? At what ages can children go beyond isolated facts they have learned and figure out what to do in new situations? How is children's biological reasoning influenced by non-biological factors, such whether a potential carrier is a friend or a stranger? How does children's reasoning about a global pandemic that has already massively disrupted their daily lives (COVID-19) compare with more ordinary and innocuous illness (the common cold)? Can young children successfully learn about core aspects of disease transmission by means of an illustrated storybook? Targeting children's beliefs and misconceptions of COVID-19 provides an unprecedented opportunity to determine effective ways of teaching core biological concepts in the elementary-school years. Findings from the project will inform parents, educators, and public health professionals regarding gaps and misconceptions in children's understanding of the transmission of viral disease in general, and COVID-19 in particular, as well as evidence-based scientific data on how most effectively to target educational efforts with children to improve both scientific literacy and adherence to public health guidelines. It will also be a source of theoretically significant data of central interest to STEM education, regarding how to teach children about vital scientific processes that they cannot see, how non-biological concepts influence children’s biological reasoning, and the role of community context in biological understandings. This award is made by the EHR Core Research (ECR) program, which supports work that advances the fundamental research literature on STEM learning. The team of researchers will individually interview 1,440 children ages 5-12 years and their parents to assess children's understanding of the biological processes of viral transmission, comparing COVID-19 with the common cold. Building on preliminary work by the investigators, the project will advance foundational knowledge on children’s intuitive understanding of biological mechanisms and on the use of picture books in educational interventions. Study 1 will address children's understanding of how and why viruses work and spread, with a battery of child-friendly tasks that assess: incubation periods (lag between infection and disease onset), asymptomatic hosts, that viruses can survive on a surface or object (such as a doorknob), and that viruses can gain access to the body through the eyes, nose, and mouth. Study 2 will focus on who may contract, transmit, or suffer the consequences of viral disease, and the role of both biological and non-biological factors (such as a person's nationality, language, or familiarity) in these judgments. Study 3 will assess a home-based educational intervention that targets key misconceptions regarding viral transmission, with the core notion of making invisible concepts visible. This intervention will systematically manipulate the role of anthropomorphic language and imagery (treating the virus as if it were a tiny creature) to determine the effects of these commonly employed choices on children's learning. Finally, the project team will partner with a natural history museum to design, mount, and test the effectiveness of an exhibit regarding viral transmission, including a media component (an interactive game) that will be portable to other users beyond the museum itself. This exhibit will be directly informed by the proposed research, with the aim of improving the public's knowledge of COVID transmission, and viral disease transmission more generally.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.

开发有效的手段，对儿童进行疾病传播方面的教育，不仅对科学素养，而且对公共卫生都是一个至关重要的问题。该项目由密歇根大学的研究人员进行，将绘制出不同年龄的儿童及其监护人对病毒传染（如COVID-19的传播）的理解，并根据研究结果，开发和测试通过图画书提供的家庭教育干预的有效性。在试点研究的基础上，三项研究将在三个不同的社区环境中对K-5年级的美国儿童进行严格的跨年龄评估。研究问题包括：儿童在什么年龄了解病毒传播的不明显或不可见的方面，如无症状和症状前的携带者，或物体和表面携带感染的可能性？什么年龄的孩子可以超越他们所学到的孤立事实，并找出在新情况下该怎么做？儿童的生物推理如何受到非生物因素的影响，例如潜在的携带者是朋友还是陌生人？孩子们对一场已经大规模扰乱他们日常生活的全球大流行病（COVID-19）的推理与更普通和无害的疾病（普通感冒）相比如何？幼儿能否通过一本图文并茂的故事书成功地了解疾病传播的核心方面？针对儿童对COVID-19的信念和误解提供了前所未有的机会，以确定在小学阶段教授核心生物学概念的有效方法。该项目的研究结果将告知家长、教育工作者和公共卫生专业人员，儿童对病毒性疾病传播的理解存在差距和误解，特别是COVID-19，以及基于证据的科学数据，说明如何最有效地针对儿童开展教育工作，以提高科学素养和遵守公共卫生指南。它也将成为STEM教育的核心兴趣的理论重要数据的来源，关于如何教孩子们他们看不到的重要科学过程，非生物概念如何影响孩子的生物推理，以及社区背景在生物理解中的作用。该奖项由EHR核心研究（ECR）计划颁发，该计划支持推进STEM学习基础研究文献的工作。研究人员将单独采访1,440名5-12岁的儿童及其父母，以评估儿童对病毒传播生物过程的理解，并将COVID-19与普通感冒进行比较。在调查人员初步工作的基础上，该项目将推进关于儿童对生物机制的直观理解和在教育干预中使用图画书的基础知识。研究1将解决儿童对病毒如何以及为什么起作用和传播的理解，通过一系列儿童友好的任务来评估：潜伏期（感染和疾病发作之间的滞后），无症状的宿主，病毒可以在表面或物体上存活（如门把手），以及病毒可以通过眼睛，鼻子和嘴巴进入身体。研究2将重点关注谁可能感染、传播或遭受病毒性疾病的后果，以及生物和非生物因素（如一个人的国籍、语言或熟悉程度）在这些判断中的作用。研究3将评估一种以家庭为基础的教育干预措施，该措施针对有关病毒传播的关键误解，其核心理念是使无形的概念变得可见。这种干预将系统地操纵拟人化语言和意象的作用（将病毒视为一个微小的生物），以确定这些常用选择对儿童学习的影响。最后，项目团队将与一家自然历史博物馆合作，设计、安装和测试一个关于病毒传播的展览的有效性，包括一个媒体组件（一个互动游戏），该组件将被博物馆以外的其他用户携带。该奖项反映了NSF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。