Collaborative Research: The Role of Culture and Experience in Children's Understandings of the Biological World

目前的项目旨在发现如何在不同的学习环境和不同的文化群体中理解基本的生物学概念。主流的欧洲裔美国人和美国原住民人口进行比较，以发现自然世界的概念是如何形成不同的信仰体系和实践;城市和农村人口进行比较，以发现如何与自然世界的直接接触和接触大众媒体影响学习和推理。调查人员试图梳理：a）各种来源的环境输入（例如，与自然世界、母语和信仰体系的习惯性接触）; B）各种正式和非正式的上下文（例如，学校和家庭环境）;以及c）各种传输介质（例如，书籍、视频和对话）。研究协议包括一系列的分类和推理任务，已被调整，以适应每个社区的文化概况。此外，该项目还涉及分析文化习俗以及父母和教师向儿童提供的投入。该建议的重点内容是儿童对人类在自然世界中的位置的直觉（例如，人类中心主义）和他们从事生态或分类推理的倾向。该研究计划的一个组成部分是其代表性不足的社区成员的整合和基础设施的建设，以支持他们持久参与研究。

The current project is designed to discover how fundamental biological concepts are understood in different learning contexts and across different cultural groups. Mainstream European-American and Native-American populations are compared to discover how concepts of the natural world are shaped by different belief systems and practices; urban and rural populations are compared to discover how both direct contact with the natural world and exposure to popular media influence learning and reasoning. The investigators attempt to tease apart: a) various sources of environmental input (e.g., habitual contact with the natural world, native language, and belief systems); b) various formal and informal contexts (e.g., school and home settings); and c) various media of transmission (e.g., books, videos, and conversation). The research protocol includes an array of categorization and reasoning tasks that have been adapted to suit the cultural profiles of each community. In addition, the project involves an analysis of the cultural practices and the input that parents and teachers provide to children. Focal content points of this proposal are children's intuitions about the place of humans in the natural world (e.g., anthrocentrism) and their tendency to engage in ecological or taxonomic reasoning. An integral component of this research program is its integration of members of under-represented communities and building of infrastructures to support their lasting involvement in research.