Developing a Social-Cognitive, Multilevel, Empirically-Based Model of Public Engagement for the Shaping of Science and Innovation Policy

在美国和其他地方一样，公众参与活动越来越常见，有时甚至是强制要求，为科学和创新政策提供信息。然而，社会科学没有跟上公共参与实践的步伐：关于公共参与的哪些形式、特征和背景对于什么目的和为什么是“有效”的，几乎没有指导。智力价值：该项目促进了对科学和创新政策中成功的公共参与的科学理解并为其设计提供了指导。它通过对不同的公共参与特征和目的的影响的严格研究来实现这一点。本研究运用社会认知和学习理论来确定公共参与活动的变化导致不同影响的潜在机制和解释变量。研究在本科生物学课程中进行，在这些课程中，学生们考虑与纳米技术有关的伦理、法律和社会问题。在此背景下，本研究(1)创建并测试了与公共参与(例如，提高投入的质量、参与者的知识增长、态度改变)的不同定义相关的潜在解释变量和结果的测量；(2)实验调查了公共参与的两个常见维度的影响；以及(3)基于这些结果开发了公共参与的可测试模型。更广泛的影响：这项研究的结果，包括创建可测试的公共参与模式，以及为继续研究公共参与提供经过验证的工具，旨在帮助研究人员进一步推进公共参与活动的科学研究。此外，本研究旨在为实践者提供科学的证实，以指导他们规划公共参与活动的努力。最后，通过让生物学专业的学生既作为研究参与者又作为研究助理，这项研究使理科本科生受益，为他们提供了第一手学习社会科学研究的机会，并增强了他们对公民的价值和角色的理解？对科学政策的贡献。

In the U.S. as elsewhere, public engagement activities are increasingly common, and sometimes even mandated, for informing science and innovation policy. However, social science has not kept up with public engagement practices: There is little guidance regarding which forms, features, and contexts of public engagements are 'effective' for what purposes and why. Intellectual Merit: This project advances scientific understanding of and provides guidance for the design of successful public engagements in science and innovation policy. It accomplishes this via rigorous studies of the effects of varying public engagement features and purposes. The present research applies social-cognitive and learning theories to identify potential mechanisms and explanatory variables by which variations in public engagement activities result in different impacts. Studies are conducted in undergraduate biology courses in which students consider ethical, legal, and social issues relating to nanotechnology. In that context, this research (1) creates and tests measures of the potential explanatory variables and of outcomes relevant to varied definitions of 'effectiveness' of public engagements (e.g., for increasing the quality of input, participant knowledge gains, attitude changes); (2) experimentally investigates the impacts of varying two common dimensions of public engagement; and (3) develops a testable model of public engagement based on those results. Broader Impacts: The outcomes of this research, including the creation of a testable model of public engagement and the provision of proven tools for continued study of public engagements, are designed to help researchers to further advance the scientific study of public engagement activities. In addition, the present research is designed to provide scientific confirmation that can be used by practitioners to guide their efforts in planning public engagement activities. Finally, by involving biology majors as both research participants and as research assistants, this research benefits science undergraduates, providing them opportunities to learn first-hand about social science research and enhancing their understanding of the value and roles of citizens? contributions to science policy.