Collaborative Research: Scientists' Views of the Public, Public Engagement Practice, and Public Engagement Goals

这个密歇根州立大学和德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校的项目将专注于使科学交流更加科学。它将主要利用采访和调查研究，以提高社会对参与科学传播的人，特别是科学家对科学传播的看法的理解。目标是利用这些知识来帮助改进科学传播培训和招聘，重点是增加科学家采用基于证据的传播策略的可能性，以提高公众对科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)的兴趣、参与度和认同感。这项研究的一个核心潜在原因是，科学家在与公众互动时的动机和目标与研究表明的最积极、最有成效的公众受众之间存在不匹配。这项研究是由推进非正式STEM学习计划资助的，该计划旨在促进对非正式环境中STEM学习的设计和发展的新方法和基于证据的理解。这包括为扩大获得和参与STEM学习经验提供多种途径，推进对非正式环境下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。该项目将分三个阶段进行。首先是与广泛的科学传播专家进行访谈，以评估优先研究问题。在这些采访之后，将对代表广泛学术领域的多达10个不同科学学会的美国成员进行调查，以及对科学传播研究人员进行调查。这项调查将关注三种不同的公共参与模式，包括面对面参与、在线参与和通过新闻媒体参与。与计划行为理论一致，这些调查将评估科学家对公共参与和具体公共参与目标的态度，以及对社会规范(描述性和强制性的)和功效信念(内部和外部的)的看法。这些将被用作总体和目标特定参与意愿的预测因子，以及使用多组建模报告的过去行为。感兴趣的潜在交流目标包括传递知识、培养兴趣和兴奋感、建立对科学家的信任、展示开放性和倾听意愿、塑造人们对主题的思考方式(即构思)和/或捍卫科学。该项目的最后阶段将探索设计实验的可能性，旨在测试具体目标的提及对沟通培训招聘的影响，以及关于各种目标的在线内容对有兴趣发展沟通技能的科学家的吸引力程度。这项研究是迄今为止最有针对性、规模最大的一次尝试，目的是了解科学家对公众和传播过程的看法可能如何塑造科学传播行为。

This Michigan State University and University of Texas-Austin project will focus on making science communication more scientific. It will primarily use interview and survey research to improve societal understanding of how those involved in science communication, particularly scientists, think about science communication. The goal is to use this knowledge to help improve science communication training and recruiting with a focus on increasing the likelihood that scientists will adopt evidence-based communication strategies to increase public interest, engagement, and identification with science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). A central underlying reason for the study is a mismatch between scientists' motivations and goals when interacting with public audiences and what research suggests would be the most positive and productive with public audiences. This study is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning program, which 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.The project will be conducted in three phases. The first is interviews with a wide range of science communication experts to assess priority research questions. These interviews will be followed by surveys with U.S.-based members of up to 10 different scientific societies representing a broad range of academic fields as well as a survey of science communication researchers. The survey will focus on three different public engagement modes, including face-to-face engagement, online engagement, and engagement via the news media. Consistent with the Theory of Planned Behavior, the surveys will assess scientists' attitudes about public engagement and specific public engagement goals, as well as perceptions of social norms (both descriptive and injunctive) and efficacy beliefs (both internal and external). These will be used as predictors of general and goal-specific engagement willingness, as well as reported past behavior, using multigroup modeling. Potential communication goals of interest include transferring knowledge, developing interest and excitement, building trust in scientists, demonstrating openness and a willingness to listen, shaping how people think about subjects (i.e. framing), and/or defending science. The final phase of the project will explore the potential to design experiments aimed at testing the impact that mention of specific goals has on communication training recruitment as well as the degree to which online content about various goals is attractive to scientists interested in developing their communication skills. The research is the most targeted and largest attempt to date to understand how scientists' views about the public and communication processes may shape science communication behavior.