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

为大规模的集体问题制定解决办法-例如应对环境挑战的复原力-需要有科学素养的社区。然而，科学素养的主要概念集中在个人身上，对于什么是社区水平的科学素养以及如何衡量科学素养还没有达成共识。因此，美国国家科学院、工程院和医学院2016年的一份报告《科学素养：概念、背景和后果》指出，社区水平的科学素养理论化和研究不足。更具体地说，委员会建议需要进行研究以了解i）背景（例如，社区的物理和社会环境）和ii）社区组织的特征（例如，社区内的关系），支持社区一级的科学素养和影响成功的群体行动。这个职业奖通过反复完善一个模型来概念化和衡量社区水平的科学素养，从而回应了这个国家确定的需求。本项目中开发的模型和指标可应用于广泛的主题（例如，疫苗接种、流行病应对、转基因食品、污染控制和土地使用决策），以提高社区做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）计划资助。它支持AISL计划的目标，以推进新的方法，并以证据为基础的理解，在非正式环境中设计和开发STEM学习。它支持ECR计划的目标，以推进与STEM学习和学习环境相关的研究知识。拟议的研究将概念化，操作化，并衡量社区层面的科学素养。本项目将采用比较性的多案例研究设计。三个沿海社区，面临着需要作出科学知情的土地利用决策，将依次进行研究。将采用收敛混合方法设计，同时进行定性和定量数据收集和分析。为了描述每个社区案例的i）背景，本项目将使用定性研究方法，包括文件分析，观察，焦点小组和访谈。为了测量每个社区案例的社区组织的ii）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介绍以及社区利益攸关方和公众在整个项目期间和项目结束时传播。综合教育活动包括为非正规科学教育专业人员和STEM研究生颁发专业学习证书。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学习计划。该专业学习计划将作为一个模式进行测试，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NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.