Targeting Children's Beliefs and Misconceptions Concerning COVID-19

发展对儿童进行疾病传播教育的有效手段，不仅对科学素养，而且对公共卫生都是至关重要的问题。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感染（如COVID-19的传播）的了解情况，并根据调查结果，开发并测试通过绘本提供的家庭教育干预的有效性。在试点研究的基础上，三项研究将对三个不同社区背景下的美国K-5年级儿童进行严格的跨年龄评估。研究问题包括：儿童在什么年龄时了解病毒传播的非明显或不可见的方面，例如无症状和症状前携带者，或物体和表面携带感染的可能性？什么年龄的孩子能超越他们所学到的孤立的事实，并弄清楚在新的情况下该怎么做？儿童的生物学推理是如何受到非生物学因素的影响的，比如潜在的携带者是朋友还是陌生人？与更普通、无害的疾病（普通感冒）相比，孩子们对一场已经严重扰乱他们日常生活的全球大流行（COVID-19）的推理如何？幼儿能否通过绘本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，为确定在小学阶段教授核心生物学概念的有效方法提供了前所未有的机会。该项目的调查结果将使家长、教育工作者和公共卫生专业人员了解儿童对病毒性疾病，特别是COVID-19传播的理解存在的差距和误解，并提供循证科学数据，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。它还将成为STEM教育核心兴趣的理论重要数据的来源，涉及如何向儿童教授他们无法看到的重要科学过程，非生物学概念如何影响儿童的生物学推理，以及社区背景在生物学理解中的作用。该奖项由EHR核心研究（ECR）项目颁发，该项目支持推进STEM学习基础研究文献的工作。研究小组将单独采访1440名5-12岁的儿童及其父母，以评估儿童对病毒传播生物学过程的理解，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，该项目将促进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将通过一系列儿童友好型任务来评估：潜伏期（感染和发病之间的时间差）、无症状宿主、病毒可以在表面或物体（如门把手）上存活，以及病毒可以通过眼睛、鼻子和嘴巴进入人体，从而解决儿童对病毒如何以及为何起作用和传播的理解。研究2将侧重于谁可能感染、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将评估以家庭为基础的教育干预措施，其目标是关于病毒传播的关键误解，其核心概念是使无形的概念可见。这种干预将系统地操纵拟人化语言和意象的作用（把病毒当作一个微小的生物来对待），以确定这些常用的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），它将被博物馆本身以外的其他用户携带。本次展览将直接由拟议的研究提供信息，目的是提高公众对COVID传播的认识，以及更广泛的病毒性疾病传播。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。

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.