How Do Individuals Think About Knowledge and Knowing?

2021 ◽  
pp. 97-121
Author(s):  
Gale M. Sinatra ◽  
Barbara K. Hofer
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Public Understanding Of Science ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Epistemic Cognition ◽  
Scientific Enterprise ◽  
New Information ◽  
Scientific Claims ◽  
Understanding Of Science ◽  
Source Of Information ◽  
Reasoning About Knowledge

In everyday encounters with new information, conflicting ideas, and claims made by others, one has to decide who and what to believe. Can one trust what scientists say? What’s the best source of information? These are questions that involve thinking and reasoning about knowledge, or what psychologists call “epistemic cognition.” In Chapter 5, “How Do Individuals Think About Knowledge and Knowing?,” the authors explain how public misunderstanding of scientific claims can often be linked to misconceptions about the scientific enterprise itself. Drawing on their own research and that of others, the authors explain how individuals’ thinking about knowledge influences their science doubt, resistance, and denial. They explain how educators and communicators can enhance public understanding of science by emphasizing how scientific knowledge is created and evaluated and why it should be valued.

scholarly journals Tension between visibility and invisibility: Science communication in new information environments

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Metag
Keyword(s):  
Public Engagement ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Public Understanding Of Science ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Digital Information ◽  
The Public ◽  
New Information ◽  
Public Engagement With Science ◽  
Understanding Of Science

The visibility and invisibility of scientific knowledge, its creation, and of scientists are at the core of science communication research. Thus, prominent paradigms, such as the public understanding of science or public engagement with science and technology, have implications for the visibility of scientific knowledge in the scientific community and among the public. This article posits that visibility in science communication is achieved with the availability of scientific knowledge, the approval of its dissemination, and its accessibility to third parties. The public understanding of science and public engagement with science paradigms emphasize different aspects of visibility with the latter focusing on the visibility of the creation of scientific knowledge more than public understanding of science which focuses on the knowledge itself. The digital information environment has engendered new formats and possibilities for visibility but also new risks, thereby creating tensions in science communication.

Understanding science from the perspective of the sociology of scientific knowledge: an overview

1994 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 245-258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Yearley
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Scientific Practice ◽  
Public Understanding Of Science ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Mutual Benefit ◽  
Public Controversy ◽  
The Public ◽  
Sociology Of Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Understanding Of Science ◽  
Understanding Science

In this paper I argue that the analytic perspective known as the `sociology of scientific knowledge' (SSK) provides an appropriate platform for examining issues in the public understanding of science. In particular. I suggest that three pervasive features of academic scientific practice identified by SSK—trust, judgement and long-termism—are central to interpreting difficulties with the `public understanding of science' in many situations of public controversy. The paper concludes by identifying areas where studies in SSK and the public understanding of science would be of mutual benefit.

scholarly journals 2008: retrospectiva dos 50 anos da geologia na UFRJ e olhar crítico para o futuro

2008 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-23
Author(s):  
Emílio Velloso Barroso ◽  
Josué Alves Barroso ◽  
Arthur Eduardo Diniz Gonçalves Horta ◽  
Ismar De Souza Carvalho
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Rio De Janeiro ◽  
Public Understanding Of Science ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Educational Activities ◽  
Job Opportunities ◽  
History Of ◽  
Understanding Of Science

The history of 50 years of the Geology undergraduate course of Rio de Janeiro Federal University and the 40 years of its Graduate Geology Program is part of the scientific knowledge of the Brazilian Geology during this period. The five decades of geology undergraduate course are analysed with respect to available job opportunities during that period and the own evolution of Geology as science. It is also analysed the widen of the educational activities of the Geology Department through public understanding of science

What Role Can Science Education Play?

2021 ◽  
pp. 50-74
Author(s):  
Gale M. Sinatra ◽  
Barbara K. Hofer
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Science Education ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Science Curriculum ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Understanding Of Science ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Understanding Of Science ◽  
K 12 ◽  
National Trends

In international tests, the United States lags behind other developed nations in scientific knowledge, consistently scoring in the middle of the pack, motivating calls to strengthen the science curriculum in the United States, as reflected by the current standards movements in education. As educators, the authors make the case in Chapter 3, “What Role Can Science Education Play?,” that while increases in science instruction in K–12 education would be a net gain for increasing public understanding of science, education alone has its limits in addressing the broader problem. They provide examples from their own research and that of others of national trends that show the value of focusing science education on the process of how scientific knowledge is created and vetted. The authors offer suggestions to educators, communicators, and policy makers for supporting public understanding of science.

Mundane science use in a practice theoretical perspective: Different understandings of the relations between citizen-consumers and public communication initiatives build on scientific claims

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bente Halkier
Keyword(s):  
Public Engagement ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Public Understanding Of Science ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Public Communication ◽  
Science Literature ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Engagement With Science ◽  
Scientific Claims ◽  
Understanding Of Science

Public communication initiatives play a part in placing complicated scientific claims in citizen-consumers’ everyday contexts. Lay reactions to scientific claims framed in public communication, and attempts to engage citizens, have been important subjects of discussion in the literatures of public understanding and public engagement with science. Many of the public communication initiatives, however, address lay people as consumers rather than citizens. This creates specific challenges for understanding public engagement with science and scientific citizenship. The article compares five different understandings of the relations between citizen-consumers and public issue communication involving science, where the first four types are widely represented in the Public Understanding of Science discussions. The fifth understanding is a practice theoretical perspective. The article suggests how the public understanding of and engagement in science literature can benefit from including a practice theoretical approach to research about mundane science use and public engagement.

Reception and rejection of science knowledge: choice, style and home culture

1993 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joan Solomon
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Public Understanding Of Science ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Television Show ◽  
Science Knowledge ◽  
Home Culture ◽  
Home Study ◽  
Understanding Of Science ◽  
Science Investigations ◽  
Individual Style

One reason why there is little public understanding of science concepts could be active personal rejection. There are many informal sources of scientific knowledge, but individual style and choice govern how and whether they are used. Other research shows that groups are interested in particular information, but that they reject science principles. Data from a study of students discussing issues from television show how they present themselves through their preferred knowledge sources. Finally I describe a home study of parents doing science investigations with primary-aged children. Interviews with the parents show that how they react to science and to education depends upon the home culture they have constructed. The parents reproduce this culture in the activities of their children, more or less strongly, and this affects their own acceptance or rejection of the scientific knowledge.

Relative Cultural Distance and Public Understanding of Science

2009 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 269-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gauhar Raza ◽  
Surjit Singh ◽  
Rajesh Shukla
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Cultural Distance ◽  
Public Attitude ◽  
Public Understanding Of Science ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Cultural Model ◽  
Understanding Of Science

Public Understanding of Science is an area constituted by those scholars who essentially acquired expertise in various established academic disciplines and shifted their attention towards a few specific issues related to the science–society interface. The discipline though recognised as a legitimate area of research has not come out of all its teething problems associated with the formation of any new area. The mainstay, during the first phase of its development was the attitudinal surveys conducted in various countries. The objectives of these surveys were to measure the extent of scientific knowledge, probe public attitude towards science or scientists, and at times simply to explore the level of confidence or lack of confidence that a common citizen had in science. These surveys gradually turned into an important and regular activity in many countries. The debate that followed the first phase resulted in refinement of methodology, tools and the models of assessment of Public Understanding of Science. The PAUS group at NISTADS, India, has since 1989 worked on methodology suitable for carrying out surveys in developing countries. Subsequently, a culturally sensitive model for analysing the survey data was proposed by the group. The present article in the first section gives details of the model designated here as the ‘cultural model of Public Understanding of Science’. The following sections, in detail, deal with the application of the model on data sets collected by two different organisations in India. The conclusions drawn confirm that the method of measuring cultural distance could be successfully applied to various data sets to draw meaningful inferences.

Understanding understanding: a model for the public learning of radioactivity

1999 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 267-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve Alsop
Keyword(s):  
Informal Learning ◽  
Background Radiation ◽  
Public Understanding Of Science ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Change Model ◽  
Potential Health ◽  
The Public ◽  
Understanding Of Science ◽  
Conceptual Change Model

While much of the work in the public understanding of science has focused on the public's appreciation of science and their familiarity with key scientific concepts, understanding the processes involved in learning science has largely been ignored. This article documents a study of how particular members of the public learn about radiation and radioactivity, and proposes a model to describe their learning—the Informal Conceptual Change Model [ICCM]. ICCM is a multidimensional framework that incorporates three theoretical dimensions—the cognitive, conative, and affective. The paper documents each of these dimensions, and then illustrates the model by drawing upon data collected in a case study. The emphasis of the analysis is on understanding how the members of the public living in an area with high levels of background radiation learn about the science of this potential health threat. The summarizing comments examine the need for a greater awareness of the complexities of informal learning.

The roles of rhetoric in the public understanding of science

1994 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan G. Gross
Keyword(s):  
Rhetorical Analysis ◽  
Public Understanding Of Science ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Minor Role ◽  
Contextual Model ◽  
Deficit Model ◽  
The Public ◽  
Science Rhetoric ◽  
Understanding Of Science ◽  
Social Scientific

In the public understanding of science, rhetoric has two distinct roles: it is both a theory capable of analysing public understanding and an activity capable of creating it. In its analytical role, rhetoric reveals two dominant models of public understanding: the deficit model and the contextual model. In the deficit model, rhetoric acts in the minor role of creating public understanding by accommodating the facts and methods of science to public needs and limitations. In the contextual model, rhetoric and rhetorical analysis play major roles. Rhetorical analysis provides an independent source of evidence to secure social scientific claims; in addition, it supplies the grounds for a rhetoric of reconstruction, one that reconstitutes the fact and facts of science in the public interest.

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