Learning Through Citizen Science Enhancing Opportunities by Design (2018) / Chapter Skim
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4 Processes of Learning and Learning in Science
4 Processes of Learning and Learning in Science
Pages 71-102
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The concepts lay the groundwork for Chapter 5, which delves into how citizen science can advance specific science learning outcomes. We begin with an explanation of the committee's perspective on learning in the context of the history and evolution of learning theories.
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PERSPECTIVES ON LEARNING The committee has elected to take an expansive view of learning in general and science learning more specifically: Both what the learning is and the many contextual factors that influence it. Historically, most learning research focuses on individuals, and as we discussed in our section on community science literacy in Chapter 3, many research literatures and theoretical perspectives (including developmental, social, organizational, and cultural psychology; cognitive science, neuroscience, and the learning sciences; and education)
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Then, the chapter narrows in on the specifics of science learning, including learning disciplinary content; using scientific tools; understanding and working with data; developing motivation, interest, and identity; and developing scientific reasoning, epistemological thinking, and the nature of science.
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It is critical to note that these processes are not unique to science learning. Indeed, much of the general scholarship on learning has emerged in relationship to other academic disciplines, each with their own scholarly research traditions.
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As with the all the processes of learning described below, designers of citizen science projects can leverage the role of memory in learning to support specific science learning outcomes. The Importance of Activity As noted above, human thinking, learning, and behavior is fundamentally shaped by the need to engage in purposeful activity within social systems involving other people.
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Activity systems are characterized by rules and conventions, which evolve historically and culturally, as well as divisions of labor and participation structures, which may include social strata or a hierarchical structure to the activity, with different actors taking on distinctive roles. A key insight of activity theory is that "tools," which may be culturally created artifacts
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and also points back to the need to consider citizen science learning in the context of a larger ecosystem of learning experiences. Activity systems are often used as a way of modeling practice in various contexts, including educational practice, in such a way that systems-level relations and dynamics are highlighted.
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. In this subsection, we discuss the role of conceptual change and perceptual learning in the development of expertise.
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Strike and Posner (1982) show how conceptual change can occur when a learner begins to be sufficiently dissatisfied with a prior conception (e.g., by being confronted with anomalous information)
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This kind of repeated classification activity across a range of examples is a central feature of many citizen science projects, like Zooniverse or COASST, suggesting that citizen science projects may be a particularly rich venue for perceptual learning.
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(Indeed, fluent reading in everyday life relies heavily on automatic information pick up obtained through perceptual learning)
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Throughout this section, we refer back to the strands of informal science learning outlined in Chapter 3 to provide a framework for understanding the outcomes that result from these different kinds of learning in science. As emphasized in that chapter, we note that focusing on strands in insolation is an analytic convenience to help understand science learning; in practice strands are inextricably interwoven and projects that effectively advance science learning outcomes often advance and connect multiple strands.
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As discussed above, theorists of conceptual development in science learning have noted repeatedly that mature science concepts are often qualitatively different from concepts held by children or by uninstructed adults. One strong example of how this conceptual change can play out in science domains can be observed through the implementation of A Framework for K–12 Science Education's core disciplinary ideas, which aim to focus science learning around fewer science topics but to develop them in more depth across multiple years while simultaneously integrating them with science practices, described in the following sections (National Research Council, 2012)
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. Using Scientific Tools and Participating in Science Practices Another way that science learning occurs is by using scientific tools and methods to engage in scientific reasoning (Strand 3)
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For example, data collection protocols, maps, databases, online interfaces, and computer simulations may all shape how knowledge is produced and how learning occurs in a given setting. Social norms and conventions -- whether at a scientific conference, in a classroom, or among a self-organized community group -- may also serve as tools that mediate learning and knowledge sharing.
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. Similar to other inquiry-driven approaches to science education that emphasize doing science as engaging in interrelated practices (e.g., Manz, 2016; National Research Council, 2007, 2012; Schwartz et
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This cycle begins with forming questions, and then moves into making decisions about relevant attributes and how they will be measured, organizing data and representing variability in distributions of data, and ultimately making inferences, which will in turn stimulate new questions. Several projects have looked more closely at how students learn to engage in practices related to scientific modeling; these projects offer fieldtested strategies and curricular resources for supporting this learning with topics such as genetics, Darwinian evolution, plant growth, light and shadows, and evaporation and condensation (Lehrer and Schauble, 2004; Schwarz et al., 2009; Stewart, Cartier, and Passmore, 2005)
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The Importance of Motivation, Interest, and Identity Motivation, interest, and identity can be thought of as inputs to, mediators for, and outcomes of participation in science. For example, interest in a science topic can motivate people to seek out information; people whose whole identities are welcomed and appreciated are more likely to participate in science learning activities (Rahm et al., 2003)
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In the following chapter, we consider how citizen science can support their development as outcomes in science learning. Motivation Two primary theories support contemporary understandings of motivation.
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For individuals that have mastery-oriented goals, a task that does not afford continual mastery goals can lead to disengagement -- if something is too easy, a mastery-oriented person may lose interest and seek other opportunities. Another important finding in the field of science education has been the interlocking of motivation and learning with opportunities to participate in the full range of scientific practices and sense-making (e.g., Chin and Brown, 2000)
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disciplinary identities -- who develops, and how, an identity as someone who does science and contributes to science learning, and (2) social and cultural identities -- how socially and culturally constructed identities such as racial and gendered identities intersect with learning, as well as how power dynamics and processes such as racialization impact learning and engagement.
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The next chapter will explore the ways in which these identities intersect with, influence, and are influenced by science learning outcomes in citizen science. Scientific Reasoning, Epistemological Thinking, and the Nature of Science The concepts covered in this subsection -- scientific reasoning and epistemological thinking3 -- correspond to Strand 2 (using arguments and fact related to science)
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. Scientific reasoning entails learning to coordinate knowledge claims with evidence, but this, in turn, depends on understanding that there is a difference between claims and evidence or between facts and beliefs.
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Constructing a rebuttal in science, for example, requires this kind of complex, controlled thinking to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of counterclaims and to generate and evaluate support for one's own claims. Sociocultural perspectives are an important additional lens for understanding how epistemologies and scientific reasoning develop.
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may be useful to remove the implicit privileging of Western scientific thinking and recognize the importance of different cultural values and orientations. Place-based educational programs that are co-created and implemented with members of indigenous communities have demonstrated success in helping Native American learners to navigate multiple epistemologies and deepen their understanding of science related to plants, animals, and ecology while also appreciating the historic legacy and contemporary relevance of their own communities' knowledge and experience of the natural world.
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As we will see in the next chapter, awareness of the multiple factors that influence learning provide opportunities to build rich learning experiences that leverage and build out from citizen science. At the same time, research on learning reveals that any learning, including learning is citizen science, occurs in a larger ecosystem of learning opportunities and experiences.
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Paper commissioned by the Committee on Designing Citizen Science to Support Science Learning at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Bang, M., and Medin, D
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. Conceptual change: A powerful framework for improv ing science teaching and learning.
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. Perceptual learning and human expertise.
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. Perceptual learning modules in mathemat ics: Enhancing students' pattern recognition, structure extraction and fluency.
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International Journal of Science Education, 25(9)
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. Conceptual change and science teaching.
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