To know about science is to love it? Unraveling cause-effect relationships between knowledge and attitudes toward science in citizen science on urban wildlife ecology

verfasst von
Till Bruckermann, Hannah Greving, Anke Schumann, Milena Stillfried, Konstantin Börner, Sophia Kimmig, Robert Hagen, Miriam Brandt, Ute Harms
Abstract

Nowadays, citizens collaborate increasingly with scientists in citizen science (CS) projects on environmental issues. CS projects often have educational goals and aim to increase citizens' knowledge with the ultimate goal of fostering positive attitudes toward science. To date, little is known about the extent to which CS projects strengthen the positive interrelationship between knowledge and attitudes. Based on previous research, it has been suggested that the knowledge–attitude relationship could be further examined by focusing on different aspects: (1) different attitudinal domains, (2) topic-specific knowledge, and (3) its direction. Our study contributes to the clarification of the interrelation between scientific knowledge and attitudes toward science within the specific domain of urban wildlife ecology using cross-lagged panel analyses. We collected survey data on five attitudinal domains, topic-specific knowledge, scientific reasoning abilities, and epistemological beliefs from N = 303 participants before and after they participated in a CS project on urban wildlife ecology. Participants collected and analyzed data on terrestrial mammals in a German metropolitan city. Our results provide evidence for the relationship between knowledge and attitudes due to the topic-specificity of knowledge in CS projects (e.g., wildlife ecology). Our method provided a rigorous assessment of the direction of the knowledge–attitude relationship and showed that topic-specific knowledge was a predictor of more positive attitudes toward science.

Organisationseinheit(en)
Institut für Erziehungswissenschaft
Externe Organisation(en)
IPN - Leibniz-Institut für die Pädagogik der Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik
Leibniz-Institut für Zoo- u Wildtierforschung (IZW)
Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM)
Typ
Artikel
Journal
Journal of Research in Science Teaching
Band
58
Seiten
1179-1202
Anzahl der Seiten
24
ISSN
0022-4308
Publikationsdatum
13.09.2021
Publikationsstatus
Veröffentlicht
Peer-reviewed
Ja
ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete
Ausbildung bzw. Denomination
Elektronische Version(en)
https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21697 (Zugang: Offen)