This research is supported in part by two grants from the National Science Foundation: The Center for Curriculum Materials in Science (ESI ) and Long-term Ecological Research in Row-crop Agriculture (DEB Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. EVIRONMENTAL LITERACY ENVIRONMENTAL LITERACY Center for Curriculum Materials in Science (CCMS) Creating a K-12 Learning Progression for Environmentally Literate Citizenship: Developing Frameworks for Exploring Relationships among Student Identities, Understanding, and Reasoning about Issues Blakely K. Tsurusaki, Beth Covitt, and Charles W. Anderson Michigan State University Background Evidence suggests that most Americans are poorly equipped with the scientific understanding needed to make informed decisions about issues that include scientific components (National Science Board, 2004). And yet, individuals regularly do encounter these issues and make de facto decisions in their day to day lives. Socioscientific issues confront us with a need to make decisions associated with arguments from evidence under circumstances where both the decision and the evidence are contested. The decisions can be either personal decisions (e.g., what products to buy, how to vote) or decisions made by others (e.g., judges, school boards, legislatures) in which we have a stake. The arguments come from more or less trustworthy sources and are based on more or less compelling evidence. Citizens may recognize the importance of socioscientific issues, but find them perplexing (Kolstø, 2001). Our goal is to understand how individuals understand socioscientific issues and how they engage with these issues. Thus, in the citizenship environmental literacy strand we are interested in exploring individuals’ pre-existing knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, epistemological stances, etc. related to science in social issues; how they integrate new information and experiences (i.e., through interacting with the exhibit) into their perspective about an issue; and how they make decisions about an issue. Findings and Implications Global Perceptions of World Perceptions activate “environmental” or other schemas Local Framing of Self and Situation Who am I? Perceptions of personal identity, roles, and agency Initial perception/Framing of situation Based on cultural models (e.g., human consumption and/or environmental impact as reasons for decision/action) Perception leads to conscious decisions process involving consideration of: Who do I trust? What is the evidence? Understanding current knowledge and seeking new information. Perception leads to immediate decision without conscious thought about environmental impacts. Deciding About Issue and/or Action Strawberry Citizenship Interview: Thinking and Making Decisions about Purchasing Strawberries The strawberry citizenship interviews consisted of general background questions about their roles as consumers and learners, interest in science, and knowledge of environmental issues. The students were also asked to complete two ordering tasks. First they were asked to order various food products from what they deemed most nutritious to least nutritious. This task positioned students as consumers and focused on environmental systems services (LTER, 2007; Anderson, 2007). Next, they were asked to order the same food products from what they thought was most environmentally friendly to least environmentally friendly. While the first task focused on the environmental system services, the second task focused on the human actions with environmental impact. In both ordering tasks, they were asked to explain why they ordered each product as more or less nutritious/environmentally friendly than other products. Water Citizenship Interviews: Thinking and Making Decisions about a Proposed Water Bottling Venture The water citizenship interviews had several parts. First, the students were asked some general questions about how people use water, how they personally use water, preferences for drinking bottled versus tap water, and their understanding of environmental impacts of different uses of water. Next, the students were introduced to a true scenario about a company that would like to build a new well in Michigan to enlarge their water bottling business. After being introduced to the scenario the students were first asked some questions to find out how they understood the science around the scenario. Next, the students were asked some questions about how, as citizens, they would respond to the water bottling issue. In the course of the citizenship section of the interviews, the students were presented with some additional information from different stakeholders. The students could use the additional information to inform their positions and decisions with regard to the issue. Participants 6 students (3 middle and 3 high school students) were interviewed using the strawberry interview protocol. All six interviews were transcribed and analyzed. 16 students (4 elementary, 4 middle, and 8 high school students ) were interviewed using the water interview protocol. Six interviews were transcribed and analyzed. Figure 1: Environmental Decision Making Process (Reasoning about Decisions Involving Connected Human and Natural Environmental Systems) While the other strands in the Environmental Literacy Project focus on student understanding of coupled human and natural systems, we are interested in if, and how, students draw on their understanding of coupled human and natural systems when making decisions about environmental topics or issues. We developed an environmental decision-making framework (Figure 1) that focuses on various aspects that may influence decision-making. We use it as a framework to examine how students reason about environmental topics and issues. Methods References Anderson, C.W. (2007). Environmental literacy learning progressions. Paper presented at the Knowledge Sharing Institute of the Center for Curriculum Studies in Science. Washington, D. C. Kolstø, S. (2001). Scientific literacy for citizenship: Tools for dealing with the science dimension of controversial socioscientific issues. Science Education, 85(3), Long Term Ecological Research Network Research Initiatives Subcommittee. (2007). Integrative Science for Society and Environment: A Strategic Research Plan. Long Term Ecological Rsearch Network. National Science Board. (2004). Science and Engineering Indicators 2004 (No. NSB 04-01). Arlington, VA: National Science Foundation. Acknowledgements We would like to thank Edna Tan for her contributions to this work. LOCAL FRAMING OF SELF AND SITUATION Who Am I? Perceptions of identity, roles, agency, and community For example, one high school student talked about how being a wrestler plays a role in decisions about the products he buys when he goes to the grocery store. He said that he buys Fruit2O, a flavored water drink, or water because they do not have any calories. Student: I usually buy like drinks for myself. … Water and like Fruit2O. Interviewer: Why do you only buy Fruit20? Student: Well, I usually buy it for myself because I like playing sports. And like I’m a wrestler so I try to watch my calories too. And like Fruit2O has zero calories so I drink that a lot. And bottles of water. Initial perception or framing of the situation based on cultural models (human consumption and/or environmental impact) While the tasks in the strawberry interview were framed in particular ways - the nutrition ordering task in terms of human consumption and the environmentally friendly ordering task in terms of environmental impact - the students brought various perceptions of what they thought was nutritious or environmentally friendly. In the water interviews, students framed the issue in terms of a human consumption framework unless they were specifically scaffolded to take an environmental impact frame. DECIDING ABOUT AN ISSUE AND/OR ACTION Environmentally literate citizens should be able to make conscious decision about issues that take into account the following three aspects: 1.Who do you trust? (Reasoning about SOURCES of information) How do students evaluate the credibility of different sources? Students used a variety of criteria to determine who they would trust, such as: the appearance of information on a website (what website looked better) a source’s reputation whether or not a source had a particular agenda. 2. What’s the evidence? (Reasoning about ARGUMENTS or positions and supporting evidence) How do students use evidence to support their arguments? Students do not automatically use evidence Students use various evidence when probed 3. Understanding current knowledge and seeking new information. (Reasoning about what course of action or POSITION to take) How do they make sense of the different positions and possible consequences? How do they assess the desirability of different positions? Students: sometimes use information to try to support what they already believe only use the part of the information that support what they believe misunderstanding of information leads to misapplication We found that many aspects, such as their identities and values, influence how students’ make decisions perhaps more than their knowledge of coupled human and natural systems. When teaching environmental science, we need to carefully consider how science practices connect to students’ citizenship practices. Decision Making Framework