Understanding understanding: a model for the public learning of radioactivity

Abstract

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.

Pre‐service Teachers’ Subject Knowledge of and Attitudes about Radioactivity and Ionising Radiation

“…Similar findings are reported by Boyes and Stanisstreet (1994) The close presence of the school source was a potential threat that the pre-service teachers often defused by trusting the interviewer's safe practice. Similar findings have been reported for the general public by Alsop (1999) and Macgill (1987). Jenkins (2003) has identified trust in others as an emotionally satisfying way to deal with risk when science knowledge is lacking.…”

Encountering science education’s capacity to affect and be affected

“…I followed this with studies of living and learning with the science of radon set within a picturesque Somerset village (Alsop 1999), and a collaborative curriculum project in Brazil responding to a tragic nuclear accident involving youth and an abandoned radiotherapy machine (see Watts et al 1997).…”

Science Communication: A Contemporary Definition

“…15 For example, Gregory and Miller report the case where nuclear workers would rather trust their colleagues to provide a safe work environment than attempt to understand the health risks of alpha, beta and gamma radiation themselves. 16 Understanding is not a binary condition, something that you either have or you don't have, 17 but rather a developing comprehension of both the meaning and implications of some knowledge, action or process based on appropriate commonly accepted principles. For scientific understanding, the appropriate commonly accepted principles would be science's theories, laws, and processes identified in the science section together with some appreciation of their ramifications.…”

“…Critics have pointed out that surveys, which identify the public as being deficient in scientific knowledge, may not adequately address the true complexity of the issue. 50 For example, do the polls indicate widespread scientific illiteracy or do they really just capture the public's ambivalence to science (or at least to the aspects of science that were assessed)? Is it realistic to test the public's knowledge of scientific facts?…”