Photo: Frank Winkler Briefly analysed
When people know about something, they can understand it better. This is a simple insight that applies to all areas of life, including science communication. If people know the scientific processes, they can understand their results. Knowledge of scientific methods should be taught in schools. Science is also obliged to communicate the steps it takes to gain knowledge. The best way to do this, is through dialogue. But dialogue formats, on closer inspection, are often a monologue. It may be practiced more quickly. Dialogic communication is more time-consuming, but more sustainable.
Public Public Engagement is in Germany no longer just a theoretical concept, but it is increasingly being implemented – unfortunately still too little. In the process, science and society alike would learn with dialogue formats.
Public Engagement is more recognized in the English-speaking world than in Germany. In the UK science and community involvement are equally relevant. Deena Skolnick Weisberg of Villanova University, USA, and her colleagues show that a general knowledge of how scientific processes work demands acceptance of scientific statements. Then even political orientation or religiosity seem subordinate. This does not mean that the views shaped by them do not play a role. They are minimized.
The need for communication of scientific processes
Given the fact that some scientific findings are not recognized by the public, communicating scientific processes is all the more necessary. One example is climate change. Although many scientists provide clear results for it, there are still deniers.
When some scientific statements contradict each other or are adjusted after some time, this unsettles people or reinforces their view that climate change is not a given. Many people are not aware that science is changing and that statements are being falsified.
Teach methods of science in schools
An understanding of how science is created and how its methods work is rarely taught in schools. Public Engagement about basic scientific knowledge could counteract this. Acceptance of scientific statements would increase, if people understood why scientific findings are sometimes revised.
Being in exchange with the public benefits people and science alike. Researchers and the public can understand each other and exchange information. But the dialogue must start from the scientific side.
Dialogue formats are sustainable
Many institutions pretend to communicate in dialogue. On closer inspection, however, it is a monologue. Even though dialogue events are more costly, they are more sustainable in the long run. They offer the opportunity for mutual learning. Both science and the population discover a variety of perspectives and suggestions that they can use for themselves.
Source:
Weisberg Skolnick, Deena (2021): Knowledge about the nature of science increase public acceptance of science regardless of identity factors. In: Public Understanding of Science, 30 (2), S. 120-138.
On our own business
If you want to exchange ideas and network with others in the field of public engagement, we recommend the First Steps Symposium – Exchange and Networking for Public Engagement. The conference will take place digitally and free of charge from 6.09. to 10.09. Registration is now open.