A New Direction for Public Understanding of Science

Engaging the public with science is not an easy task. When presented with scientific findings, public health recommendations, and other scientific information, people filter them through their personal values, beliefs, and biases. Science communicators must contend with these issues in order to be effective in cultivating a public understanding of science. Given the importance of scientific understanding for living well in a complex world, increasing science understanding through science engagement is imperative. The field of public engagement with science is dichotomized by a public information deficit approach and a contextualist approach. This book proposes a new approach; the participant-centered model of science engagement, incorporating the factual content of science and its epistemic authority, but in a way that is sensitive to context. It argues for a deliberative democratic approach to public engagement with science, and articulates a model inspired by learner-centered approaches to teaching in the formal education literature. The field of public understanding of science is interdisciplinary, with contributing disciplines from communication, psychology/cognitive science, philosophy, and the sciences themselves. The book will make an excellent reader in graduate-level public engagement with science, or science, technology, and society courses.