Educating about mass vaccinations in a post-truth era

The development of vaccines against a range of deadly or debilitating diseases represents one of the major medical advances of our time, saving many millions of lives. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to extensive media coverage on vaccination. As a consequence, vaccination views and varied sides of the debate have become a common topic of social conversation and argument worldwide. Despite the undoubted benefits vaccines have provided, there is still skepticism about their safety amongst some sections of society. Anti-vaccine messages are being amplified and disseminated widely by social media, sometimes invoking either pseudo-science or anti-scientific justification. The prevalence and apparent influence of the current anti-vaccine movement suggest that the goals of science education including scientific literacy, critical thinking and argumentation based on reliable evidence, and sound reasoning are not being met for a substantial proportion of the population. This chapter will examine some of the non-scientific arguments currently being communicated about mass vaccination on social media platforms and the implications for science education in engaging with this problematic socio-scientific issue. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023. All rights reserved.

Socioscientific Issues and COVID-19: Responding to Curriculum Reform through Action Research

This collaborative action research project documents the exploration and student learning outcomes of COVID-19 socioscientific issue-based lessons. Analysis of student interviews, surveys, and work, combined with classroom observations, revealed that COVID-19 socioscientific issue-based lessons improved students' conceptual understanding of the science behind pandemic control measures, increased their feelings of personal responsibility in responding to COVID-19, and broadened their perspectives on the impacts of COVID-19 on diverse populations. The framework used to design the lesson series—Three Visions of Scientific Literacy—facilitated the authors' response to curriculum reform. Future use of the framework and implications for socioscientific issue-based teaching are discussed.

Science journalism against disinformation: decalogue of good practices in the digital and transmedia environment

In parallel to the impact of the Covid health pandemic, the fight against disinformation has become one of the main concerns of democratic societies and the media system itself due to its historical role as guarantor of the right to access to rigorous, contrasted, and quality information. The viralization of hoaxes, most of them through social networks, has led media and journalists to place verification processes as one of the cornerstones of their activity and to explore new narratives and publication strategies to reach audiences. In particular, the younger generations are increasingly disconnected from traditional communication environments. This context is revitalizing, redefining and placing science journalism in a strategic position: for what it implies in fact-checking processes and for the opportunity to improve engagement with the public. This research is structured on the basis of a solid corpus of interviews with academic and professional experts. The considerations and opinions of these specialists have made possible the elaboration of a decalogue of good practices oriented to the exploration of the transmedia ecosystem as a vehicle for innovation and promotion of media literacy. © 2023 Scientific Association Icono14. All rights reserved.

Drama as a Powerful Tool to Enrich Socio-scientific Argumentation.

Socio-scientific argumentation (SSA) is increasingly being recognized as a key aspect of scientific literacy. Much of the reason for this is that this skill is crucial for helping students to become active participants in twenty-first-century democratic societies in which the construction of informed and critical views of socio-scientific issues (e.g. climate change, COVID-19 vaccination, genetic testing) plays a fundamental role. The problem is that instructors rarely give students explicit and research-based opportunities to enrich their SSA skills. Therefore, the aim of this study was to provide evidence that drama can be used as a platform to enrich argumentation in genetic testing. The data were derived from the written responses and the audio recordings of seventy-six university students (37 females and 39 males, 16-29 years old) in Colombia during a complete drama-based teaching-learning sequence (TLS) supervised by the same instructor. The outcomes suggest that the sequence can be used to enrich argumentation in genetic testing as it effectively provided participants with explicit opportunities to produce both arguments and counterarguments about the controversy whether the use of genetic tests among people should be encouraged. This study contributes to the literature on SSA in science education by demonstrating that drama is a promising tool to enhance argumentation about science-based social issues. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10763-022-10320-3.

Seeing like an epidemiologist? Mobilising people against COVID-19.

Diaries and other materials in the Mass Observation Archive have been characterised as intersubjective and dialogic. They have been used to study top-down and bottom-up processes, including how ordinary people respond to sociological constructs and, more broadly, the footprint of social science in the 20th century. In this article, we use the Archive's COVID-19 collections to study how attempts to govern the pandemic by mobilising ordinary people to see like an epidemiologist played out in the United Kingdom during 2020. People were asked to think in terms of populations and groups; rates, trends, and distributions; the capacity of public services; and complex systems of causation. How did they respond? How did they use the statistics, charts, maps, concepts, identities, and roles they were given? We find evidence of engagement with science plural; confident and comfortable engagement with epidemiological terms and concepts; sceptical and reluctant engagement with epidemiological subject positions; use of both scientific and moral literacy to negotiate regulations and guidance; and use of scientific literacy to compare and judge government performance. Governing the pandemic through scientific literacy was partially successful, but in some unexpected ways.

COVID-19 Scientific Literacy in Medical and Nursing Students.

The pandemic brought a whole newfound collection of words into our everyday language, some of which had been terms that were infrequently used outside academic and medical settings. However, as familiar as this new pandemic vocabulary has become, there are still several terms that often get mixed in everyday conversations, media communications, and even in the medical field. Some of these terms are often mistaken, which may lead to issues in the understanding of important concepts. Science communication, as a facet of scientific literacy, intends to educate people in an easy-to-understand manner, and this communication is even more important in health care, when a literate patient's medical decisions depend frequently on this process. In this article, we explore the use and misuse of some of the most common terms utilized during the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic by nursing and medical students, i.e., future health care professionals, in the hospital environment. This single-center hospital-based cross-sectional study, performed throughout September 2022, included 30 medical and nursing students. All participants completed a self-administered 15-item anonymous questionnaire at a single time point. Nine multiple-choice questions evaluated knowledge, diagnosis, disease manifestations, and vaccines related to the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus. Six questions provided demographics and quality assessment information. The analysis of the answers indicated that for at least 75% of the population surveyed, COVID-19 literacy was better for terms related to technology and actions (3/5 questions answered correctly) than for terms related to the disease (1/4 questions answered correctly). The overall median score for questions 1 to 9 was 4.5 of 9 points in total. Based on the results, the language used in the questionnaire was considered easy to understand, with an easy to medium level of complexity, and the perceived time required to complete the questionnaire was less than 5 min. In conclusion, our results showed that efforts need to be made in continuous professional education to increase the knowledge in COVID-19 literacy in the health care environment for medical and nursing students. Larger studies are recommended to identify and to fulfill the challenges that COVID-19 brought to medical and nursing education.

Towards the empowerment of public scientific literacy: Presenter(s): Sara Rubinelli, University of Lucerne and Swiss Paraplegic Research, Switzerland

As demonstrated during the Covid pandemic, evaluating health information and identifying mis/disinformation is very demanding for the general public, making informing the public a key action in pandemic response. Nonetheless, this information is grounded in and contains scientific evidence and concepts. It implicitly assumes some level of scientific knowledge to be understood and used in a correct and actionable manner (e.g., knowledge of how a vaccine is tested for safety and efficacy). Thus, the 'scientific literacy' of the general population becomes prominent. The objective of this presentation is to illustrate a model of public scientific literacy. A conceptual review of existing conceptualisations and operationalisations of scientific literacy found in the literature through comparative evaluation, i.e. the models by Norris and Philis, the Science-Technology Society (STS), OECD Pisa, Ying Zhan and Chiappetta et al. Five main components of public scientific literacy are identified as most prominent. Specifically, the model includes knowledge and evaluation skills on the following topics: the concept of 'scientific evidence' versus an opinion (even of an expert);the different types of quantitative and qualitative evidence;how science works as a process to achieve knowledge based on the principle of falsification;the peer-reviewed process for science publication and the ethical standards for scientific work and its implementation. Scientific literacy is the basis of critical thinking and thus of individual and collective decisions and behaviors that are non-ideological and non-stereotypical. Scientific literacy allows dynamic adaptations of behaviors and modifications of beliefs and knowledge transparently and adaptively, which can integrate knowledge advancements and new information as complex phenomena that are progressively better understood and explained. Findings: from this study can inform the development of measurement instruments and interventions for public scientific literacy. Also they are a basis for strengthening institutional communication of evidence-based recommendations. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Patient Education & Counseling is the property of Elsevier B.V. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Institutional trust, scientific literacy, and information sources: What factors determine people's attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccines of different origins in China?

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the different attitudes of Chinese residents toward COVID-19 vaccines produced in China and the United States in an emergency context, and then explored possible explanations for these different attitudes. Methods: Using data collected online in May 2021, we compared Chinese citizens' attitudes toward vaccines originating from China and the US and then adopted ordered logistic models to examine how trust in institutions, scientific literacy, and information sources influence their attitudes toward different vaccines. Results: A total of 2038 respondents completed the survey. Participants reported very different levels of trust in Chinese and American vaccines. The main finding of this paper is that individuals who trust in Chinese institutions, especially those who trust in domestic scientists, typically feel encouraged to also place their trust in domestic vaccines and to distrust those from the US. These individuals' higher evaluation of Chinese government performance makes them more willing to vaccinate with domestic vaccines and less likely to seek US vaccines. Levels of scientific literacy, furthermore, seem to have little influence on attitudes toward different vaccines. Meanwhile, respondents who acquire health information from biomedical journals are more likely to hold a positive view of US vaccines, and these individuals contribute to bridging the gap between levels of trust in Chinese and US vaccines. Conclusions: In contrast with previous findings about Chinese attitudes toward imported vaccines, our respondents are more convinced of the safety and effectiveness of domestic vaccines than of US ones. This trust gap does not arise out of actual disparity in the quality and safety of the different vaccines per se. Instead, it is a cognition concern that is closely bound up with individuals' trust in domestic institutions. People's attitudes toward vaccines of different origins in an emergency context are more influenced by socio-political beliefs than by concern with objective information and knowledge.

Searching for the cognitive basis of anti-vaccination attitudes

Research on the reasons for vaccine hesitancy has largely focused on factors directly related to vaccines. In contrast, the present study focused on cognitive factors that are not conceptually related to vaccines but that have been linked to other epistemically suspect beliefs such as conspiracy theories and belief in fake news. This survey was conducted before the Covid-19 pandemic (N = 356). The results showed that anti-vaccination attitudes decreased slightly with cognitive abilities and analytic thinking styles, and strongly with scientific literacy. In addition, anti-vaccination attitudes increased slightly with teleological bias and strongly with an intuitive thinking style, ontological biases, and religious and paranormal beliefs. The results suggest that the same cognitive mechanisms that predispose to other epistemically suspect beliefs may predispose to anti-vaccination attitudes as well. The findings also indicate that pro-vaccination communication should focus on early prevention and that interventions against vaccine hesitancy should strive to be intuitively appealing. © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Equity‐centered science education: The origin story of this special issue

Among the mechanisms of systematic erasure associated with science and science education (e.g., Shea & Sandoval, 2020;Takeuchi & Marin, 2022), the project addressed antiracism (Mills, 2015) along with a discriminatory bias toward multilingual and low-income students as well as their families and communities. However, in April 2019, public health professionals and researchers around the country launched their own science literacy campaign aimed at educating citizens on the science behind the COVID-19 virus and its spread in our communities. Https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.21720 o I Negotiating mentoring relationships and supports for Black and Brown early career faculty i by Natalie King & Bhaskar Upadhyay. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.21755 o I Mentoring science educators for equity-centered futures i by John Settlage. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.21759 Partnering o I Beginning school-university partnerships for transformative social change in science education: Narratives from the field i by Hosun Kang & María González-Howard. The contents of this special issue are the products of a National Science Foundation (NSF)-supported working conference. [Extracted from the article] Copyright of Science Education is the property of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Reflections on Multimodal Delivery of a Laboratory Course for Nonscience Majors and Opportunities for Improved Student Engagement

A rudimentary level of scientific literacy is necessary in the general public. At the undergraduate level, this literacy can be achieved through general education courses offered in areas of natural sciences. Over the past several years, practical courses have been developed to make the teaching of chemistry concepts in the laboratory more interesting and appealing to nonscience majors. This article provides insights and reflections from teaching a general education, liberal arts chemistry course at a private university using different teaching delivery modes during a pandemic. Specifically, the unique circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic allowed faculty to deviate from the traditional face-to-face delivery and explore the use of virtual delivery, experimentation at home, and hybrid instruction to meet learning objectives. The article reflects on the lessons from this experience to improve course delivery and student engagement in science laboratory courses for nonscience majors. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of College Science Teaching is the property of National Science Teachers Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Co-design of a Teaching-Learning Sequence to Address COVID­19 as a Socio­scientific Issue in an Infodemic Context.

In the post-truth era, one challenge facing science education is the circulation of fake news that distorts the information available for decision-making on issues that have a scientific basis and are controversial for society. In this work, we aimed at designing a learning environment with the objective of equipping students with skills that allow them to deal with socio-scientific issues (SSI) in an infodemic context. To this end, we proposed an educational innovation through design-based research, which was oriented to the treatment of information disseminated in the media and social networks related to COVID-19. We divided this information into four major constructs: virus and disease dynamics; pandemic and environmental crisis; hygiene and protocols; and vaccines, potential solutions, and pharmaceutical industry. On the basis of the activities of the didactic sequence, which included class discussion, interviews with the immediate environment, audiovisual productions, and a final plenary, we identified criteria that students applied to trust or not trust the circulating information and a series of strategies to corroborate the information. In addition, framing COVID-19 as an SSI allowed the discussion of curricular content in science and on sociocultural dimensions that cross the pandemic. Based on the implementation of the teaching-learning sequence, we conclude that the proposed activities favored reflection on critical thinking and awareness of the responsibilities they have as potential disseminators and/or generators of information.

Motivating and Engaging students to write in science

The article offers information about motivating and engaging students to write in science. It mentions that how positive attitudes helps students to become fluent and independent readers and writers. It discusses that writing is a form of communication which students are required to master in the course of their learning in order to succeed with written assessments required for NCEA.

IMPACT OF THE NEW VIRTUAL EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENTS DERIVED FROM COVID-19 ON THE AFFECTIVE DOMAIN OF FUTURE TEACHERS FOR SCIENCE LEARNING

The COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown rules imposed to limit its spread forced to become virtual teaching at all educational levels. The pandemic's progress has highlighted the importance of the educative community be ready cognitively and affectively to make more flexible education. This is even more relevant for the teachers in training, as the virtualization of teaching is an increasingly common process. We analyse how the virtualization of science subjects, during the lockdown, affects the emotions and self-efficacy of a sample of 330 pre-service teachers. As well, the principal causes attributed to these emotions. The participants felt mostly, negative emotions (worry, uncertainty, frustration, nervousness) derived from the teacher and its implemented methodology;also, a low self-efficacy towards science teaching. Based on these results, we include several educational implications for a better emotional experience for students during science e-learning.

Research on Chinese Journalists' Scientific Literacy

Journalists are always on the “second battlefield” of fighting against COVID-19. In the face of major public health events, their scientific literacy is directly related to the effect of emergency science popularization. Based on related surveys and interview data in China, this article reviews the research on journalists' scientific literacy, clarifies the value of scientific literacy in journalism, and analyzes the cognition and practice of journalist scientific literacy. Through the analysis of cognition and practice, it explores feasible ways to effectively improve scientific literacy. The study found that journalist scientific literacy has a unique value in the crisis period, but the real measurement and self-cognition are not high. In the post-epidemic era, the social construction of science communication is stronger, and the media need to achieve a high degree of interaction with the scientific community to transform authoritative knowledge into popular science. Journalists should improve scientific literacy from their learning and professional training while using new media technology to scientifically demonstrate information. Copyright © 2022 Hu.

The Separation of "Health" from the Healthcare Sciences

While anti-vaccination groups are an extreme form of this idea of an individual's capacity, independent from the authority of experts, to know without any expertise and to control what is healthy, they represent a radical position to an increasingly common view of health as a personal or familial production. In the United States, "freedom" became the catchphrase of those who argue against authoritative experts and institutions pushing for restrictions, masking requirements, social distancing, and vaccine mandates. Much of the American anti-vax movement pre-COVID-19 pandemic circulated around mothers who were deeply concerned with the health of their children and worried about the impact of "unnatural" vaccines on them. [Extracted from the article] Copyright of International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics is the property of University of Toronto Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Science and behavioral intentions among Israeli Jewish ultra-Orthodox males: Death from COVID-19 or from the COVID-19 vaccine? A thematic study.

The COVID-19 vaccine is a scientific breakthrough to end the pandemic. We explore perceptions underlying behavioral intentions toward the COVID-19 vaccine among ultra-Orthodox Jewish males in Israel upon rollout of the vaccine. Forty-two men aged 36-56 years participated in in-depth interviews. The theoretical anchor is Miller's theory of scientific literacy. The research questions are "What perceptions shape rejection of the COVID-19 vaccine?" "What perceptions shape hesitancy and deterrence toward the COVID-19 vaccine?" and "What social forces shape behavioral intentions toward the COVID-19 vaccine?" Thematic data analysis demonstrated six themes of vaccine rejection and four themes of hesitation toward vaccination. The social forces shaping behavioral intentions are the local community's leader and the national religious authority. We highlight the need to enhance scientific literacy and reduce suspicion through collaborative community-based work among health professionals from the community, religious leaders, and lay leaders to increase acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Scientific literacy, librarians and information literacy in the post-truth era

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to challenge librarians to reconceptualize their professional self-image and practice so that it more closely aligns with the information science discipline that is part of the Masters of Library and Information Science degree. Design/methodology/approach: This column is primarily theoretical and philosophical but also draws on the author’s observations of trends and patterns in both librarianship and changes in information needs in recent years. Findings: Urgent, high-cost information needs created by COVID-19 and climate change coexist in a reality where technological change has made traditional librarian roles and functions less critical. By developing their information science skills and strengthening their professional identity as information scientists, librarians have the opportunity to address the urgent information needs of the day while remaining highly relevant professionals. Practical implications: Librarians will need to strengthen their science-related skills and knowledge and begin to promote themselves as information scientists. Social implications: Librarians are in a position to make a meaningful contribution to two of the most pressing challenges of the day, climate change and dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Originality/value: This paper is relevant to all librarians at any stage of their career. It will help them to reflect on both their skillset and career path and to make any needed adjustments so that they can remain relevant in a volatile and demanding information environment. © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Dialogue-Based Learning: A Framework for Inclusive Science Education and Applied Ethics

Dialogue-based learning is an inclusive pedagogy that leverages epistemological pluralism in the classroom to enhance cross-cultural education, encourage critical thinking across modes of inquiry, and promote novel contributions in applied ethics. The framework emerged from the Buddhism-science dialogue and our experiences teaching science courses for Tibetan Buddhists in India through the Emory-Tibet Science Initiative. Buddhism and science are two modes of inquiry that emphasize critical inquiry and empiricism, yet navigating complementarities and points of friction is challenging. Our proposed framework aims to raise awareness of onto-epistemological assumptions to convert them from obstacles into assets in dialogue. In drawing attention to epistemological orientations, our framework demonstrates that receptivity to other ways of knowing fosters clarity in one's own views while creating space for new and enriching perspectives. In this article, we contextualize the Buddhism-science dialogue, explore the development of our dialogue-based learning framework, and demonstrate its application to a novel exchange about the COVID-19 pandemic. Broader aims of the framework include increasing scientific literacy and advancing transdisciplinary research.