Day 7 - Gale M. Sinatra: Teaching and Learning about Climate Change: Challenges and Opportunities

Day 7
Talk by Gale M. Sinatra: Teaching and Learning about Climate Change: Challenges and Opportunities
MC: Alexia Ostrolenk, Ph.D Candidate in Psychiatric Science (UdeM); Science Communicator (ComScicon-QC, BrainReach)

Abstract:
Democracies depend on educated citizens who can make informed decisions about scientific issues. This presentation will focus on how teaching and learning about climate change presents both challenges and opportunities for educators in K-12, higher education and in informal learning environments such as museums. In her forthcoming book, Science Denial: Why It Happens and What To Do About It, Sinatra and co-author Barbara Hofer examine the psychological factors contributing to science denial, doubt, resistance, and misunderstanding such as motivated reasoning, cognitive biases, emotions and identity. They also focus on action steps educators can take to promote climate change understanding, acceptance, and motivated action. This presentation will focus on those action steps such as: teaching to promote epistemic cognition, critical thinking, and conceptual change, while confronting climate change denial, tempering negative emotions, leveraging motivations, debunking misconceptions, and fostering active civic engagement.

References:
Sinatra, G. M. & Hofer, B. K. (2016).Public understanding of science: Policy and educational implications.Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 3(2), 245-253,DOI: 10.1177/2372732216656870
Sinatra, G. M., Kienhues, D. & Hofer, B. (2014). Addressing challenges to public understanding of science: Epistemic cognition, motivated reasoning, and conceptual change.Educational Psychologist.DOI: 10.1080/00461520.2014.916216.
Lombardi, D., Seyranian, V. & Sinatra, G. M. (2014).Source effects and plausibility judgments when reading about climate change.Discourse Processes, 51(1-2), 75-92, DOI:10.1080/0163853X.2013.855049.
Sinatra, G. M. & Mason, L. (2013). Beyond knowledge: Learner characteristics influencing conceptual change (pp. 377-394). In S. Vosniadou (Ed.). International Handbook of Research on Conceptual Change(2nd edition).Netherlands: Springer.

Bio:
Dr. Gale M. Sinatra is the Stephen H. Crocker Chair and Professor of Psychology and Education at the Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California. She received her B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

She is the past Editor of the APA Division 15 journal, Educational Psychologist, and current Associate Editor of Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied. She is past President of the American Psychological Association’s (APA) Division 15, Educational Psychology. She is a Fellow of both APA and American Educational Research Association (AERA). She is the Chair of the APA Climate Change Task Force.

Sinatra heads the Motivated Change Research Lab at USC, the mission of which is understanding the cognitive, motivational, and emotional processes that lead to attitude change, conceptual change, and successful STEM learning. Her forthcoming co-authored book with Dr. Barbara Hofer, a psychologist of Middlebury College in Vermont is entitled: Science Denial: Why it Happens and What to Do About It, will be published July 6, 2021 by Oxford University Press.