KnoWs – Ideas on science-related science communication

In everyday life, people mainly encounter knowledge communicated via the media. Traditional media formats for communication are broadcast media such as daily newspapers and news channels. Online and social media are also increasingly being used for communication. As the media landscape changes, so does the communication of knowledge, including, for example, the increasing marginalization of the gatekeeping process of traditional media.

In view of the new media environment and its challenges, science teaching should be adapted to the educational requirements of the changing media landscape in accordance with scientific literacy. People should therefore learn how knowledge is communicated both within the scientific community itself and to the public.

The KnoWs project is being carried out in cooperation with the National Sun Yats-sen University (NSYSU) in Taiwan and aims to investigate the perceptions of learners and pre-service teachers on science-related science communication using the exemplarily context of climate change. To this end, data is collected by means of drawings and guided interviews and evaluated qualitatively using content analysis. An expert study conducted as part of this project will also provide an expert benchmark for the investigation of perceptions.