Published on 21.12.2021 under Education
Knowledge for many – out of the echo chambers of science
A plea for knowledge transformation
by Magdalena Hein
Do citizens understand and accept that science is and must be an essential basis for social, economic and personal action? Scientific thinking and current public and private research results belong in schools, in extracurricular learning locations and in the education system as a whole!
Science communication, open access, transfer - many terms, little in common
How do we get that? Regardless of which political paper we are currently looking at, the new coalition agreement in Berlin, departmental concepts of the EU Commission or innovation strategies in federal states, everywhere we come across these terms such as "improve transfer", "strengthen science communication", "create transparency", " Organize Open Access ".
During the detailed analysis it becomes clear that very different things are meant not only between the papers but also within the texts under the same terminology and program approaches. A common understanding, a common goal or even a common program is usually missing.
Science - get out of the echo chambers
And what is also noticeable: Usually the known echo rooms are addressed. So the so-called central actors in the respective political fields of action. However, these are those who have already tried - in some cases for decades - with enormous resources to improve the transfer of knowledge between one another, hopefully at least for mutual benefit.
What is still not addressed with the necessary priority and provided with the necessary resources and other mechanisms of motivation and sanction is the step beyond these echo chambers. So out of the echo rooms, into the general public.
Knowledge transformation - science for everyone
Yet it is quite obvious that in the face of almost all major social and economic challenges, today and probably even more in the future, we need broad understanding in as many social groups as possible. Regardless of whether governments and parties take voters with them or companies want to convince their customers.
Climate crisis, combating poverty, widespread diseases and pandemics, security or research policy - no matter what issue is to be successfully acted on, well-founded knowledge is required. And not just with the decision-makers, but with as many people as possible who contribute to the success of the great challenges through their actions or inaction.
A central role is played by the systematic transformation of the best current knowledge from public and private research into educational work. This “knowledge transformation” must not end at the limits of the previous echo rooms. And she mustn't deal with model projects that are limited in time and space and some great reports, for example in well-made science programs.
Because in the end, most of them lack the necessary relevance. A relevance based on two pillars: the highest possible absolute reach and the highest possible effectiveness (especially in the sense of anchoring knowledge among the target groups).
And one more word about the reach factor: According to our current estimate, all of the important science programs in the classic media and social networks together do not even reach 10 percent of the population in Germany *.
Effective knowledge transformation requires a joint effort
We therefore consider it particularly important that a relevant, i.e. high-reach and effective knowledge transformation is established as a joint effort by the state, science, business and the media. It must systematically translate the knowledge, make it available and actively contribute it. It's more than just offering it. It must be present in all areas of school and extracurricular education for young people, but also for the far greater number of people, namely those beyond school age.
Of course, this cannot be the task of science itself, nor of business or politics. They must each make their important contributions and be equipped and rewarded for this. The transformation cannot be the task of the media (alone) either, because they are not actors in education systems.
Put knowledge in context in school and training
Rather, it is about permeability and real innovations, for example in teacher training and further education, the development of teaching materials and teaching methods, in the organization of knowledge transfer in schools, training and studies, in adult education centers and - at least - in the public media.
The knowledge must be placed in contexts that are not only attractive to as many people as possible in an economic sense, but also reach groups that are less educated. For this reason, too, it is not enough to strengthen traditional and web-based educational television and other voluntary communication channels.
Extra-curricular learning locations with different learning and teaching cultures that work together with school-based learning locations and actively support them, new target group-related and cross-target group participation formats that help to accept knowledge as meaningful and to apply it in a beneficial way. That has to be worked on. And scientists need to be motivated and supported much more strongly and systematically to share their knowledge quickly and widely. Citizens must be made Citizen Scientists - also Young Citizen Scientists - within the scope of their possibilities and realities of life.
Make it clear that political and economic action is based on knowledge.
At the same time it must be made visible - made - that political and economic action is based on this knowledge. This is also part of this major effort to reach and take along as many people as possible.
So maybe we can manage Duncan Watts' famous sentence “For 20 years, I thought my job as a basic scientist was to publish papers and throw them over a wall for someone else to apply. I now realize that there is no one on the other side of the wall. Just a huge pile of papers that we've all thrown over. " ends differently: "I now realize that there is a large and curious crowd of people who are looking forward impatiently to my new discoveries and who really want to use them for their life."
*: matrix has looked at the published reach data of the relevant media. In total, even under optimistic assumptions, it amounts to less than 8 million different people (= 10% of the German population). Assuming that many media are read, seen or heard by the same people, then we estimate the range to be less than 5% of the German population. We have excluded media that have been specifically developed for use in schools.
