Engagement in science through citizen science: Moving beyond data collection

By T. Phillips, H. Ballard, Bruce V. Lewenstein, R. Bonney. Science Education, 2019

269 citations recorded by the source corpus.

"To date, most studies of citizen science engagement focus on quantifiable measures related to the contribution of data or other output measures. Few studies have attempted to qualitatively characterize citizen science engagement across multiple projects and from the perspective of the participants. Building on pertinent literature and sociocultural learning theories, this study operationalizes engagement in citizen science through an analysis of interviews of 72 participants from six different environmentally based projects. We document engagement in citizen science through an examination of cognitive, affective, social, behavioral, and motivational dimensions. We assert that engagement in citizen science is enhanced by acknowledging these multiple dimensions and creating opportunities for volunteers to find personal relevance in their work with scientists. A Dimensions of Engagement framework is presented that can facilitate the innovation of new questions and methodologies for studying engagement in citizen science and other forms of informal science education."

Subfields: Ecological Modeling, Genetics, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/7281fb2c44f4d73c86ffefd1fde7e4f8a1f5e75c

Citations in the corpus

• Participant Outcomes of Biodiversity Citizen Science Projects: A Systematic Literature Review (2019, unknown): “These other personal outcomes, such as a sense of contribution [47] and enjoyment [61], and a sense of connection to nature [30,49] and to other participants [20,51,56] are strongly connected to citizens’ motivation for participating in citizen science projects [65] and therefore have a strong influ”