On Creating Conditions for Learning: Applying Educational Design Principles to Science Communication

Presenter: Ofelia Mangen (Columbia Journalism School)

Climate action dances in a dynamic interplay with ethos and information. In other words, how we feel and what we know about climate change are determining factors for our ability and willingness to act, as individuals and collectively. The public’s knowledge of climate change and other issues of sustainability and resilience is rooted in what is communicated to us about the science. This dissemination of information has long been thought to be the effective means of “educating the public,” shifting ethos, and spurring action, but the widespread lack of systemic climate action tells us different. 

Decades of more sophisticated climate modeling and increasingly dire projections shared with millions more people throughout the world have yet to catalyze the attitude and behavior change needed for us to have half a hope of staying below 2°. What can be done to more effectively shift attitudes and spur climate action (SDG 13)? A first step is to differentiate disseminating information from creating conditions for learning. When we frame the issue as a learning problem, the work of climate communication becomes one of drawing upon the learning sciences, including 12 evidence-based principles of multimedia learning, the cognitive science of learning and applicable insights from educational psychology. When scientists, journalists and educators alike consider how our brains process information within our respective sociocultural contexts and specific learning environments, science communicators can approach their audiences as the learners they are and consider exactly what it means for them to learn about climate change in all its abstract – and distressing – complexity. We can then design science communication to do more than simply be disseminated to exponentially more people. Science communicators can instead reach beyond the hope their readers, listeners and viewers will know how to integrate the science into what they already know (learning); use it to shift their attitudes and behaviors (which often involves the challenges of unlearning); and do so in a manner and at a pace that supports the climate action required.