Addressing the Climate Change Consensus Gap Among Preservice Teachers: A Four-Faceted Approach

• In Event: 61.059 - Science Teaching and Learning SIG Paper Session: Preservice Teachers

Abstract

In this paper, we report an estimate of the magnitude of the “consensus gap” – the gap between what scientists know about climate change and what the general public thinks they know – about anthropomorphic climate change among K-8 pre-service teachers. We also report qualitative findings about the utility of a four-faceted approach to teaching about climate change designed explicitly to mitigate inductive reasoning errors and to reduce in-group favoritism, attribution bias, inter-group conflict, and confirmation bias. We found that learning about the scientific consensus spurred student exploration about climate change and the careful use of deliberation toward commonly-held positions within a caring learning community rather than the more common ‘debate’ style of discussion fostered deep reflection.

Authors

• Grinell Smith, San José State University

• Colette Rabin, San José State University