Archive for month: June, 2020

Die Junge Akademie (the German Young Academy) is the first young academy being accepted as a member of ALLEA, the European Federation of Academies of Science and Humanities. With its headquarters in Berlin, the academy provides interdisciplinary and socially relevant spaces for outstanding young academics from German-speaking countries. Its chair Philipp Kanske talks with us about the emergence of young academies, the role of early-career researchers and the risks and opportunities for science during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Question: Over the past years, new young academies have been established across Europe and beyond. Die Junge Akademie pioneered this development with its foundation in the year 2000. You are now celebrating your 20th anniversary. First of all, congratulations! Could you tell us about the origins of Die Junge Akademie and how other academies followed your example?

Philipp Kanske: When Die Junge Akademie was founded, the idea was to enable young researchers to engage in the academic process autonomously and institutionally secured and participate in shaping its future – which is mainly their future. The enormous success of the first generations of our members was to develop such radiance that it inspired the foundation of De Jonge Akademie in The Netherlands in 2005 and about 40 more young academies have followed since.

The enormous success of the first generations of our members was to develop such radiance that it inspired the foundation of De Jonge Akademie in The Netherlands in 2005 and about 40 more young academies have followed since.

Q.: After two decades of work, the expectations of your organisation may have changed. How would you describe the role to be played by Die Junge Akademie and by early-career researchers in today´s scientific ecosystem?

P.K.: What started as an experiment with an originally limited life expectancy of five years has greatly matured. Die Junge Akademie has quickly begun to reach out and participate in the exchange with other science agents. Acknowledgment of our statements and positions may have helped in giving young researchers a voice and in changing their role in academia at large.

Q.: Two major goals of your academy overlap with ALLEA’s priorities: “encouraging academic, especially interdisciplinary, discourse among outstanding young academics” and “promoting initiatives at the intersection of academia and society”. Could provide examples of how Die Junge Akademie seeks to achieve these objectives?

P.K.: With its diverse membership, including artists, engineers and physicians, Die Junge Akademie exemplifies interdisciplinary exchange and actively promotes it in a plethora of projects ranging from COVID-19 to rebellious teaching. Most of our initiatives reach out to the society, for instance through the dialogue of art and science.

Q.: The COVID-19 pandemic has placed scientists at the heart of public and policy debates, while not so long ago scientists and expertise were being contested, especially in populist discourses. Could you mention one risk and one opportunity you think science have during this crisis?

P.K.: While it is a great chance for science to show its potential in the struggle for safe, fair and sustainable societies, I see the risk that the uncertainties of the scientific process are not perceived. Science rarely yields entirely clear answers and even though it can make decisions better informed, the decisions need to be made democratically.

While (the COVID-19 pandemic) is a great chance for science to show its potential in the struggle for safe, fair and sustainable societies, I see the risk that the uncertainties of the scientific process are not perceived.

Die Junge Akademie is the first academy of young academics worldwide. It offers prominent young scientists and artists from German speaking backgrounds interdisciplinary and socially relevant space for academic collaboration. Learn more about its activities and mission here. 

Philipp Kanske is Professor for Clinical Psychology and Behavioral Neuroscience at Technische Universität Dresden and Research Associate at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig. He explores the emotional and cognitive processes that enable social behavior and their alterations in psychopathology. In his work he uses magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and electroencephalography (EEG) to describe the underlying neuronal mechanisms. Learn more about his work here.

 

Picture’s copyright: Kerstin Flake

ALLEA recently published a new report: “A snapshot of Climate Change Education Initiatives in Europe: Initial findings and implications for future Climate Change Education”. The document has been prepared by ALLEA’s Science Education Working Group and contains recommendations based on an on-line survey of existing initiatives complemented by educational research literature and the expertise of the scholars who conducted this work. We speak with Cliona Murphy, the chair of the working group who wrote the report. The preliminary findings were recently presented at the United Nations Climate Change conference COP25 in Madrid.

 

How did it come about that you started investigating existing climate change education initiatives across Europe?

Cliona Murphy: The climate crisis increases and demands urgent actions. At the same time, the Paris agreement from 2015 imposes obligations towards climate change education on the member states of the European Union. These two aspects sparked discussions amongst the Science Education Working Group about educational resources that are available in different European countries to support teaching and learning about climate change.

From our discussions it became apparent that while there appeared to be many climate change education resources and initiatives being throughout Europe, there wasn’t any available source detailing these initiatives; their overall aims, content, focus and pedagogical approaches etc. We believed that research that would collect information about the different initiatives would be useful in identifying high quality resources that could be disseminated throughout Europe.  We also thought that this work might identify gaps in the resources and initiatives and that these gaps could be addressed in the development of future climate change education resources. That’s how we decided to develop and carry out the survey.

 

The ALLEA report states that Climate Change Education should focus more on mitigation, adaptation, and climate justice. Could you explain why those three elements should have a more prominent place in education, and how this could be implemented?

C. M.: Yes. In the survey we found that a very high percentage of the initiatives focussed on the causes of climate change and the science behind climate change, which of course are essential in understanding climate change. However, we noticed that considerably lower percentages of the initiatives focussed on mitigation and adaptation, which are instrumental if we are to overcome the challenges posed by the climate crisis. Knowledge about climate change is of course essential, but not sufficient in addressing climate change challenges if it is not coupled with knowledge of how to mitigate and adapt to these challenges.

In terms of ‘climate justice’, it is really important that our young people understand that mitigation is not only crucial for future generations but is also essential for current disadvantaged populations on whom climate change is having the biggest impact. Thus we questioned, for example, in the context of mitigation in developed countries, to what extent young people are being supported in their understanding about the role society today has to play in acting not only on their own interests but in the interest of others.

Knowledge about climate change is of course essential, but not sufficient in addressing climate change challenges if it is not coupled with knowledge of how to mitigate and adapt to these challenges.

That being said, we need to be very careful when teaching our young people about climate change that we don’t make them anxious and create a feeling of helplessness.  It is important that climate change education resources and programmes adopt solution-oriented approaches that focus on collective actions as a means to decrease eco-anxiety while fostering a sense of agency amongst our young people.

 

What are the ALLEA Science Education Working Group’s plans for the future? Will this topic be further investigated or are you moving on to new subjects?

C. M.: The working group are very passionate about climate change education and very much see this scoping-survey as a first step in progressing climate change education throughout Europe. Our goal is to support effective teaching and learning about climate change that would result in our young people throughout Europe developing the requisite: content knowledge; scientific, critical thinking and problem-solving skills; and, attitudes towards mitigating climate change.

Our survey provides a snapshot, an initial insight, into some of the initiatives currently being rolled out in Europe. However, it’s only a first step.  A more representative large-scale survey of climate change education initiatives is warranted to obtain a more thorough account of these initiatives. As a next step, we would like to conduct a larger scale more representative European survey to identify commonalities, gaps, and best practices in climate change education. The findings from this larger-scale survey could ultimately lead to the development of a set of criteria or a framework that would inform the development of future initiatives.

Our goal is to support effective teaching and learning about climate change that would result in our young people throughout Europe developing the requisite: content knowledge; scientific, critical thinking and problem-solving skills; and, attitudes towards mitigating climate change.

Our survey revealed that while there appears to be a good range of education resources for teachers, in comparison there appears to be fewer professional development courses to support teachers in effectively teaching about climate change. As teachers have a vital role in climate change education, they need to be supported so they develop the confidence and competence to effectively teach about climate change. To this extent the working group would like to ensure that high-quality professional development programmes are developed and made widely available for teachers.

As a third step it would make sense to gather research that would assess; the quality of climate change education professional programmes; the extent to which teachers are implementing professional development methodologies in their classrooms; and, most importantly the impact on their students’ understanding of and attitudes towards climate change.

The working group is also interested in a number of other areas in science education, but is currently focusing on issues around Education for Sustainable Development, International Large-Scale Studies of Achievement, STEM / STEAM Education, and Nature of Science Pedagogy.