Evaluation of a Bee-Focused Citizen Science Training Process: Influence of Participants’ Profiles on Learning

Abstract

In citizen science, training and evaluation are important steps in improving the pedagogical effectiveness of projects. However, evaluating learning outcomes is complex and usually requires multidimensional analysis. In this work, we analyze the influence of the profile of citizen scientists (i.e., gender, age, level of education, educational background, prior experience in beekeeping, and level of contact with nature) on their learning, considering multiple dimensions (i.e., knowledge of the nature of science, self-efficacy, knowledge of scientific process and content, interests, values and priorities, and motivations). Citizen scientists participated in a training course that focused on meliponiculture and citizen science, and they performed a contributory citizen science protocol. The evaluation was based on pre- and post-course questionnaires, (reaching 886 respondents). Learning was observed in all dimensions and, depending on the dimension, profile variables, such as gender, educational level, educational background, and prior experience in meliponiculture were influential. Participants demonstrated high levels of nature connectedness, strong personal norms, pro-environmental behavior(al intention), and high levels of trust in science. The main motivations of the participants were to learn, assist in conservation, and contribute to the production of scientific knowledge about bees. Our findings offer insight into the subsequent steps and future training courses for the #cidadãoasf citizen science project, but they could also be beneficial to other initiatives, indicating the importance of the evaluation of volunteer profiles to guide improvements in a project’s quality.