During three years, PERFORM conducted participatory action research with around 3000 secondary school students, 100 teachers and 100 early career researchers in three piloting countries (France, Spain and the UK) to analyse the impact of researchers’ interaction and drama-based techniques when learning science on students’ views of science and their motivations for studying STEM careers.
First, PERFORM science communicators designed innovative performance-based science education activities (PERSEIAs) addressing the human dimension of science and RRI values by testing different approaches with students: clown based on improvisation theatre in France, stand-up comedy in Spain, and science busking in the UK. PERSEIAs were performed to 2,407 students in 35 secondary schools. These PERSEIAs included students’ perceptions about STEM careers, science related stereotypes and ethics and gender issues in science that were previously gathered from exploratory workshops conducted at their schools.
Based on this experience, and in a transdisciplinary community of practice, PERFORM science communicators supported by academic partners designed and implemented a participatory educational process that guided students to co-produce their own scientific monologues, busks and theatrical pieces with their teachers and participant researchers. This process consisted of a series of participatory workshops conducted with 250 students in 12 schools. Academic partners evaluated its impact on students’ learning and engagement in STEM according to a set of expert-based and participatory indicators assessing the inclusion of the RRI values, potential changes in students’ attitudes, knowledge and perceptions towards science and the acquisition of the transversal competences needed to pursue STEM careers. The conceptualisation and results of this assessment were included in three academic publications of international distribution and a policy brief. Also for assessment purposes, qualitative research was conducted on the role of social media in young people’s responses to PERSEIAs. As a last step, the science education drama-based approach was adapted to science museums through a pilot initiative in Barcelona.
In parallel, our consortium developed training toolkits addressed to early career researchers to develop reflexivity, understanding of RRI values and creative approaches to public engagement, which were informed by pilot trainings conducted in Paris, Barcelona and Bristol. Similarly, pilot trainings addressed to secondary school teachers informed the development of training toolkits to equip science teachers with the tools to improve their skills on science communication, performance and reflexivity.
The consortium also produced two policy briefs offering policies to include researchers and teachers in new educational processes to motivate, inspire, and encourage reflection from young people. Our partner UNESCO generated a position paper to maximize the policy impact of the project and thus ensuring its sustainability and legacy beyond the project time frame.
