School of Education

Dr Rebecca Mancy

rebecca_mancy
  • Lecturer (Interdisciplinary Science Education Technologies and Learning)
  • Affiliate Research Fellow (Institute of Biodiversity Animal Health and Comparative Medicine)

telephone: 01413308138
email: Rebecca.Mancy@glasgow.ac.uk


Research interests

My social sciences research focuses on understanding responses among learners to topics that are difficult to understand or to accept, either because they are cognitively challenging or because they implicate other psychological mechanisms such as emotional responses. A theme that connects these different projects is learner understandings of the philosophy or nature of science. (See the Additional Information tab above for more on my other roles.)

Evolution Education

I am currently working on this theme with my PhD student, Pratchayapong Yasri, and my Postdoctoral Research Associate, Shagufta Chandi. We are particularly interested in understanding how student viewpoints on the relationship between science and religion can be used to understand their response to evolution. We are also collaborating with Professor Roger Downie and a previous MSc student, Ronan Southcott, on this work.

Climate Science Communication

In the work I am doing with Alexia Koletsou on science communication for behavioural change, we are currently developing a framework to allow us to identify specific barriers to behavioural change in the context of social dilemmas, where actions that are beneficial at the collective level are costly to individuals. The focus in this theoretical framework is on linking personal and collective efficacy to behavioural outcomes, with initial application in climate change communication. I am also supervising work that takes climate science communication as an application area, focusing on the ways in which scientific uncertainties are communicated. 

Infectious Disease Communication

In our work with Jaime Earnest, my colleagues and I are interested in understanding how information about influenza-type diseases is interpreted by the public, how this information is understood and the mechanisms by which it leads to behavioural change among some individuals, and finally, how behavioural change impacts on disease dynamics. In addition to those with a background in science communication, this work involves ecologists, modellers, public health and health psychology. 

Another project that I am working on focuses on the development of an instrument to measure public understanding of modern scientific techniques used in infectious disease prediction. This latter project focuses on public understanding of mathematical models and computer simulation in science, methods that are currently not covered in instruments used to measure understandings of the 'nature of science'. This project should also provide information on public responses to the use of such models in the context of influenza-like diseases. 

  • EPSRC funding for a second PhD in Computing Science. Value of around £50,000, starting 1 October 2010 for 3.5 years.
  • Support for Science Education: Evaluation of CPD (Co-Investigator): Funded by Scottish Schools Equipment Research Centre to the value of £44'596 (January 2009 for 26 months).
  • EmergeNET (Co-Investigator): Network grant funded by EPSRC.  The EmergeNET runs six-monthly meetings with aim of generating new understandings and projects concerned with emergence and complexity. Award to the value of £166'000, starting 2008 for 4 years.
  • Pump Priming Grant: Travel to Singapore to work with Dr Manu Kapur of the Learning Sciences Institute, and to complete the NECSI Complex Systems summer school.  Autumn 2006.
  • ExploreCSEd (Co-Investigator): Development Fund grant from the Higher Education Academy, Information and Computer Sciences.  Autumn 2004, £3000.
  • PhD Studentship: Awarded by the Faculty of Education, University of Glasgow.  October 2003 - October 2005. PhD studentship

Current PhD students and Research Associates

- Vanessa Rasoamampianina - Presenting climate change science in encyclopedias (co-supervised with Professor Alison Phipps)

- Julie Main - Metacognition and collaborative learning of mathematics (co-supervised with Professor Vic Lally)

- Pratchayapong (Kak) Yasri - Evolution Education

- Alexia Koletsou - Science communication leading to behavioural change in social dilemma situations: the case of behaviours to mitigate climate change

- Jaime Earnest - Public health communication (co-supervised with Professor Dan Haydon and Dr Kate Reid)

- Shagufta Chandi - Postdoctoral Research Associate - Evolution Education

I am also involved in supervision of MSc dissertation projects on a range of related topics. I welcome PhD applications that employ theoretical approaches or methodologies that include a quantitative aspect, including content analysis, network analysis or computer simulation.

Rebecca is Programme Co-ordinator for the taught postgraduate programme in Inter-Professional Science Education and Communication (IPSEC) at MSc, Postgraduate Diploma and Postgraduate Certificate levels.

Postgraduate courses

  • Science, Education and Society (Course Leader) - 2007 - ongoing
  • Making Science Accessible (Course Leader / Tutor) - 2007 - ongoing
  • Science Education and Communication Portfolio/Dissertation (Course Leader) - 2007 - ongoing
  • Evaluating Learning and Teaching (PGDE course for intial teacher trainees) - 2008-2009
  • Seminar in Contemporary Issues (Compulsory course for MSc students) - 2008 - ongoing

Undergraduate courses

  • Leadership in Learning - Third year undergraduate course for future primary school teachers centring on psychology and learning theory (Course Tutor) - 2006-2010
  • Learning how to Learn - First year undergraduate course to introduce students to university teaching and learning practices - 2009-2010
  • Fundamentals of Education - First year undergraduate course for students who are not majoring in education-related degrees, but who have an interest in the area - 2008-2010

Academic and professional body membership

I am or have been a member of the following academic communities:

Additional information

  • Organisation of EmergeNET2 and EmergeNET3 workshops (see www.emergenet.org for more information).
  • Reviewer for the journal Development Psychology and for grant applications to the Ministry of Education, Singapore.
  • Attendance at EPSRC Sandpit on 'New Maths for Biology: Evolutionary Processes'; an intensive 5-day workshop aimed to develop highly innovative and multi-disciplinary research ideas that would not normally or easily emerge from the research community.
  • Attendance at EPSRC Sandpit on Emergence:  ‘Emergence: how, when and why the whole is greater than the sum of its parts’, an intensive 5-day workshop aimed to develop highly innovative and multi-disciplinary research ideas that would not normally or easily emerge from the research community.
  • Attendance at the NECSI Summer School 2007. Training in complex systems theory and methods.
  • Attendance at the University of York ESRC-funded Complex Systems Summer School Level 2