Science communication skills are considered to be foundational learning objectives for physics students. However, the implementation of dedicated science communication courses has been slow and highly localized. Many physics departments instead incorporate occasional structured communication practice within non-communication courses. Others rely on students absorbing these skills through observation and unstructured practice. Nevertheless, employer accounts highlight a widespread belief that physics graduates are content specialists with noticeable deficiencies in social and communicative skills.
Though many physics educators support direct instruction and student practice of science communication skills, scalability challenges and limited classroom resources often impede deliberate efforts to implement these learning objectives. To better understand how our students develop science communication skills in a restricted academic environment, we are conducting studies on both a one-credit-hour oral communication Senior Seminar course required for all physics majors and an analogous two-credit-hour course required for all biochemistry majors. We are investigating the effects on both students’ growth as science communicators and students’ retention and transfer of observed presentation content of many factors including:
- Lecture- and workshop-based instruction,
- Presentation quality as measured by Mayer’s Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning (CTML),
- Integrated peer evaluation and critical reflection activities,
- In-class and post-class feedback,
- Repeated science communication practice.
Preliminary details can be found in our 2024 Physics Education Research Conference Proceedings.