Background Seminal reports, based on recommendations by educators, scientists, and in collaboration with students, have called for undergraduate curricula to engage students in some of the same practices as scientists—one of which is communicating science with a general, non-scientific audience (SciComm). Unfortunately, very little research has focused on helping students develop these skills. An important early step in creating effective and efficient curricula is understanding what baseline skills students have prior to instruction. Here, we used the Essential Elements for Effective Science Communication (EEES) framework to survey the SciComm skills of students in an environmental science course in which they had little SciComm training. Results Our analyses revealed that, despite not being given the framework, students included several of the 13 elements, especially those which were explicitly asked for in the assignment instructions. Students commonly targeted broad audiences composed of interested adults, aimed to increase the knowledge and awareness of their audience, and planned and executed remote projects using print on social media. Additionally, students demonstrated flexibility in their skills by slightly differing their choices depending on the context of the assignment, such as creating more engaging content than they had planned for. Conclusions The students exhibited several key baseline skills, even though they had minimal training on the best practices of SciComm; however, more support is required to help students become better communicators, and more work in different contexts may be beneficial to acquire additional perspectives on SciComm skills among a variety of science students. The few elements that were not well highlighted in the students’ projects may not have been as intuitive to novice communicators. Thus, we provide recommendations for how educators can help their undergraduate science students develop valuable, prescribed SciComm skills. Some of these recommendations include helping students determine the right audience for their communication project, providing opportunities for students to try multiple media types, determining the type of language that is appropriate for the audience, and encouraging students to aim for a mix of communication objectives. With this guidance, educators can better prepare their students to become a more open and communicative generation of scientists and citizens.
Students, particularly those in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and healthcare‐related programs, should develop proficient interpersonal skills, including communication. To help students develop effective communication skills, instructors need to consider the value students give to learning these skills. The Student Attitudes Toward Communication Skills Survey (SATCSS) was developed to measure how undergraduate students value learning communication skills based on Expectancy‐Value Theory across three modes of communication (verbal, written, non‐verbal). The survey was given to students interested in healthcare professions and enrolled in an undergraduate anatomy and physiology (A&P) course (n = 233) at a Midwest research active university. The survey showed evidence of validity, measuring two components: (1) “Value to Profession” (attainment and utility value) and (2) “Value to Self” (intrinsic value and cost). There was a significant difference in sub‐scores among the four task values such that students thought that learning communication skills was important and relevant (high attainment and utility value) but not interesting (low intrinsic value) and costly. Students with high total scores valued communication skills across all four task values. As total value scores decreased, it was first due to students finding learning communication skills to be time prohibitive and then a lack of interest in learning communication skills. Based on these results, it is recommended that instructors incorporate communication skills training into content that is already part of their A&P course to reduce time concerns. Additional recommendations include using reflective activities and humor to increase student interest.
A functional doctor‐patient relationship is predicated upon successful communication. Medical professionals (doctors, dentists, physician assistants, nurses, physical therapists) often must convey complicated scientific information to their patients who come with varying degrees of background knowledge. It is critical for students studying these professions to learn and practice best approaches to communication. Medical communication training tends to focus on verbal skills needed for patient‐physician encounters and is the focus of most medical communications training research. More work needs to be done on understanding students' written communication skills to improve both training and practice.Here, we present a study that evaluates the written communication skills of physical therapy students enrolled in a gross human anatomy course. The study looked at the following research question: How do physical therapy students change how they communicate in writing with different audiences? Students were asked to write letters to patients, with varying levels of assumed medical knowledge. These letters summarized their analysis of the patient's symptoms as a part of case study assignments. The first patient was described as having a college education with medical background, the second patient was described as having an eighth‐grade education, and the final patient also had an eighth‐grade education. The final patient letters were compared to the previous letters through thematic analysis. Results from the qualitative coding of patient letters will present major themes present in the patient letters and if and how they change through the course of the three case studies. This work will add to our knowledge of how medical students can more effectively and efficiently learn and practice necessary communication skills that are vital for successful medical practice.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.
Students should develop proficient interpersonal skills, including communication. The need for developing communication skills has been explicitly identified in national reports for undergraduate students in STEM and healthcare related programs, which includes anatomy. To help students develop effective communication skills throughout their education, instructors need to consider the value students give to learning these skills. According to expectancy‐value theory (EVT), students’ motivation for learning and persistence with completing a task is tied to how they value the task. Previous work looking at student value for learning communication skills focused on mainly verbal communication in a graduate and medical school context. We developed a survey to measure and investigated how undergraduate students value learning communication skills. The Student Attitudes Toward Communication Skills Survey (SATCSS) consists of 36 items including 12 items for each mode of communication (verbal, written, and non‐verbal). The 12 items for each mode are divided among each of the four task values proposed by expectancy‐value theory (importance, interest, relevance, and cost). Students (n = 260) in two different anatomy and physiology courses over two semesters in 2019‐2020 completed the SATCSS. We analyzed the SATCSS for reliability using Cronbach's alpha and validity using Principal Components Analysis. Further, we compared student responses among the task values using a general linear model with post hoc Tukey tests for multiple comparisons. We found the SATCSS to reliably measure total value (α = .946) and the four task values individually (α ≥ .819).There was a significant difference in sub‐scores among the four task values (F(2.2,259) = 370.413, p < .001, η2 = .589) such that students thought that learning communication skills was important and relevant, but were less interested in it and found it to be costly. This two‐component grouping was consistent with our validity findings that importance and relevance items loaded as one component and interest and cost items loaded as a second component. Students with high total value scores valued communication skills across all four task values. As total value scores decreased, it was first due to students finding learning communication skills to be time prohibitive and then a lack of interest in learning communication skills. Our results suggest that, instructors should incorporate communication skills training that increases interest and considers cost concerns to help motivate students to value and learn communication skills. This work helps to inform instructors how to motivate their students to learn critical communication skills. Additionally, the SATCSS could be disseminated and analyzed in instructors’ courses to guide their instruction more precisely in communication skills training.
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