Impacts of a comprehensive public engagement training and support program on scientists’ outreach attitudes and practices

Science Communication Training in North America: Preparing Whom to Do What With What Effect?

“…Professional science communication training programs are a key conduit through which STEM professionals can strengthen their communication capacity and impact (Besley & Tanner, 2011; Salas et al, 2012). They are positioned to convey insights from communication research to scientists (Miller et al, 2009; Trench & Miller, 2012) and these programs have been growing rapidly in recent years (Baram-Tsabari & Lewenstein, 2017b; Baron, 2016; Brown et al, 2004; Gold, 2001; Heath et al, 2014; Neeley & Goldman, 2013; Peters et al, 2008b; Smith et al, 2013; Stylinski et al, 2018).…”

“…Scientific leaders continue to implore their colleagues to engage more proactively with public audiences about their work and its value (Leshner, 2015; McNutt, 2016; Napolitano, 2015; Thorp, 2020). This reinvigorated interest in science communication and civic science (Christopherson et al, 2018) has been coupled with rapid growth of training organizations and programs designed to help empower and improve scientists’ engagement efforts (Baram-Tsabari & Lewenstein, 2017a; Smith, 2020; Stylinski et al, 2018; Trench & Miller, 2012). However, minimal scholarship—empirical or otherwise—has made science communication training its focal point.…”

Elevate your work through incorporation of public engagement

“…Scientists' perceptions of their abilities may contribute to their public engagement activity level. Self-perceived lack of personal communication skills and incompetence in engagement have been cited as reasons scientists avoid PES (Ecklund et al 2012, Singh et al 2014, Stylinski et al 2018. Some SFS respondents (10%) did not feel they had the skills to be successful in PES.…”

“…Only 6% of respondents felt nothing was limiting their PES opportunities. Training or mentoring programs to prepare scientists for outreach are rare (Devonshire and Hathway 2014, Singh et al 2014, Stofer and Wolfe 2018, Stylinski et al 2018; however, such opportunities could improve scientists' perceptions of their own abilities (Poliakoff and Webb 2007, Ecklund et al 2012, Singh et al 2014, Cerrato et al 2018, Stylinski et al 2018, in addition to improving PES itself (Concannon and Grenon 2016). If incorporated into student courses, PES training programs could alleviate time-constraint issues with professional development (Devonshire and Hathway 2014), bring additional lenses and uses to class material, and prepare students for careers where communicating with the public is key .…”

Mind the gap: Can a professional development programme build a university’s public engagement community?

“…Participants mentioned developing skills that supported their departmental work, for example around presentation and communication skills, as well as project management and creativity. Transferable communication skills, with applications to teaching and interactions with funders, have been evidenced as among key benefits of other training and schools engagement programmes (Cerrato et al, 2018;Stylinski et al, 2018):…”