Filter by keyword: Professionalism, professional development and teaching in science communication

Publications including this keyword are listed below.

10 publications found

Oct 21, 2024 Essay

The challenge of identifying behavioral goals for communication in the context of basic science

by John C. Besley, Sara K. Yeo, Todd P. Newman and Anthony Dudo

This essay highlights the unique challenges that basic scientists may face when trying to identify goals for their engagement efforts. We propose that the difference between basic and applied science, at least when it comes to communication, is primarily about the degree to which scientists can identify audience-specific behavioral goals for their communication efforts. To support our thesis, we provide data from recent survey projects that highlight the degree to which applied and basic scientists have different views about behavioral goals for their communications. We ultimately suggest that basic scientists may need additional help choosing goals and that applied scientists may have more opportunities for focused impact whereas the impact of engagement by basic scientists may be more broad-based.

Volume 23 • Issue 07 • 2024 • Special Issue: Communicating Discovery Science

Aug 05, 2024 Article

Metaphors of communication professionals in higher education: between the trivial and significant

by Hogne Lerøy Sataøen, Daniel Lövgren and Simon Neby

This study explores the evolving, however also “messy”, role of communication professionals in higher education institutions (HEIs), who are involved in organizational science communication. Despite substantial growth and professionalization within HEIs' communication departments, limited research delves into these professionals' own perspectives and their self-understanding. Our investigation employs a metaphors-in-use perspective, through 26 interviews in ten Scandinavian HEIs. The paper contributes to the research on organizational science communication by unraveling the metaphors used by communication professionals: the salesman, the marketplace-facilitator, the police, the missionary, the storyteller, and the overhead-cost, gaining an understanding of how communication professionals perceive their own role.

Volume 23 • Issue 05 • 2024

Jun 03, 2024 Practice Insight

GlobalSCAPE: successes and failures in connecting with science communicators around the world

by Joseph Roche, Mairéad Hurley, Eric A. Jensen, Luisa Massarani, Pedro Russo and Aoife Taylor

The GlobalSCAPE research project was tasked with engaging people working in science communication to better understand their views of the field. While being a European-based research project, GlobalSCAPE aimed to connect with science communicators across the globe. This practice insight paper reflects on the lessons learned from GlobalSCAPE, the successes and failures, and what might be done to continue the work of global science communication research projects. It is hoped that such learnings will be of broad interest to research and practice communities grappling with ways to fund and support science communication around the world.

Volume 23 • Issue 04 • 2024 • Special Issue: Science communication for social justice

Mar 25, 2024 Practice Insight

Teaching to bridge research and practice: perspectives from science communication educators across the world

by Siddharth Kankaria, Alice Fleerackers, Edith Escalón, Erik Stengler, Clare Wilkinson and Tobias Kreutzer

Despite growing awareness of the need to bridge research and practice in science communication, methods of facilitating meaningful interactions between them remain elusive. This practice insight explores how teaching efforts can help to fill this gap. Drawing on case studies from the U.S., U.K., Canada, Germany, India, and Mexico, six instructors offer examples of pedagogical strategies that they have found effective in bridging the two domains — such as fostering partnerships with local science communication practitioners, using dialogic and participatory approaches to build communities of learning and practice, encouraging reflexivity and epistemic humility, and drawing connections with local contexts.

Volume 23 • Issue 02 • 2024 • Special Issue: Connecting science communication research and practice: challenges and ways forward

Feb 26, 2024 Book Review

An idea-packed guide for scientists teaching communication skills

by Andy Ridgway

“Teaching Science Students to Communicate: A Practical Guide” is aimed at scientists who want to teach science students transferrable communication skills. It starts with a rallying cry and is filled with creative ideas for teaching sessions with top tips on how to run them effectively. Above all, this book should help scientists instil a disposition in their students that should underpin any act of communication — empathy.

Volume 23 • Issue 01 • 2024

Jan 25, 2024 Conference Review

Reimagining science communication in the age of AI

by Lourdes López-Pérez

This review analyses the presentation of “Campus Gutenberg Museo de la Ciencia CosmoCaixa 2023” held in September 2023 in Barcelona and reflects on the connection of the event with the necessary redefinition of the social communication of science in the face of the impact of artificial intelligence.

Volume 23 • Issue 01 • 2024

Dec 11, 2023 Editorial

Science communication in higher education: global perspectives on the teaching of science communication

by Joseph Roche, Anne M. Land-Zandstra, Bruce V. Lewenstein and Luisa Massarani

This special issue focuses on the global landscape of teaching science communication in higher education. Following an open call, we selected seven papers with topics including the geographical distribution of science communication programmes, indicators of quality, programme analysis, self-reporting tools, interdisciplinarity, sustainability, and competencies. Collectively, these contributions highlight how the field has grown and increased in complexity, and highlights challenges faced by educators and the significance of addressing them within local and global contexts.

Volume 22 • Issue 06 • 2023 • Special Issue: Science communication in higher education: global perspectives on the teaching of science communication

Dec 11, 2023 Article

The distribution of science communication teaching around the globe

by Luisa Massarani, Heather Bray, Marina Joubert, Andy Ridgway, Joseph Roche, Fiona Smyth, Elizabeth Stevenson, Frans van Dam and Willian Vieira de Abreu

In the context of a special issue of this journal focused on teaching science communication, we present a map of the geographical distribution of 122 science communication teaching programmes from 31 countries around the world. This mapping study resulted from a collaboration between members of the PCST Teaching Forum and the research team at GlobalSCAPE, a research project funded by the European Commission to explore the global state of science communication. Our findings highlight the concentration of these programmes in the U.S.A. and Europe, and the dominance of English as the language of instruction. We ponder the causes and implications of the disparities in opportunities for studying science communication in other world regions and languages. The dearth of science communication educational pathways in developing countries may limit the professionalisation of the field, as well as research and evidence-based practice that is locally needed and relevant.

Volume 22 • Issue 06 • 2023 • Special Issue: Science communication in higher education: global perspectives on the teaching of science communication

Dec 11, 2023 Essay

Strengthening interdisciplinarity in science communication education: promise, pleasures and problems

by Brian Trench

Science communication education is fundamentally concerned with relations between and within communities, cultures and institutions. Through exploration of these relations, it develops understanding of how knowledge is produced, shared and validated. Science communication operates at the boundaries and intersections of disciplines in its professional practice and it analyses them in research and education. At its interdisciplinary best, science communication is a continuing exercise in reflexivity on science and its place in wider intellectual and public culture. From this “premise”, this essay reflects on the “promise” of bringing perspectives from humanities, social sciences and natural sciences to bear on science, the “pleasures” of science communication as “joyously interdisciplinary”, but also on the “problems” in fulfilling the promise and realising the pleasures. It closes with a “proposition” for giving interdisciplinarity a more prominent place in science communication education.

Volume 22 • Issue 06 • 2023 • Special Issue: Science communication in higher education: global perspectives on the teaching of science communication

Dec 11, 2023 Article

Integrating sustainability into a higher education science communication course

by Sabrina Vitting-Seerup and Marianne Achiam

The global problems we face call for universities to prioritise science communication education and training. Here, we describe how we integrated sustainability into a master-level course in science communication through three iterations. By retrospectively analysing our actions and reflections, we demonstrate how and why we progressed from education about sustainability to education for sustainability, and finally education as sustainability. We conclude by discussing our findings, and offering our implications for the teaching and learning of sustainability science communication and of science communication.

Volume 22 • Issue 06 • 2023 • Special Issue: Science communication in higher education: global perspectives on the teaching of science communication