As a semester comes to a close many college instructors take time to reflect. Whether it is through institutional evaluations or our own instructor solicited student feedback, it is important to consider how our courses met designed learning outcomes and the needs of our students.
This past semester I prepped a new course called Communicating Psychology Science. Here is a selection of what my students said they learned:
- To be more confident in writing and speaking
- To be comfortable with discomfort
- To advocate for the science of psychology
- To simplify writing and speaking
- To communicate psychological knowledge to general public
- The courage to speak out more in class
- How to be more confident in psychological knowledge
Indeed, an impressive list by any standard! A year ago I was wrestling with a perceived gap in my teaching. I teach a healthy mix of content courses at the introductory and senior level. I even have the pleasure to teach specialty courses from time to time like honors psychology and an advanced seminar in cognition. However, I felt my students lacked a comprehensive understanding that psychology was a science and could not articulate this idea to their grandmother or neighbor. Also, in spite of requiring written and speaking assignments, I couldn’t help find that these mostly one-shot projects left me underwhelmed. Students could deliver the content but didn’t improve in their communication skills.
Developing a course in communicating psychological science became a passion project and is an idea ripe for the time. Pioneers in the field of science communication have a contemporary definition: “Science communication is defined as the use of appropriate skills, media, activities, and dialogue to produce one or more of the following personal responses to science: Awareness, Enjoyment, Interest,
Opinion-forming, and Understanding.” 1. Scientists are quite good at science inreach (the ability to tell other experts about their work through, for example, an academic journal) but need deliberate training on science outreach. That is, transcending academic boundaries by creating a message that your grandma can easily understand.
While institutions like the American Association for the Advancement of Science appeal to graduate students and science-based professionals providing a science communication toolkit, but what are instructors doing to ‘share the wonderment” of psychological science with undergraduates? After all they are the future of our field!
Psychology too has a steeper hill to climb for clear communication to the public as it is often viewed as less scientific than other fields. Recently, The American Psychological Association created a new strategic plan that lists one of its main goals as elevating the public’s understanding of, regard for, and use of psychology by making psychological science accessible and understandable to the public and key decision makers. Similarly, the Association for Psychological Science advocates for enhancing psychology as a science through improved communication. Both organizations highlight the need to improve psychology communication, however, a complete curriculum is lacking.
I have found a great starter set of tools to create the course Communicating Psychology Science. The goal of the course is to provide students with tools, knowledge, and strategies to speak and write about psychological science inside and outside the academic halls, so that they are motivated to become ambassadors of the field.
The course was designed to meet the following objectives:
- Identify facts vs. misconceptions in Psychological Science
- Develop critical thinking skills on issues in Psychological Science
- Evaluate academic and non-academic writings of Psychological Science
- Communicate topics in Psychological Science to the public.
These objectives align quite well with the American Psychological Association’s Guidelines For The Undergraduate Psychology Major: Version 2.0. (2).
In addition to my personal commitment and vision for the course, I also had a secret weapon. IMPROVISATION! This past summer I was lucky enough to complete a science communication bootcamp for academics at the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University. Psychologists may already know how well Mr. Alda himself communicates science from his long-standing work with Scientific America. A quick and fun read of his book, “If I understood you, would I have this look on my face?” enlightens any audience to the connection between improve and communication.
Armed with my bootcamp experience in improvisation I was prepared to take these tools to the classroom! These are not icebreakers folks, I never dreamed I could get students to comfortably move, act out, and perform…and be VERY vulnerable. I creating the course and developed assignments using three key readings:
Alda, A. (2018). If I Understood You Would I Have This Look On My Face? Random House Publishers, New York, NY.
With this text I taught students the importance of clear and engaging communication.
Sample assignments:
- Empathy Day – students go through a day paying attention to and assisting others over their own needs.
- Story-telling – students practice and gain feedback delivering their own personal life stories.
- Engagement – students develop writing and speaking skills that are simple and clear.
Green, A. E. (2013). Writing Science in Plain English. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL.
With this text I taught how to write about science so everyone can understand.
Sample assignments:
- Book assignments geared to simplified writing, free from jargon.
- Readings and discussions of poor academic writing – that which can be full of terms only academic experts would understand
- Writing sample clean-ups – students edit past psychology assignments adhering to “Green” writing conventions.
Dean, C. (2017). Making Sense of Science. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
With this text I taught students about science advocacy.
Sample assignments:
- Blogging – students write, re-write, and revise again with peer and instructor feedback. Prepare publishable works to go on department or personal websites.
- Psychology Pitches – students practice, practice, and practice again… advocating for their favorite topics in psychology. Students prepare 2 minute, 1 minute, and 30 second narratives that share psychology with the public.
Here is a quick recipe for the success of the course:
- Structure it with an attendance policy. Students will be relying on a close cohort in the class. Impromptu writing and speaking, and group discussion require an engaged and present group.
- Include a qualitative participation component. Reward students with a check plus, meets expectations, or minus depending on engagement during classes.
- Include peer review and in-class revision time for blogs and speaking assignments. I’ve developed rubrics for these and would be willing to share.
- Don’t skimp on improv! Spend a handful of weeks playing improvisational games. Although most of the games I used come from my bootcamp training, you can use simple improv books like Bob Bedore’s 101 Improv Games for Children and Adults. These games make everyone vulnerable to act silly and be expressive and set the foundation for students to open up and eventually tell their own personal stories.
Psychology has an increasing responsibility to share science with the public. Click To Tweet Yes, advanced level psychologists should do this but who better to bear the cultural shift of the discipline than the multitudes of undergraduates majoring in psychology?”
References
- Burns, T. W., O’Connor, D. J., & Stocklmayer, S. M. (2003). Science Communication: A Contemporary Definition. Public Understanding of Science, 12(2), 183–202. https://doi.org/10.1177/09636625030122004.
- American Psychological Association. (2013). APA guidelines for the undergraduate psychology major: Version 2.0. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/ed/precollege/undergrad/index.aspx
