Science communications proficiency is an important skill for STEM graduate students but is not a typical part of STEM graduate education nationally. At the institutions that do offer such science communications training, instructional approaches are highly variable, reflecting an absence of standards and evaluation metrics. The workshop will 1) inventory science communications training for STEM graduate students nationally, (2) identify high effective practices in science communications training with attention to curriculum, approaches, and evaluation, and (3) define a roadmap that gives concrete recommendations to university administrators and funding agencies for national implementation and scale-up of science communications training. The workshop will involve IGERT PIs, science communications trainers, science communications researchers, and individuals from national agencies and organizations with a high interest in STEM graduate student communications training. Products of the workshop will include a white paper to NSF that identifies best practices for science communications training and specifies a roadmap for national scale-up of effective practices; publications in the peer-reviewed literature and other media; and briefings of officials at organizations with capacity to foster changes in graduate education (e.g., NSF, Council of Graduate Schools, and AAAS).
#GradSciComm – Building a Pathway to Science Communication Training in STEM Graduate Education In 2007, Alan Leshner, then Chief Executive Officer of The American Academy for the Advancement of Science, wrote in an editorial in Science, "We need to add media and communications training to the scientific training agenda." He continued, "If science is going to fully serve its societal mission in the future, we need to both encourage and equip the next generation of scientists to effectively engage with the broader society in which we work and live." While some graduate students, faculty, administrators, granting agencies, and nonprofit organizations have enthusiastically embraced this charge, such efforts have largely been conducted in isolation and on the periphery of graduate education. To overcome systemic disincentives, such training must become an integral component of graduate education in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) disciplines. Strong science communication skills will benefit the next generation of scientists wherever their career paths may lead, within or outside academia. Achieving this vision will require changes in funding streams, social norms, and institutional structures. To address the need for a coordinated approach, NSF funds supported #GradSciComm, an initiative coordinated by COMPASS, a national leading science communication organization. #GradSciComm convened leading science communication trainers, scholars, and practitioners to create and share recommendations for building the communications capacity of next-generation scientists. A Roadmap for Increasing Science Communication Capacity in STEM Graduate Education The #GradSciComm project produced a roadmap that outlines the following recommendations for the federal agencies, funders, universities, and graduate leaders who hope to shape a strong scientific workforce for the future: Expand access to science communication training, e.g. in the near-term promote existing trainings such as those offered by professional societies, and in the long-term develop or restructure funding mechanisms to support institutional trainings. Foster a community of science communication practitioners by creating and supporting networks of individuals and connecting them to common resources. Define core competencies in communication skills by outlining standards for operational skills including: understanding social science constructs, avoiding jargon, storytelling, and writing clearly. Develop practices that evaluate the design and execution of training programs. Evaluation should assess if students leave programs having achieved core competencies and if those core competencies result in effective science communication. Increase incentives to invest in communication skills by recognizing and rewarding student and faculty excellence in communication, as well as individual and institutional leadership in creating programs and connecting communities. What Will Increasing Science Communication Capacity Require? The roadmap identifies key factors required for successful integration of science communication training. These factors are: Funding – Catalytic, targeted, and sustained funding for science communication programs. Champions – Individuals within institutions that can identify and champion appropriate programs and activities. Motivation – Integration of communication skills into key policies, such as promotion and tenure processes or research funding criteria. Challenges to Increasing Science Communication Capacity Training The roadmap also identifies critical roadblocks including: Faculty support – Fear that communication training will divert students’ efforts from research, or encourage attrition to alternate careers, impedes motivation among faculty to provide access to training for graduate students. Monitoring and Evaluation – Effective communication training requires feedback and practice. Few programs have sufficient and/or appropriate evaluation to demonstrate the efficacy of their approach, making it difficult to justify large-scale return on investment. Disseminating Recommendations from the Roadmap Given that the roadmap provides recommendations for graduate institutions, funding agencies, and science communication professionals, we have worked to disseminate the results through the following venues: an invited presentation for the Federal Coordination in STEM Education interagency working group responsible for funding graduate research and education; presentations for scientific societies, such as the American Association for the Advancement of Science; a series of blog posts on the COMPASS blog; the introduction of the Twitter hashtag #GradSciComm; and a series of project updates and summary reports sent via email to workshop participants and project contributors. Potential Impacts of the #GradSciComm Project At the broadest scale, improved science communication should advance public discourse and inform policy. Comprehensive skills training would likely facilitate effective interdisciplinary science and help advance alternate career pathways for Ph.D.’s. For graduate education specifically, if the recommendations in the roadmap are implemented, we envision the following impacts: ? Communication will become an integral component of graduate education, just like ethics and statistics. ? Graduate advisors will support communication training for their students. ? Institutions producing STEM Ph.D.’s will have the capacity to provide communication training. ? Educators and trainers will have a shared understanding of best practices and effective pedagogy for teaching communication skills.
