{"id":1999,"date":"2020-02-27T08:56:26","date_gmt":"2020-02-27T08:56:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/science-communication\/?p=1999"},"modified":"2020-02-27T08:56:32","modified_gmt":"2020-02-27T08:56:32","slug":"discovering-science-communication-at-the-science-communication-unit-uwe-bristol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/science-communication\/discovering-science-communication-at-the-science-communication-unit-uwe-bristol\/","title":{"rendered":"Discovering science communication at the Science Communication Unit, UWE Bristol"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I\u2019m\na junior assistant professor at Utrecht\nUniversity<\/a>, which means I split my time 50\/50 between teaching and PhD\nresearch. The moment I knew I wanted to specialize in science communication was\nwhen I was attending a lecture about an \u2013 at that time \u2013 recently published\nstudy as part of my training in Ecology. I remember being upset by the fact\nthat no one outside the academic world had caught onto the study that the\nresearchers had spent six years on. So many more people could benefit from the new\ninsights!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s why I specialized in science communication\nthrough a graduate program in Writing and Communication at the University of Amsterdam<\/a>. It involved a year of\ntraining in Communication Studies and Argumentation Theory as well as a six-month\ninternship. For my internship, I worked at the science department of a Dutch\nnational broadcasting agency (VPRO<\/a><\/em>): I worked in communication,\nwas an editor for the website and assisted in the production of Labyrint<\/a><\/em>, a weekly science\npopularization program on national television. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After\nfinishing my training, I worked as a teacher both at the University of\nAmsterdam, where I taught science communication and academic skills, and at\nUtrecht University where I taught in interdisciplinary research skills and\nacademic writing. In my role as a teacher, I became interested in teaching practices\nand wondered why science communication played such a small role in academic\nprograms. In the Dutch educational context, science communication training is\npart of graduate training although it is mostly confined to dedicated science\ncommunication programs or electorate courses. I especially noticed the lack of\nstructural training in science communication and a lack of attention being paid\nto skills associated with communication in undergraduate training programs. As\nsuch, I wanted to know how science communication training could be implemented\nin the undergraduate program where I taught: Liberal Arts and Sciences at\nUtrecht University. Liberal education students are trained in interdisciplinary\nresearch skills and use insights from different disciplinary fields to study societal\nissues. These are real-world problems that often need societal awareness to\ncome to a solution. Because most liberal education students pursue a career\nthat enables them to make an impact on society, it\u2019s important for them to\nlearn how to communicate outside of their academic specialization. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nmy PhD project, I get to explore science communication for interdisciplinary\nresearch settings. As my passion as a teacher is on teaching writing skills,\nthey are the focus of my project. I use insights from both Linguistics and\nEducational Sciences to discover how writing skills in the genre of science\ncommunication, or popularization, can best be taught in liberal education\nsettings. I use Liberal Arts and Sciences at Utrecht University as a case study.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I found out about the Science Communication Unit (SCU)\nwhen I was applying for the\nJulie Johnson Kidd Travel Research Fellowship<\/a>. This grant allows teachers\nin liberal education to spend time at another university. Although Utrecht\nUniversity has a highly regarded Linguistics department, it does not have a\nresearch group dedicated to science communication research, which is why I felt\nI could really benefit from input from the Science Communication Unit at UWE\nBristol. What attracted me to the SCU was the fact that the research group\ncombines insights from theory and practice, being known internationally as a\nleader in academic research into science communication, as well as producing its\nown science communication efforts. What made me especially enthusiastic about a\nstay at the Science Communication Unit was the MSc Science\nCommunication<\/a> that offers training to a new generation of science\ncommunicators. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In terms of my PhD, the literature told me that\nexplicit teaching of science communication skills would lead to better scores\nand a higher self-perception of writing abilities. The next step was finding teaching\ninterventions that are effective in teaching these writing skills, and the Science\nCommunication programme was the perfect way for me to see teaching activities in\naction. The module \u2018Writing Science\u2019 was of specific interest to me as it is\nunique to have a course that focuses solely on writing skills in science communication.\nAs part of my sabbatical I could sit in on teaching in this course and observe\nbest practices in teaching. I was also able to ask students taking the module to\nparticipate in my research by letting them write one-minute papers and reflect\non learning goals, the content of the classes and the results of the teaching\nefforts. Furthermore, I let students fill in a questionnaire about\nself-perception of their science communication skills and writing abilities.\nThis gave me insights into the self-perception of their writing skills as well\nas their likes and dislikes in the way that the curriculum was built. I\u2019ve\nnever seen a more enthusiastic group of students! They loved everything about\nthe programme and had no dislikes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Left to right: Clare Wilkinson, Emma Weitkamp, Andy Ridgway and Hannah Little<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I was also able to interview Emma Weitkamp<\/a>, Hannah Little<\/a> and Andy Ridgway<\/a>, staff who teach on the module, about their didactical frameworks, educational vision, how to build a science communication curriculum, and educational techniques. I got to sit in on teaching for undergraduate programmes at UWE Bristol and on masterclasses, continuing professional development aimed at those working in the field. What really stood out to me is that in all their teaching, the SCU team would actively make the connection between theory and practice, offering many examples of science communication efforts to their students, as well as enabling students to participate in real-world science communication themselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

More\ngenerally, my time in Bristol gave me insights into effective teaching\ntechniques for science communication within the context of a specialized\ngraduate programme. I will bring these insights with me to inform my further\nresearch. The next step in my own project is implementing teaching\ninterventions in the undergraduate programme Liberal Arts and Sciences, and my\nstay in Bristol gave me some great insights into how I might construct this\npart of my research. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I felt like a research stay at the start of my second year of research was a great time for me to spend some time at SCU. This stay gave me some great insights into theory and practice and helped me bring more focus to my project. The entire team made me feel very welcome during my time at UWE, with academics  Andy Ridgway, Andrew Glester<\/a>, Clare Wilkinson<\/a> and Kathy Fawcett<\/a>, letting me sit-in on their teaching. Furthermore, it was great to spend time with fellow PhD students David Judge<\/a> and Elena Milani<\/a>, who became real friends and helped exploring Bristol. In short, I would highly encourage any PhD student thinking about spending time at UWE Bristol to say yes to the opportunity!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Florentine Sterk stayed at the Science Communication Unit from September to November 2019 as a visiting PhD student. You can find out more about opportunities to spend a PhD sabbatical in the SCU here: https:\/\/www1.uwe.ac.uk\/research\/sciencecommunicationunit\/coursesandtraining\/postgraduateresearch\/phdsabbaticals.aspx<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m a junior assistant professor at Utrecht University, which means I split my time 50\/50 between teaching and PhD research. The moment I knew I wanted to specialize in science communication was when I was attending a lecture about an \u2013 at that time \u2013 recently published study as part of my training in Ecology. … Continue reading “Discovering science communication at the Science Communication Unit, UWE Bristol”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":2002,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,14,4],"tags":[496,499,501,127,497,148,498,500],"class_list":["post-1999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty-of-health-and-applied-sciences","category-phd","category-science-communication-unit","tag-florentine-sterk","tag-julie-johnson-kidd-travel-research-fellowship","tag-labyrint","tag-phd","tag-phd-sabbatical","tag-science-communication","tag-utrecht-university","tag-vpro"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/science-communication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/science-communication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/science-communication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/science-communication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/science-communication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1999"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/science-communication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1999\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2012,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/science-communication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1999\/revisions\/2012"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/science-communication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/science-communication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/science-communication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/science-communication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}