“Unless You Can Explain”: Voices of Graduate Students and Their Professor Regarding the Importance of Science Communication Course

Abstract

This study aimed to analyse the experiences of graduate students and their Professor deal with science communication courses. Capturing the nature and the pedagogic experiences of the courses and also describing the hot issues around them were the main focus of this study. By using a constructivist approach, eight graduate students and one Professor of science education program at a public university in the East of Taiwan submitted participant qualitative interviews to discuss their learning experiences in the courses. The findings revealed that first; science communication bridges the gap between people and science communities and includes communication between various other longer-established academic domains. Second, science communication is about interpersonal and public communication among and by science professionals. Third, it emphasises the importance of communicative pedagogy: instructional design, media and technology, classroom management, interpersonal interaction, and assessment. Fourth, the hot issue around science communication can be reviewed from science content, nature of science, and social cognition theory. This study pinpoints the position of science, communication, and science communication as a package in which giving a linkage between scientists and science communicators as collective roles.