What is this course about?
What makes a good scientist? Scientific knowledge and expertise is a key, but that is not enough. Communication plays a key role in science. From peer to peer, from teacher to student and vice versa, from scientists to the general audience. Communication skills are essential in every aspect of a researcher’s work at any step of his/her career, from being a young student to an established professor. However, the training of scientists in such skills is scarce, not to say nonexistent, and communication is too often hampered by skewed view on oneself and low self esteem.
This course proposes to fill this gap and beyond, from tips and tricks to better perform in public to core changes in one’s self esteem, as with true self esteem, one does not feel threatened by peers, students etc. This is the basis to become an empowered student, a fair supervisor, a fair collaborator and last but not least, to have a more appeased, long-term approach to science, presentations, and interpersonal communication in general.
To achieve this goal, the course includes lectures involving pedagogy, theater or psychology that highly rely on practical exercises: one cannot endlessly discuss self-esteem and communication, one has to act.
The pedagogical team
The team combines facilitators with different expertise, different personalities and different interests, yet with a common goal: promote students, let them grow and help them find their own path.
| ClémentI am an associate professor in botany in Charles University. My interests go way beyond that, however. Among others, I have been involved in several music projects, I have hosted a radioshow, and is a fervent defender of existentialism as a way to live. I therefore educate myself on social sciences, psychology, philosophy on my free time. My “side” projects taught me a lot. I learnt for example that being in the spotlight is enjoyable and not just something to fear. Quite a useful skill when it comes to do scientific presentations, teaching, or simply discussing science. It also taught me that fairness and kindness are not just cheesy emotional words. Indeed, rational benevolence, as Spinoza would put it, is not about seeing others as means to reach our goals, but instead, if each of us acts taking into account others and not just our own interests, we all benefit from it. This knowledge on the “side” of science has been very useful to me, and I thought that it may be useful to others as well. Hence I created this course. :) |
| JakubI am currently trying to handle two totally opposite carriers. The first being PhD student of Botany at Charles University and the second being a theatrical actor. And I am benefitting from this unique combination and contrasting viewpoints all my adult life. My scientific carrier gains a lot from the experience with performing, theatricality, and overall artistic thinking. Being able to present and improvise myself actually saved my life a lot of times, so I feel that there is a purpose in sharing this knowledge with others. On the other hand, being in theatre opens the possibility to think about my scientific experiences from different perspectives. When telling a scientific story, one should be able to merge two perspectives into one. A clear scientifical argument should be followed up by performativity, showmanship, and specific type of storytelling, every time crafted up to the individual needs of the person presenting the story. To allow you to try various approaches of storytelling via choosing different theatrical genres and different materials (in both abstract and concrete sense) is my main goal in this course. My theatricals experiences cover a wide range of styles from immersive and alternative theatre (with Pomezí Projekt) to classical drama and puppet theatre (I am currently a repertory player at Spejbl and Hurvínek Theatre and also have my own independent troupe Ilegumova Divadelní společnost). |
Words by former students
The course has been rated >97% in averange since its opening in 2019.
Some reviews by students:
“Great course! It provided a safe space in which we could learn a lot about ourselves, about how our qualities project into our life and communication with others. In this course, I improved my confidence, communication and teaching skills while having a lot of fun. Would strongly recommend!”
“This course has finally given space to work on the skills that are expected from students but that are never taught at university, in a very practical and fun way. It is exactly what a student needs to master presentation performance and find confidence doing so.”
“Highly interactive and properly set up challenge. Much emphasis on practical skills training. A really beneficial subject for improving presentation skills.”
Source: student evaluations, https://hodnoceni.natur.cuni.cz/
Practical details
The course runs in the summer semester.
To enroll, connect to the SIS and click “enroll”: https://is.cuni.cz/studium/eng/predmety/index.php?do=predmet&kod=MB120P…
Attention: this course is limited to 2 groups of 10 students! If you missed your chance, worry not! Send an email to lafonplc (at) natur.cuni.cz to be on the waiting list in case of student dropouts :) .
Once you have enrolled, we will send you all the details regarding the schedule, content, etc. :)
If you encounter any issue, feel free to contact us at lafonplc (at) natur.cuni.cz