Explaining Research


Book Description

Explaining Research is the first comprehensive communications guidebook for scientists, engineers, and physicians. Drawing on knowledge gleaned from a forty-year career in research communications, Dennis Meredith maps out how scientists can utilize sophisticated tools and techniques to disseminate their discoveries to important audiences. He explains how to use websites, blogs, videos, webinars, old-fashioned lectures, news releases, and lay-level articles to reach key audiences, emphasizing along the way that a strong understanding of the audience in question will allow a more effective communication tailored to a unique background and set of needs. In addition to drawing on the experience of the author, the book also includes excerpts from interviews with 45 of the country's leading science communications experts, including academics, authors, journalists, and public information officers. As the "information age" places new demands on scientists, Explaining Research will be a valuable resource not only for current professional scientists, but also for students who are the voice of the science community's next generation. This authoritative guide shows how to: · Develop a "strategy of synergy" that makes research communication efficient and effective · Give compelling talks · Build a professional Web site · Create quality posters, photos, animations, videos, e-newsletters, blogs, podcasts, and Webinars · Write popular articles and books · Persuade donors, administrators and other key funding decision-makers · Produce news releases that attract media coverage · Give clear media interviews · Serve as a public educator in schools and science centers Visit www.explainingresearch.com to learn more about the book and additional resources.




Explaining Research


Book Description

Explaining Researchis the ultimate guide for scientists, engineers, and other professionals seeking to share their life's work effectively with important lay and scientific audiences. It offers a multitude of practical communication tools and techniques for writing, giving talks, creating visuals, using social media, and publicizing research advances. Career success depends on more than conducting incisive experiments and publishing papers in top journals. Researchers must also know how to explain their work to key audiences, such as colleagues, potential collaborators, officers in funding agencies and from foundations, donors, institutional leaders, corporate partners, students, legislators, journalists, and the general public. Explaining Research is the most comprehensive guide for science and engineering communication. In this new edition, leading research communicator Dennis Meredith provides readers with the practical tools and techniques scientists and engineers need to reach their audiences effectively. The updated and expanded chapters include a wealth of insights from leading science journalists and research communicators.




Explaining the Future


Book Description

Will this new technology work to solve the problem its inventors claim it will? Is it likely to succeed? What is the right technical solution for a particular problem? Can we narrow down the options before we invest in development? How do we persuade our colleagues, investors, clients, or readers of our technical reasoning? Whether you're a researcher, a consultant, a venture capitalist, or a technology officer, you may need to be able to answer these questions systematically and with clarity. Most people learn these skills through years of experience. However, they are so basic to a high-level technical career that they should be made explicit and learned up front. Bains provides you with the tools you need to think through how to match new (and old) technologies, materials, and processes with applications. It starts with key questions to ask, goes through the resources you'll need to answer them, and helps you think through who is most (and least) likely to deserve your trust. Next, it talks you through analyzing the information you've gathered in a systematic way. The book includes chapters on audience (and how to tailor your explanation to them), how to make a persuasive and structured technical argument, and how to write this up in a way that is credible and easy to follow. Finally, the book includes a case study: a real worked example that goes from an idea through the twists and turns of the research and analysis process to a final report.




Reproducibility and Replicability in Science


Book Description

One of the pathways by which the scientific community confirms the validity of a new scientific discovery is by repeating the research that produced it. When a scientific effort fails to independently confirm the computations or results of a previous study, some fear that it may be a symptom of a lack of rigor in science, while others argue that such an observed inconsistency can be an important precursor to new discovery. Concerns about reproducibility and replicability have been expressed in both scientific and popular media. As these concerns came to light, Congress requested that the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine conduct a study to assess the extent of issues related to reproducibility and replicability and to offer recommendations for improving rigor and transparency in scientific research. Reproducibility and Replicability in Science defines reproducibility and replicability and examines the factors that may lead to non-reproducibility and non-replicability in research. Unlike the typical expectation of reproducibility between two computations, expectations about replicability are more nuanced, and in some cases a lack of replicability can aid the process of scientific discovery. This report provides recommendations to researchers, academic institutions, journals, and funders on steps they can take to improve reproducibility and replicability in science.




Language Teaching Research and Language Pedagogy


Book Description

This book examines current research centered on the second language classroom and the implications of this research for both the teaching and learning of foreign languages. It offers illuminating insights into the important relationship between research and teaching, and the inherent complexities of the teaching and learning of foreign languages in classroom settings. Offers an accessible overview of a range of research on instruction and learning in the L2 classroom Bridges the relationship between research, teachers, and learners Helps evolve the practice of dedicated current language teachers with research findings that suggest best practices for language teaching




Teaching Research Methods in Political Science


Book Description

Teaching Research Methods in Political Science brings together experienced instructors to offer a range of perspectives on how to teach courses in political science. It focuses on numerous topics, including identifying good research questions, measuring key concepts, writing literature reviews and developing information literacy skills.




The Creative Enterprise of Mathematics Teaching Research


Book Description

The Creative Enterprise of Mathematics Teaching Research presents the results and methodology of work of the teaching-research community of practice of the Bronx (TR Team of the Bronx). It has a twofold aim of impacting both teachers of Mathematics and researchers in Mathematics Education. This volume can be used by teachers of mathematics who want to use research to reflect upon and to improve their teaching craft, as well as by researchers who are interested in uncovering riches of classroom learning/teaching for research investigations. This book represents the results of a collaboration of instructors discussing their own instruction research, analyzed through a conceptual framework obtained via the synthesis of creativity research and educational learning theories, based upon the work of Piaget and Vygotsky. The editors see an urgent need for creative synthesis of research and teaching, an example of which is presented in the book. Two central themes of the book are the methodology of TR/NYCity model and creativity, more precisely, creativity of the Aha moment formulated by Arthur Koestler (1964) in a very profound but little known theory of bisociation exposed in his work “The Act of Creation”. Incorporation of the theory of bisociation into classroom teaching of mathematics provides the key to enable students who may struggle with mathematics to engage their own creativity, become involved in their learning process and thus reach their full potential of excellence. Creativity in teaching remedial mathematics is teaching gifted students how to access their own giftedness.




Explaining Illness


Book Description

This volume studies the explanation of illness in various cultural and social contexts. It is essential reading for scholars and practitioners in health communication and health care fields, including nursing, public health, and medicine.




How Learning Works


Book Description

Praise for How Learning Works "How Learning Works is the perfect title for this excellent book. Drawing upon new research in psychology, education, and cognitive science, the authors have demystified a complex topic into clear explanations of seven powerful learning principles. Full of great ideas and practical suggestions, all based on solid research evidence, this book is essential reading for instructors at all levels who wish to improve their students' learning." —Barbara Gross Davis, assistant vice chancellor for educational development, University of California, Berkeley, and author, Tools for Teaching "This book is a must-read for every instructor, new or experienced. Although I have been teaching for almost thirty years, as I read this book I found myself resonating with many of its ideas, and I discovered new ways of thinking about teaching." —Eugenia T. Paulus, professor of chemistry, North Hennepin Community College, and 2008 U.S. Community Colleges Professor of the Year from The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education "Thank you Carnegie Mellon for making accessible what has previously been inaccessible to those of us who are not learning scientists. Your focus on the essence of learning combined with concrete examples of the daily challenges of teaching and clear tactical strategies for faculty to consider is a welcome work. I will recommend this book to all my colleagues." —Catherine M. Casserly, senior partner, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching "As you read about each of the seven basic learning principles in this book, you will find advice that is grounded in learning theory, based on research evidence, relevant to college teaching, and easy to understand. The authors have extensive knowledge and experience in applying the science of learning to college teaching, and they graciously share it with you in this organized and readable book." —From the Foreword by Richard E. Mayer, professor of psychology, University of California, Santa Barbara; coauthor, e-Learning and the Science of Instruction; and author, Multimedia Learning




The Craft of Research, Fourth Edition


Book Description

With more than three-quarters of a million copies sold since its first publication, The Craft of Research has helped generations of researchers at every level—from first-year undergraduates to advanced graduate students to research reporters in business and government—learn how to conduct effective and meaningful research. Conceived by seasoned researchers and educators Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams, this fundamental work explains how to find and evaluate sources, anticipate and respond to reader reservations, and integrate these pieces into an argument that stands up to reader critique. The fourth edition has been thoroughly but respectfully revised by Joseph Bizup and William T. FitzGerald. It retains the original five-part structure, as well as the sound advice of earlier editions, but reflects the way research and writing are taught and practiced today. Its chapters on finding and engaging sources now incorporate recent developments in library and Internet research, emphasizing new techniques made possible by online databases and search engines. Bizup and FitzGerald provide fresh examples and standardized terminology to clarify concepts like argument, warrant, and problem. Following the same guiding principle as earlier editions—that the skills of doing and reporting research are not just for elite students but for everyone—this new edition retains the accessible voice and direct approach that have made The Craft of Research a leader in the field of research reference. With updated examples and information on evaluation and using contemporary sources, this beloved classic is ready for the next generation of researchers.