Improve Your Skills in Communicating Education Research

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Improve Your Skills in Communicating Education
Research
Ronald J. Dietel
California Educational Research
AssociationAnnual Meeting Rancho Mirage, CA -
December 4-5, 2008
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Overview

1. Writing
2. Presentations
3. Traditional Media
4. Web 2.0 / Social media

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The Value of Public Communication

• Public Service
• Increase collaboration
• Career development
• Improve Education

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Writing TipsSeeing yourself in print is such
an amazing concept you get so much attention
without having to actually show up somewhere.
Anne Lamotte
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Writing for a Specific Audience

• Researchers
• Administrators
• Policymakers
• Teachers
• Parents

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Write for One Audience

• Mom

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Writing Rule 1 - Keep It Simple
Specifically, we consider how the ABC program
could support teachers in assessing and improving
their own practice, highlighting features that
are directly relevant to use of the program for
professional development purposes by drawing on
what we learned from training educators
unfamiliar with the program in an intensive
Assessment Basic Cognitive Rater Training Program
during a pilot study in the spring of 2005.
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Edit
Specifically, we consider how the ABC program
could support teachers in assessing and improving
their own practice, highlighting features that
are directly relevant to use of the program for
professional development purposes by drawing on
what we learned from training educators
unfamiliar with the program in an intensive
Assessment Basic Cognitive Rater Training Program
during a pilot study in the spring of 2005.
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Edit More
Specifically, we consider how the ABC program
could support teachers in assessing and improving
their own practice, highlighting features that
are directly relevant to use of the program for
professional development purposes by drawing on
what we learned from training educators
unfamiliar with the program in an intensive
Assessment Basic Cognitive Rater Training Program
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Edit Again
Does the ABC program improve teaching?
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APA Style Manual
Short words and short sentences are easier to
comprehend than long ones.
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Long Titles

• National Science Foundation Mini-course on
  Funding Possibilities and Data Base Analysis from
  the Office of Studies Evaluation and
  Dissemination

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Shorter Title

• National Science Foundation Mini-Course on
  Funding Possibilities and Data Base Analysis from
  the Office of Studies Evaluation and
  Dissemination

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Headline

• National Science Foundation
• Funding Opportunities

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Journal Title

• Waist-to-hip Ratios Across Cultures Trade-offs
  Between Androgen- and Estrogen-Dependent Traits

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News Release Headline

• Why the Perfect Body Isnt Always Perfect
• Study Explains How Hormones Interact with
  Waist-to-Hip Ratios in Women

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Headline

• Why the Perfect Body Isnt Always Perfect

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Writing Tips

• Shorten
• Sentences lt 25 words
• Paragraphs - 5 lines or less
• Titles

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APA Says
The author who is frugal with words not only
writes a more readable manuscript but also
increases the chances that the manuscript will be
accepted for publication.
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Simplify Education Words

• Differentiation - different
• Cognition - learning
• Practice - teaching
• Robust - strong, reliable
• Capacity - resources

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Tips For A Great Presentation

• Setting
• Design
• Delivery

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Setting

• Room
• Audio
• Visual

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Design

• Sin 1 - Covering too much
• Sin 2 - Busy Power Points

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Baegel District Formative Assessment Study
Alignment, Achievement, and Analysis in the
2008/2009 School Year

• Research Questions
• Are the districts formative assessments aligned
  to state and school district content standards?
• Do the district formative assessments improve
  learning in mathematics?
• What is the correlation between performance on
  the district assessments and performance on the
  state test?
• Formative assessments that are not aligned to
  standards are not useful in guiding and informing
  instruction, Garcia and Wilson, 2008
• Random selection of 400 students who received
  different types of math instruction (ten lessons
  each) before taking the district mathematics
  assessment
• Data on mathematics alignment
• Evidence collected in mathematics formative
  assessment using different mathematics curricula
  and instruction
• Learning experts analysis of data
• Triangulation of data
• Study Results

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Reduce content

• Reduce or skip literature review/background
• Cover one research question, not three or four
• Limit number of charts and tables
• Simplify charts and tables
• Estimate one minute per slide

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Baegel Alignment Study Results

• Are the districts formative assessments aligned?
• Random selection to treatment and control groups
• Key Finding- 54 alignment to state standards
• Recommendations

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Communications Model
American Communities
Interactive Dissemination
Audience
Evaluation Utilization
Media
Information Tools
Multiple Methods
Reciprocal Feedback
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Communications Model
Media
Audience
Evaluation
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666 Rule for Effective Design

• 6 bullets per page - max
• 6 words per bullet
• 6 information points on graphics
• Minimum Font Size - 18pt

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Death by Delivery

• The Great Apology
• The Speeding Bullet
• Reading the Paper

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The Cure

• Practice
• 3-4 times minimum
• Techniques
• Pause
• Eye contact
• Smile

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More Presentation Tips

• Humor maybe
• Hold the handouts
• Respect time limits

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Final Tips

• Writing--Less is More
• Presentations-Practice, practice, practice

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ron_at_ucla.edu