Syllabus
* Preliminary schedule: Week
1. Lecture: Introduction; no practical class. Week
2. Lecture: Self-esteem, introduction. Self-fulfilling prophecies; 4 hours practical class: short presentations and feedbacks / practicing building new core beliefs. Week
3. Lecture: Living consciously. It is not (only) about you; 4 hours practical class: it is not about you, try it out there. Week
4. Lecture: Self-acceptance. Learning to accept your own voice and image; no practical class. Week
5. Lecture: Self-responsibility. Being accountable for your actions; no practical class. Week
6. Lecture: Self-assertiveness. Dealing with the challenges of scientific debate; 2 hours practical class: practicing assertiveness. Week
7. Lecture: Living purposefully. Be unstoppable?; 4 hours practical class: theater performance. Week
8. Lecture: Personal integrity. Honesty during presentations; no practical class. Week
9. Lecture: Body language of self-confidence; 4 hours practical class: theater performance, practicing body language. Week
10. Lecture: The logical path, or how to tell scientific stories; 2 hours practical class: practicing logical paths. Week
11. Lecture: How new media can help providing a more fruitful class/talk; 4 hours practical class practical class: theater improvisation. Week
12. Lecture: Discussing, asking and answering questions; no practical class.
Annotation
In case the course is full and you could not enroll, you can still register for the waiting list (there are always a couple of dropouts at the beginning of the semester)! Just send an email to lafonplc [at] natur.cuni.cz to register.
This course will be held in English.
What makes a good scientist? The understanding of and the expertise in a certain topic is a key, but that is not enough. Communication plays a key role in science. From peer to peer, from teacher or supervisor 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, scientists training 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 a fair student supervisor, a fair collaborator and last but not least, to have a more appeased, long-term approach to science, presentations, discussion etc. To achieve this goal, the course will involve lectures involving pedagogy, theater or psychology that will highly rely on practical classes: one cannot endlessly discuss self-esteem and communication, one has to do it.