Developing undergraduate student oral science communication through video reflection

This study examines an undergraduate biology instructor’s use of video reflection for promoting students’ development as oral science communicators. After being provided with instruction on how to communicate effectively, students were asked to give scientific oral presentations and reflectively assess their own communicative performance by critically watching video-recordings of themselves. For a considerable portion of students (40.74%), the act of watching a video of themselves led to a change in their self-perceptions. There were slightly more instances of positive change than negative ones (22.22% and 18.52%, respectively). The most self-critical students developed perceptions of themselves that were less negative than before, whereas many students who initially felt badly about their presentations developed more positive self-perceptions after watching the video. In both cases, video reflection led to a more balanced perception of how effectively students presented their selves while giving a scientific oral presentation. It is argued that video reflection can help undergraduate students develop improved self-monitoring and self-regulation during performance of oral scientific presentations, and hence prepare the next generation of scientists to have a more productive professional life.