Applying the assertion-evidence approach to the teaching of presentation skills to science-based degree students

Abstract

Traditional PowerPoint presentations, whether given by students or professionals, can often be confusing, boring and text heavy, and this tends to be especially true in the science-based disciplines. Since our brains have difficulty processing information when listening to a speaker and reading written text at the same time (Mayer, 2009) the way that people typically present using slides is too cognitively taxing and much of the message is lost. The assertion-evidence approach (Alley, 2016) is a way of training those studying and working in science-based disciplines to give presentations with clearer and more powerful messages which hold the audience’s attention and interest. In this paper, we will share how we introduced the assertion-evidence model into a presentation skills component of a communication course for students in a science-based degree (biomedical sciences) for the first time. A need for more instruction in presentation skills had been expressed by their faculty and we were requested to introduce this into our course for these students. Our usual method for teaching presentation skills in the past with students in other courses has included talking about principles and giving feedback on practice, but our observation has been that this approach does not encourage students to push their presentation to an advanced level. We introduced the assertion-evidence approach in the hope that we would see clearer messages, more spontaneous speech, and more interactive and interesting presentations. Students, class teachers and observing professors from the faculty gave feedback on the impact of the approach using questionnaires and interviews.