Summary Description Students in our program are given training in communication of results from an early stage in their doctoral education. During the first and second years, there is (newly implemented) training in mathematical communication skills. During the latter portions of the program, this training is the responsbility of the student's mentor. We are also interested in making sure that our students understand and can communicate to others the broader context in which their work sits. This too is the responsibility of the mentor, at the moment, but we are discussing possible ways of formalizing this and helping both students and mentors acheive this goal.

Tools and Resources Seminar for first-year students in which presentations by faculty members are critiqued for presentation skills. Seminar for second-year students in which students make presentations to each other, with an aim towards improving their presentation skills. More breadth in the education of our students is now possible through the addition of mini-courses to the curriculum.

Goals for Students A student completing our program should be able to communicate the results which she or he has obtained in a wide variety of contexts: to fellow specialists in the field, to other mathematicians, to other scientists in allied fields, to the general public. She or he should be aware of the broader context in which the work exists, and should be able to communicate that context to others.

Program Context As we considered the effectiveness of our program overall, we came to see this issue -- how well our students communicate both their results and the context of their results -- as an important area of improvement for our program. We have tried to strengthen this aspect of the program without imposing large time burdens on students which would detract from their ability to complete the program in a timely fashion.

How Do We Know? Students are formally evaluated in the two new seminars, which will give us some indication of the effectiveness of this training method. Evaluating the impact on the program over a longer period of time is difficult: the perception of the problem was inspired by anecdotes; whether we have indeed solved this problem may also be addressed through anecdotal evidence.

Unanswered Questions How can we formalize the goal of ensuring that students understand and communicate the context of their work, in a way that is acceptable to (all) faculty and their students?

Contact Information Contact person: David Morrison, CID Team Leader Email address: [email protected]