Enjoyment and Self-Efficacy in Oral Scientific Communication Are Positively Correlated to Postsecondary Students’ Oral Performance Skills

Abstract

Scientific oral communication is of major importance in democratic societies, but science students often dread giving oral presentations because of the stress they cause, and more generally, because of their attitude towards science communication. As attitude influences behavior, attitude towards science communication might have an impact on the performance students give during an oral presentation. This study was conducted with French-speaking postsecondary CEGEP (17–19 years old) science students in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. In this mixed-methods study, students’ attitude towards oral communication in science (n = 1295) was measured using a five-component model (perceived relevance, anxiety, enjoyment, self-efficacy (S-E) and context dependency). We then observed, by video, a sample of 26 students and measured their oral performance skills during a presentation on a scientific topic. The results suggest a strong correlation between oral performance in science and two components of attitude: the enjoyment of doing oral presentations and a specific aspect of S-E we called Showmanship S-E. In addition, although most students had a high perception of the relevance of oral communication in science, this did not correlate to their oral performance and most experienced anxiety about their oral communication.