1. California Educational Research Association Annual Meeting Rancho Mirage, CA - December 4-5, 2008 Ronald J. Dietel Improve Your Skills in Communicating Education Research

2. Overview 1.Writing 2.Presentations 3.Traditional Media 4.Web 2.0 / Social media

3. The Value of Public Communication Public Service Increase collaboration Career development Improve Education

4. Writing Tips “ Seeing yourself in print is such an amazing concept: you get so much attention without having to actually show up somewhere. ” Anne Lamotte

5. Writing for a Specific Audience Researchers Administrators Policymakers Teachers Parents

6. Write for One Audience Mom

7. Writing Rule #1 - Keep It Simple “ Specifically, we consider how the ABC program could support teachers in assessing and improving their own practice, highlighting features that are directly relevant to use of the program for professional development purposes by drawing on what we learned from training educators unfamiliar with the program in an intensive Assessment Basic Cognitive Rater Training Program during a pilot study in the spring of 2005. ”

8. Edit “ Specifically, we consider how the ABC program could support teachers in assessing and improving their own practice, highlighting features that are directly relevant to use of the program for professional development purposes by drawing on what we learned from training educators unfamiliar with the program in an intensive Assessment Basic Cognitive Rater Training Program during a pilot study in the spring of 2005. ”

9. Edit More “ Specifically, we consider how the ABC program could support teachers in assessing and improving their own practice, highlighting features that are directly relevant to use of the program for professional development purposes by drawing on what we learned from training educators unfamiliar with the program in an intensive Assessment Basic Cognitive Rater Training Program …

10. Edit Again Does the ABC program improve teaching?

11. APA Style Manual “Short words and short sentences are easier to comprehend than long ones.”

12. Long Titles National Science Foundation Mini- course on Funding Possibilities and Data Base Analysis from the Office of Studies Evaluation and Dissemination

13. Shorter Title National Science Foundation Mini- Course on Funding Possibilities and Data Base Analysis from the Office of Studies Evaluation and Dissemination

14. Headline National Science Foundation Funding Opportunities

15. Journal Title Waist-to-hip Ratios Across Cultures: Trade-offs Between Androgen- and Estrogen-Dependent Traits

16. News Release Headline Why the Perfect Body Isn’t Always Perfect Study Explains How Hormones Interact with Waist-to-Hip Ratios in Women

17. Headline Why the Perfect Body Isn’t Always Perfect

18. Writing Tips Shorten … Sentences < 25 words Paragraphs - 5 lines or less Titles

19. APA Says… The author who is frugal with words not only writes a more readable manuscript but also increases the chances that the manuscript will be accepted for publication.

20. Simplify Education Words Differentiation - different Cognition - learning Practice - teaching Robust - strong, reliable Capacity - resources

21. Tips For A Great Presentation Setting Design Delivery

22. Setting Room Audio Visual

23. Design Sin #1 - Covering too much Sin #2 - Busy Power Points

24. Baegel District Formative Assessment Study: Alignment, Achievement, and Analysis in the 2008/2009 School Year Research Questions Are the district’s formative assessments aligned to state and school district content standards? Do the district formative assessments improve learning in mathematics? What is the correlation between performance on the district assessments and performance on the state test? Formative assessments that are not aligned to standards are not useful in guiding and informing instruction, Garcia and Wilson, 2008 Random selection of 400 students who received different types of math instruction (ten lessons each) before taking the district mathematics assessment: Data on mathematics alignment Evidence collected in mathematics formative assessment using different mathematics curricula and instruction Learning experts analysis of data Triangulation of data Study Results

25. Reduce content Reduce or skip literature review/background Cover one research question, not three or four Limit number of charts and tables Simplify charts and tables Estimate one minute per slide

26. Baegel Alignment Study Results Are the district’s formative assessments aligned? Random selection to treatment and control groups Key Finding- 54% alignment to state standards Recommendations

27. Audience Media Evaluation & Utilization Interactive Dissemination Information Tools Multiple Methods Reciprocal Feedback American Communities Communications Model

28. Audience Evaluation Communications Model Media

29. 666 Rule for Effective Design 6 bullets per page - max 6 words per bullet 6 information points on graphics Minimum Font Size - 18pt

30. Death by Delivery The Great Apology The Speeding Bullet Reading the Paper

31. The Cure Practice 3-4 times minimum Techniques Pause Eye contact Smile

32. More Presentation Tips Humor maybe Hold the handouts Respect time limits

33. Final Tips Writing--Less is More Presentations-Practice, practice, practice

34. ron@ucla.edu