I believe in the idea that a good research article/presentation should raise more questions than answers. If I attend a talk that is in my area of expertise, I could think of several implications and a few questions. However, talks like this are not very common. Your department is composed of so many faculties and each of them would invite speakers from their area. However, in general, I attend talks that interest me. The interest could be the topic, title, fame of speakers etc. If a noble prize winner gives a talk, I invariably go even if the topic is unrelated to me.
Now the question is what do you get out of research talks. If it is my area of expertise, there could be so many take-home messages. In some related area, I could make some connections with my area and try to synthesize a new idea. All these points can be formulated as questions. Anyhow, I am not a great "questioner". Partly, because of shyness, which originates from a fear of being silly (I think it has something to do with Imposter syndrome also). The second reason is I do not get good questions to ask, especially if it is a boring presentation. I found an interesting article that suggests a number of techniques to ask questions during any type of presentation by Julian Geiger (see the link below). The author calls it the COLUMO technique (COmparison, LOngterm Undertakings, Methods, Origin).
1. Compare: the data presented with other published data, or current understanding and asking for clarification. This requires some prior knowledge.
2. Longterm Undertaking: What are you going to do next? What is the practical implications of this findings? What future experiments do you plan?
3. Methods: What are the controls you need for this methods? Is this method useful for looking at blah blah?
4. Origin: Historical perspective of the study. How did you come up with the idea? Why was it important to perform these studies?
I found these ideas very useful. The author came up with these plan by carefully observing people who are good at asking great questions. Cool!
(http://www.nextscientist.com/ask-good-questions-scientific-meetings/?utm_source=Next+Scientist+Newsletter&utm_campaign=648ec712cf-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_11_02_02_35&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_2f60796eaa-648ec712cf-106503097).
Now the question is what do you get out of research talks. If it is my area of expertise, there could be so many take-home messages. In some related area, I could make some connections with my area and try to synthesize a new idea. All these points can be formulated as questions. Anyhow, I am not a great "questioner". Partly, because of shyness, which originates from a fear of being silly (I think it has something to do with Imposter syndrome also). The second reason is I do not get good questions to ask, especially if it is a boring presentation. I found an interesting article that suggests a number of techniques to ask questions during any type of presentation by Julian Geiger (see the link below). The author calls it the COLUMO technique (COmparison, LOngterm Undertakings, Methods, Origin).
1. Compare: the data presented with other published data, or current understanding and asking for clarification. This requires some prior knowledge.
2. Longterm Undertaking: What are you going to do next? What is the practical implications of this findings? What future experiments do you plan?
3. Methods: What are the controls you need for this methods? Is this method useful for looking at blah blah?
4. Origin: Historical perspective of the study. How did you come up with the idea? Why was it important to perform these studies?
I found these ideas very useful. The author came up with these plan by carefully observing people who are good at asking great questions. Cool!
(http://www.nextscientist.com/ask-good-questions-scientific-meetings/?utm_source=Next+Scientist+Newsletter&utm_campaign=648ec712cf-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_11_02_02_35&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_2f60796eaa-648ec712cf-106503097).
No comments:
Post a Comment