Improving Graduate Training

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00:00:11.10 Hello. My name is
00:00:13.09 Roy Parker.
00:00:14.01 I am a professor
00:00:14.26 at the University of Colorado
00:00:16.00 and an investigator
00:00:17.09 with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
00:00:18.16 I am here today
00:00:19.28 to talk about
00:00:20.16 developing as a scientist.
00:00:23.17 How you might be able to make
00:00:24.16 your graduate education
00:00:25.09 process better.
00:00:27.10 Why is this an issue?
00:00:31.20 Well, did you know
00:00:32.08 that 30-40% of students
00:00:33.22 in PhD programs in the United States
00:00:34.27 don't finish their PhDs?
00:00:36.28 There are probably a lot of
00:00:38.06 reasons why students
00:00:39.03 don't finish.
00:00:39.29 But I believe one of those reasons
00:00:41.24 is because in graduate school
00:00:43.13 we put a focus on winning.
00:00:46.00 Winning is defined
00:00:46.28 as publishing a really important paper
00:00:48.18 in a high profile journal.
00:00:50.26 This can lead to frustration
00:00:52.29 and dissatisfaction with students
00:00:54.23 because publishing such a paper
00:00:57.02 is often beyond
00:00:57.18 the scope of their control
00:00:59.22 and can involve luck,
00:01:00.19 both in the scientific process
00:01:02.11 as well as in the publishing process.
00:01:04.15 This is very analagous
00:01:06.27 to the athletic situations
00:01:08.08 where the focus on winning
00:01:11.07 in athletics can lead to
00:01:13.10 frustration and dissatisfaction
00:01:14.05 when athletes lose,
00:01:16.17 and then leading to those
00:01:17.08 athletes quitting the sport.
00:01:18.27 Conversely in science
00:01:20.05 if the whole focus
00:01:21.13 is to publish a really
00:01:22.06 important paper
00:01:22.18 that can lead to frustration
00:01:24.09 and dissatisfaction
00:01:25.15 when it doesn't happen
00:01:26.11 and can lead to students quitting science.
00:01:28.24 This analogy is useful because
00:01:32.02 we've learned from the study of athletic training
00:01:33.21 that the solution really
00:01:36.15 is to emphasize
00:01:37.08 skill development,
00:01:38.15 not winning, in training.
00:01:39.06 That is therefore
00:01:40.29 for the development of a scientist
00:01:42.10 this really equals the development
00:01:43.12 of a set of skills.
00:01:44.29 As skill develoment
00:01:45.16 improves training,
00:01:46.20 reduces frustration,
00:01:47.23 and then those improved skills
00:01:49.13 will lead to more winning,
00:01:51.16 or in the science analogy
00:01:52.23 to more important discoveries.
00:01:55.09 So then to really develop your
00:01:57.09 training program,
00:01:59.10 or to obtain a PhD,
00:02:01.08 you want to identify
00:02:02.08 a set of critical skills.
00:02:02.27 You want to make those skills
00:02:05.21 explicit to the students,
00:02:07.07 so that they know
00:02:07.21 what skills they are trying to learn,
00:02:08.26 and then you want to identify
00:02:10.21 methods, goals, exercises,
00:02:12.29 to train and develop those skills.
00:02:14.09 And then implement those,
00:02:16.02 all while doing
00:02:17.17 important research
00:02:18.11 because in the end
00:02:19.09 getting a PhD
00:02:20.12 is absolutely essential
00:02:22.05 to do new independent research.
00:02:23.16 What I have done here
00:02:27.12 is to try to put together
00:02:29.02 a number of different
00:02:30.05 skills which are important
00:02:32.06 to learn in order to
00:02:34.13 develop as a scientist.
00:02:35.21 If you are interested in this in more detail,
00:02:37.28 I suggest you see
00:02:38.24 this paper published earlier this year.
00:02:41.22 But what I am going to do
00:02:42.25 now is to run through these skills
00:02:44.14 and talk about why they
00:02:45.26 are important and how you might
00:02:46.19 work to develop them
00:02:47.16 during your PhD training.
00:02:49.07 One important skill
00:02:51.03 is a broad knowledge
00:02:51.29 of your field
00:02:52.18 a mile wide, inch deep.
00:02:54.20 This allows you to understand
00:02:56.00 what is out there,
00:02:57.11 so when something
00:02:57.27 becomes relevant you can know
00:02:59.28 where to go look
00:03:00.27 and what to learn about.
00:03:02.02 You develop such a
00:03:03.19 broad knowledge from classes,
00:03:04.28 you can from undergraduate textbooks,
00:03:07.11 or even from teaching.
00:03:08.28 And then, like other things
00:03:10.09 in science, you have to maintain this skill.
00:03:12.29 Because knowledge changes
00:03:14.17 over time and continues to accumulate,
00:03:16.17 so you have to continue
00:03:17.18 to attend seminars and journal clubs,
00:03:18.20 and look into leading journals
00:03:20.19 to see what is changing
00:03:22.03 and what is important
00:03:22.28 that you need to know about.
00:03:23.29 A related skill is a wide knowledge
00:03:27.15 of experimental approaches.
00:03:29.11 This is important
00:03:30.20 for three reasons.
00:03:31.28 First, in order to know how
00:03:33.11 to address the problem
00:03:34.02 that you are trying to solve
00:03:35.08 you need to be aware
00:03:37.10 of the full variety
00:03:38.16 of experimental approaches
00:03:39.21 that you could use in that setting.
00:03:41.04 Second, you need to understand
00:03:42.25 methods so that you can
00:03:43.27 read the scientific literature
00:03:45.02 and understand the strengths
00:03:46.11 and weaknesses of any given
00:03:47.08 manuscript that you are reading.
00:03:48.15 And finally, it is important
00:03:50.29 to know new approaches,
00:03:52.10 existing approaches,
00:03:54.07 because new technologies
00:03:55.11 are developed
00:03:56.01 by the combination
00:03:57.03 of previous technologies.
00:03:58.11 And so if you have a wide
00:04:00.08 awareness of what is possible now
00:04:02.14 you can consider how to
00:04:03.06 apply those and combine those
00:04:04.24 in new ways
00:04:06.06 to develop new methods,
00:04:07.11 which might allow you to solve
00:04:08.29 a previously untractable problem.
00:04:10.28 You can develop your wide
00:04:13.07 knowledge from seminars,
00:04:14.06 classes, literature.
00:04:15.25 It is important sometimes
00:04:17.20 to write summaries of these methods
00:04:18.22 so you can remember what they are,
00:04:20.02 and their strengths and weaknesses.
00:04:21.10 And then again,
00:04:23.02 like your basic knowledge base,
00:04:24.17 you need to maintain this.
00:04:26.01 You need to keep looking at what
00:04:27.13 new methods are coming along,
00:04:28.17 either from seminars
00:04:29.28 or from reading papers
00:04:31.04 or from browsing
00:04:32.10 leading methods journals.
00:04:33.24 A third skill is really to
00:04:38.06 have absolutely terrific
00:04:40.21 communication skills.
00:04:42.14 This is important
00:04:43.07 for two reasons.
00:04:44.04 First, you have to be able to
00:04:45.24 communicate what you are doing
00:04:47.04 either in oral format or written.
00:04:49.28 This is how you are evaluated
00:04:50.20 throughout your scientific career.
00:04:52.14 More importantly,
00:04:54.18 good communication skills forces you
00:04:56.28 to have a strong
00:04:58.08 and rigorous thinking.
00:05:01.03 If you can't communicate
00:05:01.23 something clearly,
00:05:02.27 it is because
00:05:03.07 you don't understand it clearly.
00:05:04.12 Therefore developing
00:05:06.02 good communication skills
00:05:07.19 forces you to develop good thinking skills.
00:05:09.16 You can do this from
00:05:10.28 both oral presentations
00:05:13.09 which can be practiced in group meeting,
00:05:14.27 discussions with your mentors
00:05:16.11 or your peers, in journal clubs,
00:05:18.02 or going to scientific conferences
00:05:20.05 and presenting your work.
00:05:21.03 Developing good writing skills
00:05:24.13 is also part of developing
00:05:25.21 your communication skills
00:05:27.16 and your thinking process.
00:05:29.11 This can be done by writing
00:05:30.12 reviews of manuscripts,
00:05:31.24 mini-reviews, writing proposals,
00:05:34.24 writing research manuscripts
00:05:35.26 as your results progress in the lab,
00:05:37.17 writing summaries of papers.
00:05:39.17 It is absolutely essential
00:05:40.29 to develop good writing skills
00:05:42.15 because this forces you
00:05:43.21 to have good thinking skills.
00:05:45.20 As said very eloquently
00:05:47.17 by Joseph Epstein,
00:05:48.26 a famous author,
00:05:50.23 "writing is foremost
00:05:51.11 a mode of thinking,
00:05:52.09 and, when it works well,
00:05:54.06 an act of discovery."
00:05:55.08 You have to be able
00:05:58.00 to learn how to read,
00:05:59.03 evaluate, and integrate
00:06:00.13 the scientific literature.
00:06:01.01 This is a skill which is learned
00:06:03.14 best at three different scales.
00:06:05.06 First you have to learn
00:06:06.12 how to read a single paper.
00:06:07.28 And you have to learn a method.
00:06:10.21 You can do this by then
00:06:11.19 reviewing manuscripts,
00:06:13.01 by reading papers
00:06:13.16 in whatever you are working on,
00:06:15.02 or presenting simple
00:06:15.21 journal clubs
00:06:16.10 where you just talk
00:06:17.01 about a single manuscript.
00:06:18.14 There are lots of ways
00:06:20.24 to read a scientific paper.
00:06:21.19 It is important for you
00:06:22.27 to find one that works
00:06:23.25 great for you.
00:06:25.06 Here's one website
00:06:26.00 which discusses
00:06:26.28 how you can do that.
00:06:27.29 There are others.
00:06:29.04 Develop a method for how
00:06:30.29 you are going to read
00:06:31.17 a scientific paper,
00:06:32.14 and then implement it
00:06:33.04 over and over again.
00:06:35.06 Once you read a paper,
00:06:36.17 you are not done.
00:06:37.16 You need to clarify
00:06:39.03 and organize your thoughts.
00:06:40.28 One very
00:06:41.11 useful way to do that
00:06:42.11 is to write a summary
00:06:43.04 of the paper.
00:06:43.11 A good method
00:06:45.13 is to write three simple paragraphs:
00:06:47.06 one, a summary paragraph
00:06:50.13 which has the main point
00:06:50.28 of the paper and the evidence
00:06:51.27 that supports it;
00:06:52.21 a second, a short paragraph
00:06:54.17 of the strengths
00:06:55.13 and weaknesses of the paper;
00:06:56.13 and finally a paragraph
00:06:58.16 about the broader implications
00:06:59.17 of why this is an interesting
00:07:00.18 or important paper.
00:07:02.01 Such summaries
00:07:05.06 do two things.
00:07:06.08 One, they help you organize
00:07:06.25 your thoughts.
00:07:08.00 And second,
00:07:09.04 they provide a resource
00:07:10.00 that you can go back to
00:07:11.06 whenever you need to
00:07:11.29 understand that paper
00:07:12.19 again in a timely manner.
00:07:15.12 Once you can do this
00:07:17.27 for a single paper
00:07:19.07 you need to be able to do it in a larger group,
00:07:20.20 maybe 10 to 15 papers.
00:07:23.19 This is a more realistic
00:07:24.19 journal club,
00:07:25.13 Writing a mini-review
00:07:26.14 is a good example of this,
00:07:27.08 or if you write a
00:07:28.09 research manuscript,
00:07:29.03 you might do so
00:07:30.14 in the introduction
00:07:31.01 to that manuscript.
00:07:31.26 At a larger scale,
00:07:34.21 by the time
00:07:35.27 you are getting done
00:07:36.09 with your PhD,
00:07:37.22 you should develop
00:07:38.09 the skill to be able to read
00:07:39.25 a large number of papers,
00:07:41.06 maybe 15 to 100,
00:07:42.23 integrate that information,
00:07:44.18 into a greater understanding,
00:07:46.24 and write a research proposal about it
00:07:47.24 or maybe a review
00:07:49.20 of that area
00:07:50.15 with a larger scope.
00:07:54.01 Two skills that
00:07:55.23 are very important
00:07:56.12 for you to succeed in the lab.
00:07:58.14 First, you have to have
00:08:00.04 very deep knowledge
00:08:01.24 about what is going on
00:08:02.27 in your field
00:08:03.22 and the things that are pertinent
00:08:04.26 to your experiments.
00:08:06.05 If you don't understand
00:08:07.14 in detail
00:08:08.13 what you are doing
00:08:10.02 and why it is important,
00:08:11.10 then how can you
00:08:11.23 ever expect to make
00:08:12.25 important contributions.
00:08:13.27 So to do this you have
00:08:15.12 to first learn how to
00:08:16.06 read and evaluate
00:08:16.25 its scientific methods,
00:08:18.02 papers, as we talked about
00:08:20.01 in skill four.
00:08:20.26 And then you need to read
00:08:21.16 papers in your field
00:08:23.09 and write summaries of them.
00:08:25.22 These become great resources
00:08:25.28 for you to understand
00:08:27.06 what you are doing
00:08:27.21 as you go forward.
00:08:28.27 You have to maintain
00:08:29.26 this specific knowledge.
00:08:31.14 You need to continue to read
00:08:32.17 in your field and attend
00:08:33.22 conferences in your field.
00:08:34.28 And maintain that
00:08:36.16 base knowledge as you go
00:08:38.06 forward to be successful.
00:08:40.00 A related skill
00:08:43.04 is to be able to design,
00:08:44.00 execute, and analyze
00:08:45.04 experiments in the lab.
00:08:46.07 To do this you actually
00:08:48.11 have to work in a lab.
00:08:49.09 Key things to focus on
00:08:50.25 are understanding
00:08:51.26 what you are really doing.
00:08:52.20 Know what the methods are,
00:08:54.10 how they work,
00:08:55.05 and what is important.
00:08:56.20 You need to think about
00:08:56.28 what controls are important.
00:08:59.01 And how to integrate
00:08:59.11 them into your experiments.
00:09:01.09 You have to really pay
00:09:01.17 attention to detail.
00:09:03.19 Many experiments
00:09:04.16 involve multiple steps.
00:09:05.14 If you have a 5 or 10% error rate
00:09:08.05 at any given step in an experiment,
00:09:09.18 and you have 10 or 20 steps
00:09:12.08 in the protocol,
00:09:13.21 the chances of you
00:09:15.09 executing a successful experiment
00:09:16.18 become vanishingly small.
00:09:18.11 It is also important,
00:09:21.27 very important,
00:09:23.01 to have what I call 'open eyes'.
00:09:24.01 You have to see what is there,
00:09:25.24 not what you expect
00:09:27.03 or hope to see.
00:09:27.29 This is extremely important
00:09:30.01 because unexpected results
00:09:31.23 or observations
00:09:32.21 are often the ones
00:09:34.07 that lead to a new
00:09:35.20 or greater understanding
00:09:36.21 of the process
00:09:37.14 under investigation
00:09:38.18 because they don't fit
00:09:39.20 with your pre-exisiting model.
00:09:41.10 So see what is there
00:09:43.15 and then think about
00:09:44.09 what it could mean.
00:09:45.13 Two final skills:
00:09:50.03 one, you have to be able
00:09:50.10 to have new ideas.
00:09:52.29 And here, this is a choice.
00:09:54.10 Creativity is a choice.
00:09:55.04 You can choose to think
00:09:56.26 about your observations
00:09:57.27 and what they might mean.
00:09:59.25 Or, you can just move
00:09:59.29 happily forward without much
00:10:02.14 depth of thought.
00:10:03.11 It is useful
00:10:06.00 pointing out that new ideas
00:10:07.10 often come from trying to
00:10:08.10 understand a process
00:10:09.12 at a causal or mechanistic level,
00:10:10.21 and such efforts
00:10:12.16 force you to think
00:10:13.11 about what could be going on,
00:10:15.28 and therefore
00:10:16.27 generate new hypotheses.
00:10:19.29 You can develop
00:10:20.15 methods to have new hypotheses.
00:10:21.28 There are several of these.
00:10:23.17 Find one that works for you.
00:10:25.15 One example of these is shown here
00:10:28.12 and again detailed
00:10:29.19 in this manuscript
00:10:30.11 published earlier this year.
00:10:31.27 There are several others.
00:10:33.12 The important point here
00:10:35.01 is for you to find a way
00:10:36.15 that works for you
00:10:38.14 to have new ideas
00:10:39.05 about the experiments
00:10:40.25 you are doing.
00:10:45.00 A final skill
00:10:45.16 is the ability to choose
00:10:47.01 important research problems.
00:10:48.03 There are different approaches to this.
00:10:50.07 You can choose problems
00:10:51.13 that address
00:10:51.29 a critical human or societal issue.
00:10:53.26 You can address some
00:10:54.23 fundamental question
00:10:55.28 which has not been solved,
00:10:57.05 or that address
00:10:58.05 an unexplained
00:10:58.19 observation that doesn't fit
00:11:00.12 with our current understanding
00:11:01.11 of whatever area it is in.
00:11:03.05 You need to determine
00:11:04.20 what works for you.
00:11:06.19 Different scientists have
00:11:07.25 different affinities
00:11:08.11 for different kinds of problems.
00:11:09.24 Think about what
00:11:11.28 you like to work on.
00:11:13.13 And then choose a method
00:11:15.18 which will allow you
00:11:16.27 to do this successfully.
00:11:17.19 Here are two commentaries
00:11:19.21 which talk about how
00:11:20.27 to choose a scientific problem
00:11:22.11 in a manner that fits
00:11:23.03 with your personality.
00:11:24.16 Finally, in closing,
00:11:27.18 I just want to hit
00:11:28.08 the bottom line.
00:11:29.03 You know, for students,
00:11:30.10 getting a PhD
00:11:31.16 requires more than just
00:11:32.18 working in a lab.
00:11:33.13 These are some of
00:11:34.23 the explicit skills
00:11:35.19 that you should develop
00:11:36.11 during your PhD training.
00:11:38.06 And you can put in place
00:11:38.29 methods to do that yourself.
00:11:40.25 If they are not
00:11:42.02 already existing
00:11:42.23 in your graduate training program,
00:11:44.06 talk to your mentor
00:11:45.08 and develop a program
00:11:46.05 that will work for you
00:11:47.11 to get the training
00:11:48.11 you feel you need.
00:11:50.02 For mentors,
00:11:51.18 you know, developing
00:11:52.22 good skills
00:11:53.12 in your students
00:11:54.08 takes effort,
00:11:54.28 but if you are successful,
00:11:57.08 the payback is well worth it.
00:11:58.27 Thank you for your attention.
00:12:02.09

This Talk

Speaker: Roy Parker

Audience:

Educators of H. School / Intro Undergrad
Educators of Adv. Undergrad / Grad
Researcher
Educators

Recorded: February 2014

Talk Overview

Parker suggests that graduate training could be improved if science learned a lesson from athletics where the best coaches emphasize skill development, not winning (or, in the case of science, publishing a high profile paper), during training. Parker goes on to outline eight key skills students should acquire during their graduate training.

Speaker Bio

Roy Parker

Roy Parker a professor of chemistry and biochemistry and Cech-Leinwand Endowed Chair of Biochemistry at the University of Colorado, Boulder and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Prior to joining the University of Colorado in 2012, Parker was a Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Arizona. Dr. Parker received… Continue Reading