On a new international publication, Ronald Cárdenas unveils laboratory communicational problems

Ronald Cérdenas, Yachay Tech student, published a scientific paper today on the canadian journal  Journal Of Interpersonal Relations, Intergroup Relations and Identity (JIRIRI). On this publication Ronald aims to contribute to the establishment of communication as a crucial factor during the performance of laboratory practices. He does it through analyzing professor-student and student-student interaction in the laboratory. During his study Ronald identified 4 communicational problems: disrupted communication process, lack of communication, assumptions and non-verbal communication. This research endeavour is an input to the improvement of communication among different actants involved in education and scientific research in the laboratory.

Ronalds goal was to identify certain nosive communicational behaviors that slow down laboratory work. According to his publication, they can have a high incidence in results.  “These behaviors can negatively influence team performance during LW, leading to unnecessary high cost results or even not obtaining any results.”

For his research project, Ronald studied laboratory work in different spaces of Yachay Tech university and others thorough tape registries. Biology and Chemistry practices were the most included. When portraying the problems, Ronald explains:

Disrupted communication process happened when different work groups concentrated their attention on different aspects of the practice; lack of communication happened when students or peers weren’t comfortable enough to ask about something they didn’t understand; assumptions, again, when not asking students participating would make assumptions as to which is the next step on the practice and how it is performed; non-verbal communication happened when corporal gestures were used to communicate a step in the practice, which confused students or peers, and drifted their attention onto something else, which makes this four problems a circle.

Ronald suggests to have a set of examples and rules for laboratory communication as well as laboratory safeness. He sustains that a better laboratory communication can save resources and time in laboratory work, making it more efficient.This avoids the repetition of laboratory work when results aren’t the expected or are impossible to replicate; it also improves learning conditions in the laboratory.