Which communication for higher education in scientific disciplines?

Teaching, researching, knowledge transfer and innovation are important drivers of the development of any Country, provided by higher education in humanities, e.g. social and political sciences or clinical medicine, as well as in science and technology. In Europe these items correspond to the heart of a strategy, which aims to enforce a more inclusive, cohesive and competitive continent. Sometimes, science teaching fails because educational programs do not satisfactorily meet social needs, or research does not achieve innovation targets since it is not enough social-impacting. Scientific reductionism favours the individual point of view rather than shared perspectives, which integrate different disciplines and better answer to real problems. Many researchers, highly specialized in their knowledge fields, often transfer clear scientific concepts but unrelated to life or social and ethical values. Moreover, teaching today uses increasingly advanced tools to improve active learning, placing great trust in technology and forgetting the basics of good communication, which lies in the skills of communicator, his authenticity, his sincere interest in the listener’s growth. Following teaching experiences gained with a scientific communication course realised in the last two years at the Polytechnic and Basic Sciences School (Federico II University of Naples, Naples, Italy), we propose a distinction between science popularization and science communication, which establishes interesting guidelines for dealing with the complex interaction between higher education and society's needs. We have recovered the basic of communication skills, highlighting the importance of the sender-receiver relationship and strengthening the idea that effective communication occurs when receiver and sender simultaneously grow: the former improves his knowledge and his ability to choose, and the second one changes himself as an effect of the receiver’s reaction. Achieving effective communication in education is primarily a matter of taking care of the interpersonal relationship. Finally, we demonstrate that there is not only one way to communicate, but there are many approaches, depending on the peculiar relationship between sender and receiver.