Domains of research-enhanced teaching
Given the international
standing of the University of Sydney it is considered important that the
University should position itself in relation to best practice. From discussions
at Universities with which benchmarking relationships have been established,
i.e. the Universities of Oxford, UCL and Edinburgh and in other universities
in the UK and Australia as well as experience at the University of Sydney,
a vision of research –led teaching has been developed. This encompasses
five domains which affect the extent to which teaching is research-enhanced
and determine what is understood by it.
- Assumptions which define the limits and possibilities for research-enhanced teaching.
- How the academic prepares for teaching.
- How the teaching is actually carried out.
- What the teacher does after the teaching to reflect on or disseminate their teaching.
- The department and institutional culture and context.
Assumptions which define the limits and possibilities for research-enhanced teaching
For example:
- What are lecturers'; conceptions of research, teaching, the nature of knowledge and scholarship?
- What is understood by research-enhanced teaching?
- How appropriate is research-enhanced teaching considered at particular levels 1st year, 2nd, Postgrad etc.)?
- How is the nature of research being done viewed vis à vis the teaching being carried out (e.g. too specialist, too difficult)?
Preconditions for research-enhanced teaching
The preconditions for research-enhanced teaching, then,
influence what academics are likely to understand by this concept and
how they seek to develop it.
So, for example, an academic who has a conception of research
focused on the external environment (Brew
2001) may view research-enhanced teaching as involving students in a range
of social activities mirroring research conferences, journal publication,
presenting posters, engaging in teamwork and networking. Someone who has
a conception of research focused internally on the analysis of data to
develop an understanding, may see research-enhanced teaching more as a process
of engaging students in courses on methodology, interpretation of data
etc.
Research-enhanced teaching will be viewed differently where an
academic has what Prosser
and Trigwell (1999) call an 'information transmission teacher
focused'; approach to teaching and when they have a 'conceptual
change student focused'; approach. An information transmission approach
may result in a view of research-enhanced teaching as the process of telling
students about the academic';s research, for example, in lectures,
perhaps using anecdotes from laboratory experiences, while a conceptual
change approach is more likely to lead to engaging students in research
in some way.
How the academic conceptualises knowledge is also likely
to affect their understanding of research-enhanced teaching. So for example, Gibbons
et al';s (1994) conceptions of 'Mode 1'; and 'Mode
2'; knowledge production are likely to translate into different conceptions
of research-enhanced teaching; the former focused on courses as consisting
of objective knowledge viewed as separate from knowers, i.e. an Enlightenment
conception of knowledge which describes a pre-existent reality (Mourad
1997), the latter on communication and negotiation with knowledge
viewed as created as much outside universities as within. The teaching
which is likely to result from these different conceptions of knowledge
is very different.
Similarly, different conceptions of scholarship (see for
example, Brew
2001), different conceptions of learning, and different conceptions
of the subject matter of the course will lead to different understandings
and practice in relation to research-enhanced teaching. The nature of the research
which is being carried out and the level of research activity as well
as how the course or unit is perceived by the teacher, for example, whether
the course or the research carried out are of a general or a specialist
nature will similarly influence whether research-enhanced teaching is thought
to be appropriate.
Whether there is a perceived close relationship between
the topics being researched and taught or whether this relationship is
viewed as distant as well as how the academic views the appropriateness
of the development of research-enhanced teaching at particular levels of study
will also influence the extent of research-enhanced teaching. For example,
some academics only view research-enhanced teaching as relevant at the Honours
level, while others view it as important to develop this relationship
from the first year university experience. All of these dimensions define
preconditions for research-enhanced teaching.
How the academic prepares for teaching
- Is disciplinary research and scholarship used in preparation?
- Is research and scholarship in relation to pedagogy used?
- Is any pedagogical research that is used generic research or subject specific research or both?
- Are both disciplinary research and scholarship and pedagogical research and scholarship used?
How the teaching is actually carried out
- Are students an audience for research or are they actively engaged in research activity?
- Is the teaching approach a student-focused or a teacher-focused one?
- Is the aim to teach students about the content of the research, the processes of research, or both?
Research-enhanced teaching is more often than not understood
in terms of what teaching actually takes place. On the basis of a study
of students'; conceptions of research at a research intensive university, Zamorski
(2000) distinguished between teaching where students were used as
an audience for research and teaching where students were engaged in research
activity.
We can also find differences in understandings of research-enhanced
teaching according to what is to be learnt and whether the teaching takes
a student-focused or a teacher-focused perspective. For example, if a
teacher includes the content of their research in lectures and it is this
content which students have to learn, we can say that this is research-enhanced
teaching focusing on content using a teacher-focused perspective. If the
teacher gives a lecture (without active participation) on research methods,
then we can say this is research-enhanced teaching which again is teacher-focused,
but where the process of research is what is to be learnt. In both these
cases, the students are an audience for research.
A student-focused perspective where the students are an
audience for research can be where a tool or technique has been developed
to engage students actively in learning the research findings, but where
they are not themselves engaged in doing the research. For example, on
the basis of their research Lenzen & Smith (1999-2000) developed a
teaching tool known as a 'Personal Greenhouse Gas Emissions Calculator';.
This enables students to become personally involved in what was previously
presented as lecture material. It is research-enhanced in that the students
are an audience for the research findings and it is student focused in
that students are actively engaged in their learning. But students are
not engaged in research activity as such; merely an audience.
Where students are actually engaged in research activity,
a distinction can be made between whether what is to be learnt by the
students are the processes of research or whether both the process and
the content of the research are to be learnt. Again, teacher-focused and
student-focused methods are in evidence. So, for example, if the processes
of research are to be learnt and a teacher-focused method is used, then
students may engage in library searching exercises, or textual analysis;
the intention being not so much to learn about the content but to learn
about how to do the particular technique. A student-focused approach may
go much further with teaching processes mirroring research processes.
A course may be structured like, for example, the Multimedia Systems course
at Southampton University, to simulate the process of preparing and presenting
a paper for a conference and learning from a conference experience (White,
Davis & Crowder 2002). A student focused approach to teaching which
engages students in research activity in order to teach them research
processes may include journal clubs, and seminar presentations as preparation
for essays (so mirroring the process of preparing conference presentations
for journal publication). It may also include teamwork. Indeed, in my
discussions with over 200 academics the most frequently cited example
of research-enhanced teaching was engaging students in group work. Group work
does not necessarily make teaching research-enhanced. An explicit focus on
group work as a form of research activity may do, however.
Student-focused approaches to teaching where students are
engaged in inquiry may involve the whole course or unit such as in fully
fledged problem-based learning, inquiry based learning or work-based learning
programs, or may be focused at unit or subject level, with individual
academics implementing elements of such programs in limited areas. Yet
teacher focused approaches are also in evidence. In such examples, students
learn about the process of research and about the content by actually
doing some of the teachers'; research. It is in relation to such
examples that the dangers of exploitation have been highlighted. Students
may be required to do repetitive research which goes beyond what they
need in order to understand the subject or the research techniques (processes),
and they may not be acknowledged when the work is subsequently written
up for publication. Such examples do serve to caution that research-enhanced
teaching may have a dark side. It does not necessarily contribute to enhanced
student learning
What the teacher does after the teaching to reflect on or disseminate their teaching
The backward glance: When the teaching has been done, what does the teacher do to reflect and
act upon knowledge gained? I call this domain of research-enhanced teaching
'the backward glance'. Two of Trigwell,
Martin, Benjamin and Prosser';s (2000) dimensions of scholarship
in teaching, the 'reflection'; and the 'communication';
dimensions, are particularly helpful in unpacking reflection and action
following teaching.
- Does the teacher reflect on their teaching using a variety of investigative approaches to understanding students'; experiences and outcomes?
- Do they disseminate their teaching methods and approaches either to their colleagues or more widely in national and international forums and journals?
- effectively non- or unfocused reflection (where routine course evaluation may be carried out according to university policy but nothing is essentially done about this);
- reflection while the teaching action is actually taking place;
- reflection which is focused on asking what do I need to know about such and such here and how will I find out about it.
In this latter instance, the teacher then uses a variety
of evaluative methods to evaluate teaching and learning. Since only the
latter leads to evidence based decision making in relation to teaching
and learning, only that form of reflection can be described as a research-enhanced
backward glance.
The 'communication dimension'; focuses on how
and where teachers communicate their knowledge about teaching and learning.
Trigwell et al. differentiate four levels of communication:
- the absence of any communication about teaching and learning;
- communication with departmental or faculty peers informally in tea room conversations and more formally in departmental seminars.
- reporting of work on teaching in local and national conferences;
- publication in international scholarly journals on teaching and learning.
The departmental and institutional culture and context
This all, of course, takes place within an institutional context which either supports research-enhanced teaching or works against it. Some of the institutional factors that contribute to a productive research-enhanced teaching environment are whether there are institution-wide strategies in place to encourage research and teaching to be linked, whether the the department/school/faculty aligns the organisation of teaching with research practices, the existence of a Faculty plan for the development of research-enhanced teaching. The existence of discussions on the relationship between research and teaching taking place in departments/schools/faculties is also important.
