Developing Strategies for Linking Teaching and
Research: Institutional and department strategies
to engage students in research and inquiry
Alan Jenkins http://www.alanjenkins.info
“… universities should treat learning as not yet wholly
solved problems and hence always in research mode”
(Humboldt 1810, translated 1970, quoted by Elton 2005, 110)
Session Structure
Ensure you have session handout
Note the session will be in part interactive and will
focus on both departmental and institutional strategies
Please sit in groups of 2-3 to discuss issues .
While my presentation will be in English, in small group
discussions you decide your language!
Confirming the focus
The focus is on discipline based research eg
history or interdisciplinary ….not on research
on higher education unless your discipline is
education!
While relevant to taught postgraduate courses
the focus is mainly on undergraduate courses,
as there the links between teaching and
discipline research are more problematic?
Institutional Mission statement
•
University of Cyprus aims to establish itself as a Pioneer Research Institution achieving
International Scientific Recognition in European Higher Education, offering Competitive
Programmes and to become a Centre of Excellence in the wider Euro - Mediterranean
Region.
•
The main objectives of the University are twofold: the promotion of scholarship and
education through teaching and research, and the enhancement of the cultural, social and
economic development of Cyprus.
•
In this context, the University believes that education must provide more than simply
accumulation of knowledge. It must also encourage students' active participation in the
process of learning and acquisition of those values necessary for responsible involvement in
the community. The University sets high standards for all branches of scholarship.
•
Research is promoted and funded in all departments for its contribution to scholarship in
general and for its local and international applications.
(University web site) (emphasis added)
What makes higher education higher ?
The New Zealand Education Amendment
Act (1990) defines a university as where
“teaching and research are closely
interdependent and most of their teaching
is done by people who are active in
advancing knowledge.”
Boyer Commision –handout p3
“The research universities have often
failed, and continue to fail, their
undergraduate population, thousands of
students graduate without seeing the
world – famous professors or tasting
genuine research”
Boyer Commission on Educating
Undergraduates in the Research University
What makes higher education
higher ?
“ all undergraduate students in all higher
education institutions should experience
learning through, and about, research
and inquiry. In undergraduate research,
students learn and are assessed in ways
that come as close as possible to the
experience of academic staff carrying out
their disciplinary research.”(emphasis
added)
Brief Biography: Alan Jenkins
• Professor (Emeritus) Oxford Brookes; Higher Education
Consultant
• BA Geography at University College London
• School teacher training in UK then school teacher in British
Columbia Canada
• Graduate School in Geography Madison Wisconsin
• Long taught geography and China studies Oxford
Polytechnic/Oxford Brookes UK
• Educational Developer Oxford Brookes
• Consultant on Teaching-Research Relations UK Higher Education
Academy, QAA Scotland and institutions world wide
Available from the HE Academy http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/rtnexus.htm
Research Evidence
Loosely Coupled “Based on this review we concluded that the common belief that
teaching and research were inextricably intertwined is an enduring myth. At best
teaching and research are very loosely coupled" (Hattie and Marsh, 1996)
At Arms length Students at “arms length” from the worlds of university research (Brew,
2006)
Individual Faculty : can experience links and tensions in resolving their teaching and
research roles . The context of the department , discipline ..shapes these
relationships. (Colbeck 1998).
Policy Separation ‘heads of departments and other managers of staff time indicated that,
on a managerial level, it is more convenient for teaching and research activities to be
treated as separate activities. On an intellectual level, however, academic managers
would rather perceive the two to be synergistic.’ (Coate et al. 2001, p. 162)
Research evidence on impact of (selective)
undergraduate research programmes
“There is growing evidence that – when done well –
some programs and activities appear to engage
participants at levels that elevates their
performance across multiple engagement and
desired outcomes measures such as persistence.
… They include first-year seminars, common
intellectual experiences, learning communities,
service learning, undergraduate research, study
abroad and other experiences with diversity,
internships, and capstone courses and projects.”
(Kuh, 2008, 14) emphasis added
“
High Impact Activities
 First-Year Seminars and Experiences
 Common Intellectual Experiences
 Learning Communities
 Writing-Intensive Courses
 Collaborative Assignments and Projects
 “Science as Science Is Done”; Undergraduate
Research
 Diversity/Global Learning
 Service Learning, Community-Based Learning
 Internships
 Capstone Courses and Projects
Source: Kuh, 2008
Acting on the Research Evidence
“The aim is to increase the circumstances in which teaching
and research have occasion to meet …
Increase the skills of staff to teach emphasizing the
construction of knowledge by students rather than the
imparting of knowledge by instructors ....
Ensure that students experience the process of artistic and
scientific productivity."
(Hattie and Marsh, 1996)
Our argument: a ‘research
active curriculum’
“All undergraduate students in all higher
education institutions should experience
learning through, and about, research and
inquiry. … We argue, as does much recent US
experience, that such curricular experience
should and can be mainstreamed for all or
many students through a research-active
curriculum. We argue that this can be
achieved through structured interventions at
course team, departmental, institutional and
national levels” (Healey and Jenkins, 2009, 3).
Engaging students in discipline based research and
inquiry : The Griffiths / Healey models explored
Handout p 3
Reshaping the work of Griffith’s (2004) , curricula can be
• research-led, involving learning about current research in the discipline. Here the
curriculum focus is to ensure that what students learn clearly reflects current and
ongoing research in their discipline. This may include research done by staff
teaching them.
• research-oriented, developing students’ research skills and techniques. Here the
focus is on developing students’ knowledge of and ability to carry out the
research methodologies and methods appropriate to their discipline.
• research-based, requiring students to undertake research and inquiry. Here the
curriculum focus is on ensuring that, as much as possible, students learn in
research or inquiry mode. This means that students become producers of
knowledge not just consumers…
• research-tutored, engaging students in research discussions. Here the focus is
on students and staff critically discussing research in the discipline as, for
example, in many seminar-based subjects. ( Jenkins and Healey 2012)
STUDENTS ARE PARTICIPANTS
Research-tutored
EMPHASIS ON
RESEARCH
CONTENT
Research-based
Engaging in
research
discussions
Undertaking
research and
inquiry
Learning
about current
research in the
discipline
Developing
research and
inquiry skills and
techniques
Research-led
EMPHASIS
ON
RESEARCH
PROCESSES
AND
PROBLEMS
Research-oriented
STUDENTS FREQUENTLY ARE AN AUDIENCE
Curriculum design and the research-teaching nexus
(based on Healey, 2005, 70)
Mainstreaming undergraduate
research and inquiry
Note –for later reading …
Disciplinary Case Studies Organised with
Reference to the Griffiths /Healey models
Handout pp 4-7
Handout p 4 : Case Studies of Department of Geography, University
College London (UCL) ; and Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Imperial College London, UK
Don’t get lost in whether this is good practice
/policy .Treat it as ‘interesting’ practice/policy
Using the Griffiths /Healey models/typology where
would you place these case studies ?
Group A focus on Geography at UCL
Group B focus Engineering at Imperial
5 minutes
Handout p 4 Case Studies of Department of Geography, University
College London (UCL), and Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Imperial College London, UK
Don’t get lost in whether this is good practice
/policy .Treat it as ‘interesting’ practice/policy
Task :What general principles /policies for
departmental organisation do you see there ?–eg
both ( in different ) ways involve all faculty ?
Group A focus on Geography at UCL
Group B focus Engineering at Imperial
5 minutes
Handout pp 8 -9 :Linking Teaching and Research in
Departments: Questions and Strategies
Discuss teaching research relations in your
department focussing on some of these
questions and strategies
5 minutes
Handout p 9 -12 . Some departmental case studies on
linking teaching and research
Consider the relevance of one –or more –of the case
studies to your departmental strategy….
Note in patic
2.1 Co-ordinated interventions in Zoology at University of
Tasmania, Australia p9
2.10 Research project-based teaching in engineering: a
departmental strategy at Taylor’s University, Malaysia
p12
5 minutes
Available from the HE Academy http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/rtnexus.htm
Institutional /Faculty
…strategies
Note the typology on pp 12
Institutional Strategies to Link Teaching
and Research: A Framework
And case studies 13-17
For later reading!
Terminology
• Student as scholar – Miami, US
• Research intensive education – Amsterdam,
Netherlands
• Research based learning – Tilburg, Netherlands
• Research enriched learning and teaching Sydney
• Student as producer – Lincoln, UK
• Teaching Research Nexus – McGill, Canada
• Inquiry-based learning – McMaster, Canada
• Active learning – Gloucestershire, UK
Institutional …strategies to
mainstream undergraduate research
and inquiry
Consider the typology on page 17-18
and the case studies pp 18-27
Which of these 19 strategies do you feel
relevant to this university /your roles…..
Consider one or more of the case studies
that ‘illustrate’ that strategy
5-10 minutes
Note
K Possible strategies for national and
international organisations
pp 27-28
Linking research and teaching:
Conclusions
• Nature of the linkage between teaching and
research is complex and contested
• Barnett (2003: 157) suggests that there are
many pressures that are pulling research
and teaching apart:
“The twentieth century saw the university
change from a site in which teaching and
research stood in a reasonably comfortable
relationship with each other to one in which
they became mutually antagonistic”
Linking research and teaching:
Conclusions; The work of Boyer
Ernest Boyer in Scholarship Reconsidered(1990) proposed that ‘scholarship’
include these four different categories:
• The scholarship of discovery that includes original research that advances
knowledge;
• The scholarship of integration that involves synthesis of information across
disciplines, across topics within a discipline, or across time;
• The scholarship of application (also later called the scholarship of
engagement) that goes beyond the service duties of a faculty member to
those within or outside the University and involves the rigor and application
of disciplinary expertise with results that can be shared with and/or
evaluated by peers
• The scholarship of teaching and learning that the systematic study of
teaching and learning processes. It differs from scholarly teaching in that it
requires a format that will allow public sharing and the opportunity for
application and evaluation by others.
Linking research and teaching:
Conclusions; My perspective
Putting greater emphasis on actively
engaging students with research,
suitably adapted to recognise the
variation and complexity of
constructing knowledge in different
disciplines and in different ‘types’ of
higher education is one way of relinking them.
Linking research and teaching: Your
Conclusions
In your groups agree on ONE ‘statement
worth making to everybody here’, about
the relevance of this agenda
/progressing this agenda at this
institution / your department(s)
Ensure you have one person ready to
speak for the group