Research-informed Learning and Teaching - Briefing Paper
“I am passionate about bringing
research and teaching together
because I believe that this is the
key to the inquiry-based higher
education that I think we need for
the future” Brew (2006, p xiv)
Introduction
Developing the links between research and
teaching has been recognised both nationally
and institutionally as a priority, and as an
exciting way of engaging students in their
learning. A small proportion of our current
students will go into academia but all will be the
professionals of the future, having to deal with a
rapidly-developing and changing world, facing
challenges in their professional lives we can
barely imagine now.
Developing students’
capabilities in identifying and addressing new
knowledge requirements is an essential element
of their undergraduate learning.
Far from
research and teaching having a negative
relationship in polarity, they could be seen as
two positive sides of one activity: inquiry. In the
process of inquiry, both staff and students are
members of a community of scholars, all
committed to their own learning. However, the
links between research and teaching are not
made without effort.
Purposeful activity is
required.
The
QAA
Research-teaching
Linkages
Enhancement
Theme
2007
(http://www.enhancementthemes.ac.uk/themes/
ResearchTeaching/) is looking at how to link
research (in all its forms) with the student
experience, and they have commissioned
subject-discipline projects to gather good
practice from across the sector. 1
This
acknowledges the different L&T approaches in
different
disciplines.
Research-informed
learning will, therefore, look different in different
subject areas.
This short booklet offers some suggestions on
how you can strengthen research-informed
learning in your course. The accompanying
Planning Tool helps you to do this.
The
emphasis is less on teaching students about the
content of your research (although this could be
interesting), but rather on how they can learn to
act like researchers during their studies, and
acquire the graduate attributes associated with
research. It is important that this is not seen as
an Honours level activity – the culture of inquiry
and research-informed learning has to start in
the first year, although it is likely to increase
over the years of an undergraduate programme.
The types of attributes and skills that the
Enhancement Theme has identified as
desirable, and which research-informed learning
can foster, are:
At undergraduate level
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And at Master’s level
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Conceptual understanding that enables
critical evaluation of current research and
advanced scholarship
Originality in the application of knowledge
The ability to deal with complex issues and
make sound judgments in the absence of
complete data.
Interpretations
learning
of
Research-informed
Is it research process or research content? Eg
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1
Critical understanding
Informed by current developments in the
subject
An awareness of the provisional nature of
knowledge, how knowledge is created,
advanced and renewed, and the excitement
of changing knowledge
The ability to identify and analyse problems
and issues and to formulate, evaluate and
apply evidence based solutions and
arguments
An ability to apply a systematic and critical
assessment of complex problems and issues
An ability to deploy techniques of analysis
and enquiry
Familiarity with advanced techniques and
skills
Originality and creativity in formulating,
evaluating and applying evidence-based
solutions and arguments
An understanding of the need for a high level
of ethical, social, cultural, environmental and
wider professional conduct.
Students learning about subject discipline
research?
Students using research methods?
One of these projects is being led by Dr Kate Carter in SBE.
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Staff sharing their research outcomes with
students?
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It could be all of these, and your interpretation
will depend on your subject and your approach
to L&T. However, the key ingredients are
inquiry, and an interest in the student
experience.
If inquiry as an approach to
learning, and a process, is built into the course
design from first year onwards, then students
learn to take a research-informed approach.
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Approaches
to
Developing
informed Learning
Research-
1. Students
Learning
about
Subject
Discipline Research
 Develop the curriculum to bring out
current
or
previous
research
developments in the discipline.
 Develop the curriculum to bring out,
incrementally, the way the core
concepts, knowledge and practices of
the discipline have developed through
research.
 Develop student understanding of how
research is organised, commissioned
and funded in the discipline/institution.
 Develop the curriculum, in particular how
students learn, in ways that mirror or
support the research processes in the
discipline.
 Assess students in ways that mirror or
support the research processes in the
discipline. (For example, requiring
students to have their work assessed by
colleagues according to the house style
of a (fictitious) journal before submitting it
to you; this mirrors how academic
journals use referees to decide on
whether an article is to be published.)
 Support students in making clear the
employability elements of research
(particularly important for those students
whose focus is on using a degree to get
employment - and who may not
otherwise appreciate the value of a
research-based approach)
2. Students Using Research Methods/
Approaches
 Provide
training
in
relevant
research/skills/knowledge, perhaps using
the students’ own social world in the
university for them to research, and
collect and analyse data.

Develop student involvement in staff
research by making attendance at staff
seminars part of the curriculum.
Re-run staff research projects as
teaching and learning tools for students
to validate research design, methods,
data and to rework analysis and
reporting.
Ensure that the dissertation component
of a degree is supported by a research
training tool kit clearly articulated and
embedded from preceding course
modules/units.
3. Staff Sharing their Research Outcomes
with Students
 Develop student awareness of learning
from staff involvement in research.
 Critique staff publications from a
research perspective; ask students to
design their own methodology –
problem-based learning.
 Provide students with a dissertation topic
list which, appropriate to their level of
study, interacts with current staff
research projects.
 Ask staff to present their research in
research methods courses in terms of
‘how did you research this issue?’; ‘what
were the problems?’ Ask students to
critique the approach.
Some Practical
Research Links
Examples
of
Teaching-
1. UCL: Interviewing Staff on their Research
All students interview a member of staff
about his/her research:
 Each tutor gives his/her tutorial group
their CV and 3 pieces of their writing
 Before interview, students read materials
and develop interview schedule
 Each student writes a report on
objectives of interviewee’s research; how
the research relates to earlier studies;
how it relates to the subject as a whole
2. GCU: Students Submit Reviews for
Publication
Second
year
undergraduates
submit
coursework in the form of a briefing paper
based on small-scale, fieldwork-based
research project (they designed/executed
research). Paper is refereed by independent
expert and published on website if it receives
an acceptable referee’s report.
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3. University of Canterbury NZ: PBL
Approach to Research Methods
Research methods course uses problembased learning approach: student groups
learn about methods by being fully engaged
in research process. Peer assessed (as in
real research). Research problems are real,
where possible.
4. UWE: Problem-Based Case Study
Final year undergraduates in Environmental
Monitoring and Assessment module design
an air pollution monitoring programme within
complex constraints.
5. Kingston University: Fieldwork Research
Final year independent work – students
produce a geological map of a selected
area, generated by rigorous research
methodology. Students observe, measure,
record, process, interpret data and produce
a final product (map).
6. University
of
Adelaide:
Interactive
Multimedia (IMM) Assignment
Final year students re-engineer a research
article. They email the author and try to
engage them in a discussion, research other
recent papers on the topic, use references
from their selected article (plus own
sources), interpret diagrams, figures etc and
find five more references to recommend.
Students present a summary of their
assignment in an online seminar on the VLE,
focussing on one theory, concept or view in
their research. Students are assessed on
ability to synthesise interpret and re-present
data electronically/interactively.
http://www.biology.leeds.ac.uk/studentpages
/ejournal/biology.htm
Aims to disseminate undergraduate research
and help them get more from the academic
environment. Undergraduate editor. Author
Guidelines (eg look at other scientific articles
to get style).
9. Heriot-Watt University: PhD Student
Conference
Postgraduate
research
student-led
conference where postgraduate students
from various schools across HWU give
presentations on their research that is in
support of eg Medicine, Health and Safety.
10. HWU: SBE
Students contribute to the design of lab
experiments, carry them out, then analyse
data and compare results
11. University of Warwick: Undergraduate
Research Scholarship Scheme
Staff can apply for funding to support
undergraduate students’ research alongside
their own research activity. Students in
effect act as paid research assistants.
Links
Jenkins, A. and Zetter, R. (2003) Linking
research and teaching in departments.
http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/resources.asp?pro
cess+full_record&section=generic&id=257
(accessed 24 January 2007)
What to do now?
7. Bath Spa University College: Dept
Research Conferences for Student
Project Work
Final year students are actively involved in a
department-wide,
day-long
research
conference, alongside academic staff and
postgraduates. All students take a researchoriented module which gives some of the
‘real-world’
research
skills
which
dissertations don’t provide. They provide an
abstract within a deadline and present their
project in a formal conference setting.
Presentations are peer assessed.
The
symposium is scheduled prior to the
submission deadline to allow for changes
following feedback.
8. Leeds
University:
Research Journal
Student
1. Using the Planning Tool, work out what
research-informed learning currently goes
on in your course.
2. Decide which other research-informed
learning approaches and methods would
work in your subject area.
3. Plan how they will map across the course,
developing graduate attributes at each level.
4. Make sure that the approach is explicit and
understood by students and colleagues:
they are more likely to engage with tasks if
they can see the point of them.
Online
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