Task! Introducing the session … Sit in groups of 2-3
Ensure you have session handout
Private discussion
What do you understand by ‘Research
based learning’?
What do you think research reveals about
teaching/research relations in universities?
Implementing Research Based Learning in your Teaching
Alan Jenkins
Emeritus Professor Oxford Brookes University : advisor to HEA on teaching /research links and QAA Scotland on
the Teaching Research Nexus Enhancement Theme
http://www.enhancementthemes.ac.uk/themes/ResearchTeaching/
Aims
• Clarified your view on the current relationship between (staff/faculty
) research and student learning in your current and future role(s),
courses, discipline and in your department /institution
• Considered a range of discipline based and department
wide case studies
• Considered how you could develop ‘research based learning
in your courses –at undergraduate level/or at postgraduate
level
• Explored how those relationships could be more ‘effectively’
constructed and/ or ‘managed’.
Alan Jenkins
Geography undergraduate at London UK and post grad Madison USA
Schoolteacher Canada and UK
Long taught geography /contemporary China studies mainly UK at
undergraduate level outside the research elite institutions
Moved into educational /faculty development and worked on
teaching /research relations . http://www.alanjenkins.info
Available from the HE Academy http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/rtnexus.htm
Mick Healey, Alan Jenkins and John LeaMarch 2014
Developing research-based curricula in college-based higher education
http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/college-based-he/research-based-curricula
Teaching and Research :An Ideal view
“Universities should treat learning as
not yet wholly solved problems and
hence always in research mode.”
Wilhelm von Humboldt on the then
future University of Berlin (1810)
Teaching and Research : Two contemporary views
"The research universities have often failed, and continue to fail
their undergraduate populations, thousands of students
graduate without seeing the world - famous professors or
tasting genuine research." University of Stony Brook (1998, 3)
Reinventing Undergraduate Education: Boyer Commission on
Educating Undergraduates in the Research University.
In Scholarship Reconsidered Ernest Boyer (1990, X11)
challenged US higher education to “break away out of the tired
old teaching versus research debate.”
Research evidence : ONE summary
Faculty find it hard to balance teaching and research roles
Undergraduate students often unaware of staff /faculty
research or its relevance to their concerns
At individual level limited ‘correlation’ staff research and
teaching effectiveness
At departmental and institutional levels little effective strategic
links between teaching and research
Students learning in active inquiry mode can have significant
positive impacts on understandings of knowledge complexity
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)
A ‘Language’ to Help Us Examine What We Do-see handout p 1-2
• Research-led: where students learn about research findings, the
curriculum content is strongly shaped by faculty research
interests/current research in the discipline.
• Research-oriented: where students learn about research
processes, the curriculum emphasises as much the processes by
which knowledge is produced as learning knowledge that has been
achieved, and faculty try to engender a research ethos through
their teaching; or
• Research-based: where students learn as researchers, the
curriculum is largely designed around inquiry-based activities, and
the division of roles between teacher and student is minimised.
• Research tutored ; where students supported by staff in small
group discuss current research ( papers) in their discipline.
Research-tutoredEngaging in research discussions
Research-basedStudents undertaking research and inquiry
Research-ledLearning about current research in the discipline
Research-orientedDeveloping research inquiry and techniques
STUDENT-FOCUSED
STUDENTS AS PARTICIPANTS
EMPHASIS ON RESEARCH CONTENT
EMPHASIS ON RESEARCH PROCESSES AND PROBLEMS
TEACHER-FOCUSED
STUDENTS AS AUDIENCE
Tasks :Using that typology/language
Consider the case study of geography at University College London , page 4-5
Don’t get lost in is this ‘good’ or ‘bad’ practice ? Let’s see it as ‘interesting practice’
Using the language of the handout page 1- 2 ; what forms of teaching /research links do you see there ? Research led ,research orientated , research based, and/or research tutored.
Small Group Task : Consider the case studies at course team level on the handout p2-4 (Ignore departmental case studies 4-5)
QUICKLY each of you choose a case study that
you think may be suitable for ADAPTING to your
practice /perhaps as developing in your project
Individually read your case study
Then share your views on adapting these case
studies to your future practice
You have till …..
: Course Design-see Section 4 pp 5-6
Which of these approaches might be relevant to your
future practice /developing through your project?
Strategy 1: Develop students’ understanding of the
role of research in their discipline
Strategy 2: Develop students’ abilities to carry out
research
Strategy 3: Progressively develop students’
understanding
Strategy 4: Manage students’ experience of research
Considering two Departmental case studies :UCL and Imperial pp 4-5
Just from the case studies :
Discuss what you see are the similarities and
the differences in the ways these two
departments handle the roles /relationships
between teaching and research ?
Your conclusions/forward planning
In your groups each of you state
ONE thing I am taking forward ( in my
project ) from this session
….
My conclusions
• Understanding the complexity of knowledge lies at
the centre of what makes HIGHER education distinctive
• That requires purposeful action at a variety of levels
• In one’s own teaching and to an extent at course team and
departmental level one does have some freedom of action to
ensure that your research in parts supports your teaching
• As you progress in your career then departmental and institutional
leaders can do much to ensure some synergies between teaching
and research
• Bringing your teaching and research more effectively together can
help you balance what can be competing demands on your time and
attention.
How your teaching can support your role as a researcher.
• Research led teaching can make the two activities explicitly
linked in content .
• Research orientated teaching can help you reflect
/experiment in research methodologies
• Research based teaching can help you see these activities as
explicitly linked
• Making explicit to students the importance /value of
research to them –can help them better appreciate the
importance of faculty involvement in research