Undergraduate experiences of the research/teaching nexus across the whole student lifecycle

ABSTRACT

There is currently much interest in the interconnections between research and teaching in Higher Education. This relationship is usually termed ‘the research/teaching nexus’ (RTN). However, within this wide body of literature, there has been little attempt to explore the emergent experiences of students across the entire length of their degree programme. Drawing on the results of a three-year qualitative study that followed 40 students through their whole student lifecycle, this paper explores how undergraduates in an English university experienced the RTN, how those experiences developed over time, and how these changes can be variously enabled or constrained. Situating the findings in the context of the ‘post-truth’ society and the uncertainty of employment futures, the paper highlights how the nexus can also often serve to exclude students as much as it includes.     

The myth of the research‐led teacher

This paper examines the contention that achievement in research is a prerequisite for effective teaching in higher education. It also explores university level teaching more generally with the purpose of examining the links between teaching and research. Concept mapping, in particular, is described as a means of exploring both the knowledge structures of experts (teachers and researchers) and the cognitive changes that are indicative of meaningful learning among students. We use the approach to suggest that rich and complex networks are indicative of expert status, but that these are seldom made explicit to students in the course of teaching. Instead, simple, linear structures comprise most lesson plans or teaching sequences. This linearity is often made transparent through the lecturers’ use of PowerPoint presentations to structure teaching. Thus the transmission mode of teaching predominates in HE and evidence of authentic research‐led teaching remains scant. This is likely to reinforce surface learning outcomes among university students and be an impediment to the emergence of expert status. The linear chains that are commonly espoused in teaching lend themselves to rote learning strategies rather than to individual meaning making. The approach we describe here has the potential to reinstate expert status as the prime qualification for teaching in higher education. Where concept mapping is used to share and explore knowledge structures between students and experts, then learning can be shown to occur in ways that are synonymous with research and discovery. Using this approach, the teacher–student distinction becomes legitimately blurred so that the sharing and advancement of knowledge are concomitant. In conclusion, we suggest that this is a basis for a pedagogy that is appropriate to HE and distinct from the compulsory sector.     

Revisiting the research–teaching nexus in a managerial context: exploring the complexity of multi-layered factors

Drawing on in-depth interviews and classroom observations with 14 academics from the field of applied sciences, this case study provides empirical evidences on the research–teaching nexus in the context of Chinese research universities by examining the multi-layered factors at the individual, institutional and organisational levels. The study sketches out several substantive social structures, including performative incentives, research culture and institutional emphases, that have significantly shaped the research–teaching nexus in a managerial context. Teaching beliefs that are rooted in traditional Chinese culture, however, have been identified as an essential factor to strengthen the research–teaching nexus. This study concludes that a more supportive environment based on the cultural beliefs of teaching can be created to alleviate the growing tensions between research and teaching.     

走进研究型教学 走近创新素质教育

创新思维的培养和素质教育是目前教育教学改革的主旋律,而研究型教学又是目前最能体现"创新素质教育"精神实质的一种新的教育教学模式,走进研究型教学就是走近了创新素质教育。     

Research and/or learning and teaching: a study of Australian professors' priorities,beliefs and behaviours

This paper presents findings from an empirical study of key aspects of the teaching and research priorities, beliefs and behaviours of 72 professorial and associate professorial academics in Science, Information Technology and Engineering across four faculties in three Australian universities. The academics ranked 16 research activities and 16 matched learning and teaching (L&T) activities from three perspectives: job satisfaction, role model behaviour and perceptions of professional importance. The findings were unequivocally in favour of research in all three areas and remarkably consistent across the universities. The only L&T activity that was ranked consistently well was ‘improving student satisfaction ratings for teaching’, an area in which academics are increasingly held accountable. Respondents also indicated that their seniors encourage research efforts more than L&T efforts. Recommendations include that higher education rewards for quality L&T are maintained or improved and that recognition of L&T research domains is further strengthened.     

The Experience of Disseminating the Results of Doctoral Research

Postgraduate study is something of growth industry with, worldwide, a substantial increase in the number of courses offered and students enrolled (Kerlin, 1995). A substantial part of the requirements for the successful completion of a research degree is that the research conducted should be in some way original and also make a worthwhile contribution to knowledge. Given these requirements it would be expected that the dissemination of the results of the research should be a routine part of the process of postgraduate study and its aftermath. However, it would seem that this is not the case and that the progression from completed dissertation to publication is not the universal experience. Certainly, those publications which deal with 'how to' get a research degree rarely if ever specifically address the issue of dissemination at any length. One would assume that supervisors of postgraduate research would see advice about the matter as one of their duties but it is not at all obvious whether this is the case. This article reports the results of two international studies of the experience of 'doing the degree' conducted with samples of 139 and 53 doctoral holders. Specifically, it concentrates on the participants' experiences of disseminating, or otherwise, the results of their research.     

Teachers’ conceptions of quality and organisational values in higher education: compliance or enhancement?

Teachers are often assumed to have a negative attitude towards quality endeavours of their institutions and to hold defensive organisational values. However, there is little empirical research on this issue. This study focuses on teachers’ conceptions of quality, on their preferred organisational values and on the relationships between the two. A written questionnaire was presented to the teaching staff from 18 departments of universities of applied sciences in the Netherlands (N?=?266). It comprised 18 questions about teachers’ conceptions of quality, representing two quality scales: compliance and accountability and enhancement and improvement. A further 24 questions, related to organisational values, represent two scales that typify flexible organisations, and two that typify control-oriented organisations. The results reveal a neutral score on the compliance and accountability conceptions of quality and on the control-oriented organisational values, and a high score on enhancement and improvement and on the flexibility-oriented values. Both pairs appear to be moderately positively correlated. Despite the need for further qualitative research, it can be concluded that teachers perceive quality first and foremost as enhancement and improvement, rather than as compliance to external standards and accountability. These findings offer interesting perspectives for the further development of an internal quality culture in higher education.     

高校思想政治教育改革策略研究

随着高校教育体制改革的逐步深入,尤其是如何通过高校思想政治教育来培养大学生的思想价值观开始被重视。为此,本文就现阶段高校思想政治教育改革过程中的不足及其面临的问题进行了论述,最后就如何推动高校思想政治教育工作的改革提出了一些对策和建议,其旨在为探索高校思想政治教育改革模式,提升思想政治教育工作水平做些有益的研究尝试。     

浅议生物教学渗透情感态度与价值观教育

情感态度价值观教育是生物新课程三大教学目标之一,对于构建和谐社会,促进青少年身心健康成长具有重要意义．阐述挖掘生物学教材的内涵,适时渗透情感态度价值观教育的方式方法与途径．     

论生态主义教学价值观

生态主义教学价值观:教学目的,培养人的生态理性;教学内容,生态科学人文主义取向;教学过程,预设与生成结合;教学评价,遵循差异性和生成性原则;师生关系是\"我—你\"型的师生关系。