Research productivity and teaching effectiveness

This study investigated the relationship between research productivity and teaching effectiveness to shed light on the long-debated question of whether performance in one area enhances performance in the other. The academic field and the stage of a faculty member's career were both considered in the analyses. Two samples — one of 2,973 and the other of 1,623 faculty members from a variety of institutions — were studied. In considering results of both analyses, teachers of social science courses were the only group for which there were consistent though modest relationships between the number of published articles and student ratings of instructor effectiveness. Thus spillover effects, or a general ability factor, or other reasons for a possible link between research and teaching performance are not totally supported. The relationship between performance in the two areas is either nonexistent or, where it appears, too modest to conclude that one necessarily enhances the other.