Research Informed Teaching – a summary

1. Research Informed Teaching – a summary Dr Susan Hill and Assoc Prof Tony Fetherston

2. Background • “Linking teaching and research is a topic of international interest. • key characteristic of a university is where teaching and research are brought together. • Schools need to work on strategies that consider teaching and research together and strengthen the potential links. • “At best, research and teaching are very loosely coupled” • Re-orient research so that it informs what is actually taught.

3. Background • All students - not just research students – need to develop the skills of : • critical inquiry; • critical thinking; • reflection and analysis; • problem-solving; and • the ability to apply evidence-based solutions. • Disciplinary research needs to be infused into all undergraduate courses • Skills of critical inquiry need to be explicitly taught

4. Research Informed Teaching • Links • disciplinary teaching; • disciplinary research; and • the scholarship of teaching and learning to undergraduate course design.

5. Rationale • raises students’ awareness of the research-oriented ways in which they are learning • makes students feel part of a learning community, in which research and teaching are seen as part and parcel of the same endeavour; • increases motivation of students through active, or inquiry-based, learning; • increases staffs’ motivation by achieving synergies between their teaching and learning; • increases research output in both disciplinary and pedagogic research; • improves students’ results profile; • develops students’ autonomy in learning • sensitizes students to their academic potential beyond their first degree; • good, inclusive academic practice (Castley, 2006, p. 27).

6. Kinds of Research Informed teaching • Teaching can be research-led • emphasises transmission of information and understanding research findings rather than research processes; • Teaching can be research-oriented • emphasises understanding the processes of disciplinary knowledge creation and teaching inquiry skills; • Teaching can be research-based • incorporates inquiry-based activities and staff experiences of inquiry processes into student learning activities; and • Teaching can be research-informed • draws consciously on systematic inquiry into the teaching and learning process itself.

7. Way forward – Teaching and Learning • Conceptualise approach: • engage with the literature of teaching and learning of a general nature, and of the discipline; • focus on reflection on own teaching practice and the learning of students within the context of their own discipline: • communicate and disseminate ideas about teaching and learning in general, and teaching and learning within the discipline; and • develop conceptions of teaching and learning (Trigwell, et al., 2000, p. 163)

8. Model • teaching is teacher-focused or student-focused, • students are treated as an audience or as participants, • the emphasis is on research content or research processes and problems.

9. The Model

10. Development and Implementation • Define Research-Informed Teaching • Promote Learning as the Common Focus of Teaching and Research • the model of research-informed teaching aims to show that learning is the “vital link” between teaching and research • Build a Strong Culture of Teaching as Scholarship • raise academics’ awareness of the potential to build their profile as teacher scholars and contribute to the literature of teaching and learning in their own discipline and more generally. • Encourage Student-Focused Approaches to Teaching and Learning • Develop an Undergraduate Research Ethos • Students had a poor grasp of the nature of academic work • frustrated at their lack of direct access to research and their exclusion from the research community • Develop Students’ Inquiry Skills • re-shaped to involve students in student-initiated or staff-initiated research from as early as their first year • utilising the research skill development (RSD) framework proposed by Willison and O’Regan (2007) which maps student progression through different facets of inquiry against different levels of student autonomy.

11. Influence Course Design • academics may face resentment and resistance from students if they are perceived, for example, to be the only lecturer in the course or program that requires them to engage in inquiry-based learning • Inform Academic Development Initiatives

12. CLD Role? • clearly define what is meant by research-informed teaching at ECU; • promote learning as the bridge between teaching and research; • foster a strong culture of teaching as scholarship; • encourage student-focused approaches to teaching and learning; • develop an undergraduate research ethos; • develop students’ inquiry skills; • influence course design; and • inform academic development initiatives. • position both staff and students as learners • clearly signal the expectation that university teaching should be approached in the same scholarly manner as academic research