Linking research and teaching Associate Professor Angela Brew

Linking research and teaching Associate Professor Angela Brew The University of Sydney

Plan ¬ Defining the agenda ¬ Institutional strategies ¬ What gets in the way? ¬ Where is this going?

Knowledge generation Research Disciplinary Research culture Academics Students Departmental Learning milieu Teaching Knowledge Transmission

Research-Enhanced Learning & Teaching key areas: 1. Research-enhanced teaching 2. Research-based learning 3. Scholarship of learning and teaching

1. Research-enhanced teaching Teaching is informed by staff research. This includes the integration of disciplinary research findings into courses and curricula at all levels such that students are both an audience for research and engaged in research activity.

2. Research-based learning Opportunities are provided for students at all levels to experience and conduct research, learn about research throughout their courses, develop the skills of research and inquiry and contribute to the University’s research effort.

A student prepares his skating robot for a test run at the Olympic Ice Skating Rink (University of Calgary, Canada)

Research-Enhanced Learning & Teaching key areas: 1. Research-enhanced teaching 2. Research-based learning 3. Scholarship of learning and teaching

3. Scholarship of learning & teaching Staff and students engage in scholarship and/or research in relation to understanding learning and teaching. Evidence-based approaches are used to establish the effects and effectiveness of student learning, teaching effectiveness and academic practice.

the scholarship of teaching as a kind of ‘going meta’ in which academics frame and systematically investigate questions in relation to teaching and learning (Hutchings & Shulman 1999)

Key elements of the scholarship of teaching and learning ¬Knowledge of teaching and learning and the literature that informs it ¬Commitment to reflection on teaching practice in order to improve it ¬Communicating and disseminating knowledge about teaching and learning in a variety of ways ¬Taking account of students’ perspectives Following: Trigwell, K. , Martin, E. , Benjamin J. & Prosser, M. (2000)

Plan ¬ ¬ Defining the agenda Institutional strategies What gets in the way? Where is this going?

University of Sydney Context ¬ University Plan, Faculty Teaching and Learning Plans ¬ Performance-based funding for teaching including a “Scholarship Index”

Scholarship of Teaching Index Criteria ¬ Qualification in university teaching (10) ¬ National teaching award (winner) (10) ¬ National teaching award (finalist only) (5) ¬ University teaching award (including awards for Excellence in Research Higher Degree Supervision) (5) ¬ Faculty teaching award (2) ¬ Publication on university teaching – book (10) ¬ Publication on university teaching – refereed chapter (2) ¬ Publication on university teaching – refereed article (2) ¬ Presented conference paper or poster on university teaching (1)

University of Sydney Context ¬ University Plan, Faculty Teaching and Learning Plans ¬ Performance-based funding for teaching including a “Scholarship Index” ¬ Vice Chancellor’s Awards for Outstanding Teaching and for Research Higher Degree Supervision ¬ Criteria for promotion ¬ Use of problem-based or issues-based curricula

Project Aims ¬ Increasingly employ undergraduate teaching and learning strategies which enhance the links between research and teaching and ¬ utilise scholarly inquiry as an organising principle in departmental organisation, and curriculum development and ¬ Encourage and reward the scholarship of teaching

Strategies to develop research-led teaching ¬A Working Group

Strategies to develop research-led teaching ¬A Working Group ¬A web-site for staff development

Strategies to develop research-led teaching ¬A Working Group ¬A web-site for staff development ¬Workshops to faculties & departments ¬Large events to raise issues ¬Faculty reviews ¬A Graduate Certificate in higher education unit to teach academics to research their teaching

Faculty Initiatives ¬Grad cert in higher education mandatory for all new staff ¬Faculty research on teaching & learning website /in-house publication ¬Teaching & learning support unit within the faculty ¬Faculty Teaching & Learning Committee subcommittee on Scholarship of teaching ¬Faculty staff seminar series on teaching & learning issues ¬Staff publish in journals and/or attend teaching & learning conferences

Plan ¬ ¬ Defining the agenda Institutional strategies What gets in the way? Where is this going?

Issues ¬ Tendency to redefine existing practice ¬ Ethics in teaching ¬ Campus planning ¬ Involving the research community ¬ How to move on

What gets in the way? ¬Economies of funding regimes ¬Separate evaluation of teaching and research

Teaching Research

What gets in the way? ¬Economies of funding regimes ¬Separate evaluation of teaching and research ¬Hierarchical levels ¬Academic mindsets ¬Student mindsets ¬Modular course structures ¬Clearly prescribed course outcomes

Plan ¬ ¬ Defining the agenda Institutional strategies What gets in the way? Where is this going?

“What is required is not that students become masters of bodies of thought, but that they are enabled to begin to experience the space and challenge of open, critical inquiry (in all its personal and interpersonal aspects)” (Barnett 1997: 110)

Scholarship Inclusivity ~Scholarship as a quality of academic professionalism ~Scholarships of discovery, integration, engagement & academic citizenship Communities ~Academics, undergraduates, ~Mutual engagement postgraduates and others in a joint enterprise in the university ~Learning as participation involved together ~Personal Identity developed ~Relationships characterised by ‘democratic through: engagement, discussion’ imagination & enlightenment Inclusive scholarly ~Awareness of power issues knowledge-building communities Knowledge Building Research ~Expanded definitions & conceptions ~Starts from the questions of participants Development of social knowledge and ~Mode 2 knowledge personal meaning constructed through communication ~Teaching as research and Teaching and learning ~Inquiry-based negotiation academic ~Student-focused conceptual practice change approaches to ~Reflexivity teaching and learning ~Research-based learning From: Brew, A. (2006). Research and Teaching: Beyond the Divide. London Palgrave. Macmillan.

Brew, A. (2006). Research and Teaching: Beyond the Divide. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Jenkins, A, Breen, R. , & Lindsay, R. & Brew, A. (2003). Reshaping Teaching in Higher Education : Linking Teaching and Research. London: Kogan Page. Brew, A. (2001). The nature of research: inquiry in academic contexts. London, Routledge. Falmer.