Research-led Teaching and Scholarship of Teaching Project : Report to Teaching and Learning Committee of Academic Board

Abstract

Executive Summary There is a demonstrated need at all levels to improve students’ perceptions of research and its relationship to their courses. The findings of this report suggest that faculties could better articulate information about the University’s research and the role of research in undergraduate teaching in their marketing material. A qualitative study of students’ experiences will provide further information to inform future strategies. Academic capacity to integrate research and teaching is high owing to the large proportion of research active staff in the university. The findings suggest that there is a need to increase the proportion of senior staff who teach at first and second year levels in most faculties. The issue of how senior staff with large research roles could further contribute to research-led teaching in first and second year levels needs further exploration. Further work also needs to be done to examine the effects of casualisation on the University’s ability to integrate research and teaching. Implementation of the Academic Board Policy on Postgraduate Research Higher Degree Training and supervision will enable the extent to which supervisors are active researchers to be assessed. There is good evidence that curricula are being designed to engage students in a variety of research-based activities, induct them into the research community and develop an awareness of research. Nonetheless, there is scope for all Faculties to extend the ways in which they currently integrate research and teaching in curricula and develop the opportunities students have to engage in research-based activities. The research publications of staff could be publicised more widely in all faculties. The report findings indicate that School and Department encouragement for aligning research and teaching is varied across the University. Not all undergraduate students have the opportunity to engage in research seminar programs. More could be done to develop the relationship between research and teaching through TIF and strategic development funds. Not all Departments have formal or informal teaching benchmarking relationships and/or collaborative curriculum development activities with similar Schools and Departments in other researchintensive universities. Such activities need to be encouraged. Faculty encouragement for research-led teaching is also varied. As Strategic and Teaching and Learning Plans are revised it is hoped that all faculties will include encouragement of research-led teaching including strategies applicable at all levels. Good practice in establishing internal pedagogical research grant schemes by some faculties should be emulated by others. In many cases there remains a perception that research-led teaching is appropriate for senior year students. The Working Group encourages faculties to consider the extension of strategies to develop research-led teaching to more junior undergraduate levels. Evidence-based teaching is being used in a number of faculties. The Working Group considers that more work needs to be done to articulate the relationship between research-led teaching and the scholarship of teaching. Encouragement of research-led teaching should be at all levels of the University. The Working Group hopes that College Pro-Vice-Chancellors will include strategies to encourage the linking of research and teaching and specifically research-led teaching in revised College Strategic Plans. The University’s Strategic Plan includes statements demonstrating the University’s commitment to strengthening the relationship between research and teaching. It is hoped these statements can be strengthened when the Plan is next revised. The University’s Research Management Plan and research policies currently make scant reference to teaching. Teaching policies are varied in the extent to which research-led teaching is encouraged. More recent policies include substantial references to it. Further consideration of the ways in which research and teaching can be of mutual benefit need to be considered by the relevant University groups and Committees. A number of University policies treat teaching and research as quite separate activities. There is a need to give attention to the links between research and teaching and also the need to develop the scholarship of teaching in revising promotions, appointment, probation and tenure policies and SSP guidelines. The Working Group commends to all Faculties best practice in the scholarship of teaching as exemplified in some faculties. Members of the Working Group have developed their understanding of the implications and meaning of research-led teaching through cross-faculty Working Group discussions. There is now a need to extend academics’ understanding in all faculties of what is involved in research-led teaching through discussions at all levels. This is an important part of developing a context where research-led teaching is encouraged and where the implications of research for teaching are considered on an ongoing basis. The Working Groups commends the Research-led Teaching Website to Faculties (http://www.itl.usyd.edu.au/RLT) as a useful resource in thinking about the relationship between teaching and research and what they can do to strengthen it. There is now a need to articulate what is special about research-led teaching in a research-intensive university. Benchmarking research-led teaching with other research-intensive universities is important to considerations of the level of research-led teaching at the University of Sydney and to provide information about ways in which the initiative can usefully be developed.