Skip to main content
Log in

University academics’ experience of research and its relationship to their experience of teaching

  • Published:
Instructional Science Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

There has been a growing research debate over the relations between university teaching and research. This paper contributes to that debate by describing the variation in the way university academics’ experience research, then linking that empirical evidence with previous work to explicate the relations between variation in research, teaching, and understanding of the subject matter being taught. Previous investigations have shown that conceptual change/student-focussed approaches to teaching are associated with clear articulation of the important aspects of the subject matter being taught, how those aspects relate to each other, and how the teacher situates their understanding of the subject matter in the field as a whole. However, teachers who were unable to explain their understanding of their subject matter in these ways were more likely to experience their teaching as a process of information transfer from a teacher-focussed perspective. Since the characteristics of the first type of understanding subject matter resemble processes underlying the experience of active researchers, these findings seemed to justify a more intensive search for evidence of the link between effective university teaching and research. Interviews have been conducted with 37 university teachers who had strong publication and grant success records and who were teaching and researching in similar topic areas. They represent a range of disciplines and universities, and from both the UK and Australia. The study methods and results are described and we conclude that qualitative variation in the experience of research is related (a) moderately to experience of teaching and (b) strongly to experience of understanding the subject matter.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Such a finding does not argue for the separation of teaching and research. If we separated teaching from research based upon this finding and turned all our best researchers into research only, we would lose half of our best teachers.

References

  • Boyer, E. (1990). Scholarship revisited: Priorities of the professoriate. Princeton: Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brew, A. (1999). Research and teaching: Changing relationships in a changing context. Studies in Higher Education, 24, 291–301.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brew, A., & Boud, D. (1995). Teaching and research: Establishing the vital link with research. Higher Education, 29, 261–273.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Elton, L. R. B. (2000). Turning academics into teachers: A discourse on love. Teaching in Higher Education, 5, 257–260.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glassick, C., Huber, M., & Maeroff, G. (1997). Scholarship assessed: Evaluation of the professoriate. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hattie, J., & Marsh, H. W. (1996). The relationship between research and teaching: A meta-analysis. Review of Educational Research, 66, 507–542.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jenkins, A., Blackman, T., Lindsay, R., & Paton-Saltzberg, R. (1998). Teaching and research: Student perspectives and policy implications. Studies in Higher Education, 23, 127–142.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marsh, H. W., & Hattie, J. (2002). The relation between research productivity and teaching effectiveness. The Journal of Higher Education, 73, 603–641.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Martin, E., & Ramsden, P. (2000). Introduction to scholarship in teaching. Higher Education Research and Development, 19, 133–137.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marton, F. (1981). Phenomenography—describing conceptions of the world around us. Instructional Science, 10, 177–200.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Neumann, R. (1993). Research and scholarship: Perceptions of senior academic administrators. Higher Education, 25, 97–110.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Prosser, M., Martin, E., Trigwell, K., & Ramsden, P. (2005). Academics’ experiences of understanding of their subject matter and the relationship of this to their experiences of teaching and learning. Instructional Science, 33, 137–157.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Prosser, M., & Trigwell, K. (1999). Understanding learning and teaching: The experience in higher education. Buckingham: Open University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (2001). Subject review reports. (http://www.qaa.ac.uk/revreps/subjrev/intro.htm).

  • Ramsden, P., & Moses, I. (1992). Associations between research and teaching in Australian higher education. Higher Education, 23, 273–295.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robertson, J., & Bond, C. (2001). Experiences of the relation between teaching and research: What do academics value? Higher Education Research and Development, 20, 5–19.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rowland, S. (1996). Relationship between teaching and research. Teaching in Higher Education, 1, 7–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smeby, J. (1998). Knowledge production and knowledge transmission: The interaction between research and teaching at universities. Teaching in Higher Education, 3, 5–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Trigwell, K., Prosser, M., & Waterhouse, F. (1999). Relations between teachers’ approaches to teaching and students’ approaches to learning. Higher Education, 37, 57–70.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The study described in this paper was supported by funding from the Australian Research Council.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Keith Trigwell.

Appendix

Appendix

Table A1  Relationship between experience of research and experience of understanding of subject matter based on highest classification of individual transcripts
Table A2 Relationship between experience of understanding of subject matter and experience of teaching based on highest classification of individual transcripts
Table A3 Relationship between experience of research and experience of teaching based on highest classification of individual transcripts

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Prosser, M., Martin, E., Trigwell, K. et al. University academics’ experience of research and its relationship to their experience of teaching. Instr Sci 36, 3–16 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-007-9019-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-007-9019-4

Keywords

Navigation