a lecture by mohamed labib salem: teaching versus research in academia a symbiotic or parasitic...

Teaching versus Research in Academia:A Symbiotic or Parasitic Relationship

Mohamed Labib Salem, PhDProfessor of Immunology

Faculty of Science, Tanta University

Visiting ProfessorMedical University of South and Tanta University

The 35th Conference of the Association of Egyptian American Scholars

Cooperation among Scholars in Egypt and Abroad: Strategies and a Vision for Modern Education

December 27-29, 2008Supreme Council of Universities

Cairo – Egypt

• Some studies suggest that the roles of research and teaching seek for separate sets of accomplishments with little or no relationship between both.

• In contrast other studies suggest a mutual, or at least a symbiotic relationship.

Does Teaching-Research Interaction Exist?

Prof. Mohamed Labib Salem

1.Both teaching and research are incompatible.“Focusing on either of them reduces the attention on the other”.“Performing cutting-edge research can detract from the ability of a teacher to communicate ideas at the basic level”.


2.Little or no connection exists between research and teaching at undergraduate level.“Students lack the disciplinary framework to engage in inquiry”. “The connection can only be activated effectively at postgraduate level, where students are aware of research tools and hypothesis”.


3. Teaching is a mean of transmitting new research knowledge. “Academics involved in research are more in touch with current research and literature are more aware of current questions and hypotheses and therefore better able to efficiently transfer new information to students”. “Researchers by nature are enthusiastic to discuss their discoveries and envisaged knowledge with their students”.

Does teaching-research interaction exist?


4. Teachers model and encourage a research critical inquiry approach among their students.“The main goal is to improve the questioning/research-based learning strategy to learning and stimulating the students”.

Does teaching-research interaction exist?

5. Teaching and research share a symbiotic relationship in a learning community. “Research informs teaching and teaching impacts on research”.


Does evaluation of Teaching/Research Fair?

• Teaching effectiveness is usually evaluated based on the type and number of courses, and the number of students a faculty teaches.

• Research evaluation is measured by the success of the researcher to obtain grants sufficient to lead to productive high quality publication in peer-reviewed journals.

• Paradoxically, the quality and quantity of the research work is a critical factor for the faculty promotion.


Linking Research and Teaching: Different Views

• Many people hold the view that a key characteristic of universities is where research and teaching are brought together.

• Some claim that the best researchers are usually the best teachers (e.g. Cooke, 1998).

• Others dispute this claim (e.g. Jenkins, 2000); many refer to examples of excellent researchers who are poor teachers and vice versa.


• Regardless the answer, this dilemma leads us to further ask:

Do academics need to be teachers, researchers, or teacher-researcher?



“Undergraduate research describes student engagement from induction to graduation,

individually and in groups, in research and inquiry into disciplinary, professional and community-

based problems and issues, including involvement in knowledge exchange activities”

(Childs et al., 2007)

Linking Research and Teaching



“We are all researchers ..… Teaching and research are becoming ever more intimately related … In a ‘knowledge society’ all students – certainly all

graduates – have to be researchers.

Not only are they engaged in the production of knowledge; they must also be educated to cope with the risks and uncertainties generated by the advance

of science”(Scott 2002)



“For the students who are the professionals of the future, developing the ability to investigate problems, make judgments on the basis of sound evidence, take

decisions on a rational basis, and understand what they are doing and why is vital.

Research and inquiry is not just for those who choose to pursue an academic career. It is central to professional life in the twenty-first century.”

(Brew 2007)



“Developing the Student as Scholar Model requires a fundamental shift in how we structure and imagine the

whole undergraduate experience.

It requires, as a minimum, the adoption of the Learning Paradigm in everything from the first introductory

course through the final capstone experience.

It requires a culture of inquiry-based learning infused throughout the entire liberal arts curriculum that starts

with the very first day of college and is reinforced in every classroom and program.”

(Hodge et al. 2007)


• How much do your undergraduate/graduate students know about the research which goes on in your department?

• What opportunities are there for students to present / publish / celebrate their research?



It is essential that undergraduate students are aware of the research which goes on in their departments

Strongly ------------------------------ Strongly agree disagree



I believe that my teaching and my research are / will be strongly linked

Strongly ------------------------------ Strongly agree disagree



Teaching only

No effect of Research

Teaching +Non-related research

Mild effect of Research

Teaching +Related research

Significant effect of Research

Curriculum design and the research-teaching nexus


Different ways of linking Research & Teaching

•Learning about others’ research.•Learning to do research – research methods.

•Learning in research mode – enquiry based.

•Pedagogic research – enquiring and reflecting on learning.


STUDENTS AS PARTICIPANTS

STUDENTS AS AUDIENCE

Research-tutored Research-based

Research-led Research-oriented

Curriculum design and the research-teaching nexus (Healey 2005)

EMPHASIS ON RESEARCH CONTENT

EMPHASIS ON RESEARCH PROCESSES AND PROBLEMS


About the Term "Teacher-Researcher"

• Teachers go about their daily routines of instructing students, grading papers, taking attendance, evaluating their performance as well as looking at the curriculum.

• Teacher-researchers raise questions about what they think and observe about their teaching and their students' learning. They collect student work in order to evaluate performance, but they also see student work as data to analyze in order to examine the teaching and learning that produced it.


http://gse.gmu.edu/research/tr/TRdefinition.shtml

The Importance of “Teacher-Researcher” to the Classroom Teacher

• “Teacher-Researcher” is not an add-on; it is a way of being! When you look at your classroom from a stance of "How can I make teaching/learning better?" you are taking a Teacher-Researcher stance.

• “Teacher-Researcher” is not something done TO us; it is something done BY us.

• “Teacher-Research” is to put "Best Practices" about teaching/learning into actual practice in your classroom. And the person who does that is you, the classroom teacher.


Teacher-Researchers: To Do List • Articulate their theories• Discuss their research with their colleagues for support

as "critical friends" to validate their findings and interpretations of their data

• Present findings to others• Talk to their students • Give presentations (talk to teacher in room next door,

go to conferences) • Write about their research (school-wide publication,

national) • Articipate in teacher research web sites, online forums,

and email communications


• Develop questions based on their own curiosity about their students' learning and their teaching.

• Investigate their questions with their students systematically documenting what happens.

• Collect and analyze data from their classes including their own observations and reflections.

• Examine their assumptions and beliefs.

Teacher-Researchers: To Do List


What Factors Limit Research Productivity?

• lack of time due to teaching load (70% versus 30%).• Lack of motivated students.• Lack of access to graduate students to help them expand

their research ideas and activities.• Teaching courses that don’t match the faculty research

interest.• Family burden

• Lack of equipment and facilities and Poor infrastructure.• Lack of institutional support.• Insufficient intramural and extramural funding.

• Commitment to college community, and engagement in administration committees.

• Isolation and lack of scientific communication.


What Factors Limit Research Productivity?

Commissions with respective tasks for teaching and research in most institutions are usually biased to

their activity

• The commission on teaching concludes that research expectations detract from the quality of a faculty member's teaching.

• While the commission on research asserts that teaching loads interfere with faculty research and scholarship.


What are some of the effects of Teacher- Researcher projects?

• Impacts teacher and student learning and student achievement.

• Supports revision of instructional practice based on new knowledge about teaching and learning.

• Increases dialogue, sharing, and collaboration about instruction and student learning across departments, disciplines, and grade levels.

• Enables development of priorities for school-wide planning and assessment efforts.

• Enhances communication between teachers and students.


How to Implement Teacher-Researcher Concept?

Establishing a Teacher Researcher Network (TRN) to provide support for practicing teacher researchers and education to others about the work of teacher researchers, including the following:

• TRN, a newsletter which serves as a link among teacher researchers and is available to all educators.

• Workshops and programs to educate administrators, teachers, and parents about the work of teacher researchers.

• Training for teacher researchers and group leaders• An annual teacher research conference to share teacher

research findings.• Online support for teacher researchers.



• Recruitment of non-tenure staff, including teaching assistants for teaching.

• Recruitment of laboratory technicians for research activities.

• Creation of non-tenure track academics that can assist tenure faculty in preparation of their designated courses.



• Re-conceptualization the relationship between research and teaching and creation a novel scholarship for this concept.

• Improve the research funding system so that faculty can appoint postdoctoral fellows who can just focus on the research and be prepared to be a future faculty.

• Establishing committees with commitment to improving the quality of teaching that can provide positive possibilities for supporting and enhancing teaching effectiveness for faculty teaching, and their research.



• Creation of College of Post Graduate Studies

• Creation of distinct and separate career paths with the bulk of teaching at undergraduate level being done by trained teachers with high contact hours and no contractual obligation to engage in research.

• Creation of distinct and separate career path with the main bulk of performing research, but also can partially contribute to undergraduate teaching and be responsible for postgraduate teaching.



• Creation of a scholarship of teaching initiative that involves faculty with research into teaching that can then be published and accepted as scholarship for purposes of tenure and promotion.

• Creation of research program that can pair an undergraduate with a professor to assist in a specific research project.

• Research division in each institute to integrate teaching courses of academics with their research interest.


Teaching

Research

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Research

Research

Research

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Research

Teacher-Researcher Concept?


THANK YOUMohamed Labib Salem

Prof. of ImmunologyFaculty of ScienceTanta University

Egypt