SLTCC2017 Impact of Research-Informed Teaching (Dr Paul Joseph-Richard & Dr Mohammed Golam Jamil)
1. Impact of Research-Informed Teaching
on Staff’s academic practice and students’ learning outcomes
Dr Paul Joseph-Richard
Dr Timos Almpanis
Dr Md Jamil
Dr Qi Wu
SLTC Conference, Southampton Solent University
23 June 2017
2. What is the research problem?
We know a lot about
the complexities of linking
research and teaching
the perceived benefits of RIT,
current myths on RIT, and
Some risks of RIT.
But we know little about the
impact of RIT on staff’s
teaching practice and on
student outcomes
3. Definition: Impact - Teaching practice – Student learning outcomes
Impact: a benefit to, or an experienced
change in any direction on staffs’ personal
and professional practice
Teaching practice: We focus on the tasks
related to the design and delivery of
curriculum, assessment of grades, supporting
students and the learning environment
Student learning outcomes: A benefit to, or a
perceived change , in any direction, on
students’ involvement and engagement and
their academic achievement.
4. What did we do?
An interpretative, qualitative design
Sampling strategy: Purposive sampling
Creative and
Digital
Industries
Research Hub
Business and
Society
Research Hub
Sport, Health
and
Wellbeing
Research Hub
Maritime,
Technology
and
Environment
Research Hub
To represent all sections of SSU
5. Criteria-based selection: ‘Research-Active’
1. How long have you been teaching in Higher Education?
2. What research outputs have you completed in the last five
years?
3. What involvement have you had in any of the following
postgraduate activities in the last five years?
4. What involvement in securing research funding have you had in
the last five years?
5. What editorial experience have you had in the last five years ?
Research-Active Staff
4 Interviewers
20 Interviews
6. Data collection :
Structured Interviews - Questions based on Weller (2016)
To explore conceptions of RIT
- What is Research? Research output? Typical teaching?
- What comes to your mind when you hear about RIT?
- Give me an example
Impact on teaching practice?
- Design, Delivery, Assessment, Student Support
- Student Learning outcomes
To capture variation in RIT practice
- Teaching cutting-edge practices and latest findings
- Teaching research methods
- Discussing, critiquing and writing about research outputs
- Students undertaking research
- Staff undertake research in collaboration with students
- Researching ‘Teaching’ itself (pedagogical research)
- Does Teaching informs the way one do research?
Transcribed
Recorded
7. Using Nvivo 10 software for grouping of texts
on similar themes
Constant comparison
Iterative process of going back and forth
All four researchers involved in the analysis
(Researcher Triangulation– Patton 1999)
15 Transcripts used for this presentation
We use ‘Show and Tell’ approach
(Seidman, 2013)
Data Analysis Method: Interview data analysis (King and Harrocks, 2010)
8. RIT impact on Staff
1. Sustains staff’s enthusiasm (p1).
2. Influences academic writing style to make
publications accessible to students (RA ADF –
Reference 3- page 2)
3. Makes teaching ‘more satisfying’ (you feel
that you are in a university and these things
are valued – page 3).
4. Makes staff more reflective in their practice
(p.4)
5. Improves teaching and communication skills
(presenting conferences, discussing the
subject with experts enables me to explain the
contents well in the class room) p. 7)
6. Improves confidence: ‘It helps me to be
confident in my teaching, I conduct my own
research on it, and speak about the method I
applied in that (p.17)
Emerging themes and indicative conclusions
9. RIT impact on Staff
1. RIT may contribute to decreasing
engagement and activating frustration in
some staff
a. When opportunity is not given to staff to
teach subjects of their specialisms, it
‘decreases engagement…the quality of what
students are getting is diminished, and so is
my own personal satisfaction’ (RA BLC –
Reference 1 – page 2)
b. The perceived institutional efforts to side line
research-based teaching frustrates staff:
story on ‘more focus on teaching subjects
what students like, reviewing optional units….
(p.9)
Emerging themes and indicative conclusions
10. RIT impact on Design and DeliveryEmerging themes and indicative conclusions
On design:
a. Takes time to prepare and integrate research. (p.2)
b. RIT makes me more aware of the differences in
students’ capabilities and their requirements.
Accordingly, when teaching software engineering for
example, I organise tasks in the class room with
varying focus and levels. (story in p.5)
On Assessment:
a. When students use out-dated references, I challenge
them (page 3)
b. When assessments methods were changed, I read
about the latest evidence on assessments. That
enabled me to focus on ‘learning’ and ‘students’
experience’ (p.4)
11. RIT impact on Students
RIT gets them engaged, particularly in a multi-
cultural environment ‘questioning’ makes them
engaged more. (p.2)
Students tend to value more what the teacher
says (Page 2) therefore ‘we should publish more
for the sake of students, not for the sake of
research’ (page 3)
When showing them how the field evolves, RIT
impacts ‘on their approach and the way they
understand the field they are studying’ (p.3)
RIT impacts students variably: (some enjoy the
discussion and critical evaluation and some
don’t) p.3
There is also a variation in student’s approach to RIT based
on their ‘year of study’ in computing (p.10). But students from
Electronics Engineering, in their final year, tend to value more
that they were able to ‘learn something new’ and ‘apply’ that
knowledge, as revealed in student evaluations.
Emerging themes and indicative conclusions
12. RIT impact on Students
RIT reframes students’ expectations of a University (it
is not a place full of answers. A continuous inquiry
process is going on here … enjoy this process’) (p.4)
Students ‘gets excited’, RIT allows them to be aware of
the job market, and it keeps them ‘up-to-date’ (p.5)
Students’ submissions show ‘an enhanced awareness
of key debates and contributions within topics’ (p.11).
However, ‘sometimes they don’t even realise they are
applying some research methods’ (p.11)
RIT – communicating research in Research and
Innovation Conference – enables students to ‘learn a
lot’ about ‘writing an abstract, preparing a poster, doing
a presentation in front of academics…’looking back at
their own research’ (p.12).
Some ‘gets stressed’ and not doing bibliography till the
last minute then seeing it is a big thing’ (p.9)
Emerging themes and indicative conclusions
13. ◦ Promotes an appreciation for different
points of view. That’s what I teach them
(page 3)
◦ Enables me bringing in small pieces of
written research to the classroom, I give
them tools to analyse and critique
information – RIT enables me to bring in a
new angle on how to bring people in the
field at an academic level (p.7)
◦ Changed my teaching methods – ‘more
facilitative and learning technology
integrated classes - RIT makes staff ‘think
about how they might use that in class’
(p.16)
◦ Teaching means RIT and nothing else.
(p.17) “I don’t see how the degree would
run if there wasn’t any research’ (p.17)
RIT impact on Teaching Practice in generalEmerging themes and indicative conclusions
14. What are our
preliminary
conclusions?
• RIT impacts on staff’s academic practice,
although in varying degrees and levels.
• RIT is perceived to be benefitting personal
and professional practice of participants.
• Some informants experienced some negative
impacts of RIT too.
• For some if teaching is not informed by
research, it is not HE level. RIT defines HE
and it should be re-enforced, practised and
promoted.
• There is substantive evidence to suggest that
RIT impacts design, delivery, and
assessment, although not for its impact on
and students support and learning
environment.
15. What are our
preliminary
conclusions?
Impact on students’ learning:
• RIT can foster curiosity among learners,
develop critical thinking and transferable
qualities, impacting their approach to their field
of study, according to some participants.
Others mentioned that RIT has an impact on
some students rather than all students while
another stated that for RIT to have an impact,
a lecturer’s research and teaching need to be
in the same area.
• It appears that the effect of linking research
and teaching may depends on students’
approach to learning (i.e.
surface/strategic/deep learning) (and to their
year of study?)
• There may be disciplinary differences in RIT
impact
• but all these needs explored further.
16. Limitations & Next Steps
Limitations
• Sampling bias
• What do informants mean by RIT is not linked to these effects.
How they define RIT may have some effect on the reported effects.
• Only based on 15 participants – analysis still to be done.
• Next Steps
• Complete analysis
• Compare these perceptions with those of ‘non- Research-Active’ staff, with in Solent
• Replicate the project in other contexts for larger comparative study
• Comparing these results against the students grade marks’ may reveal some
interesting findings
• Students’ perceptions of RIT impact need to be studied.
Thank you: Dr Paul Joseph-Richard, Dr Timos Almpanis, Dr Md Jamil, Dr Qi Wu & All participants. Project supported by SLTI Seed Funding 2017