Research Conceptions and Research-based Teaching Approaches: Disclosure of a Presumed Relationship

Author(s):

Wendy Schouteden(presenting / submitting)An Verburgh Jan Elen

Conference:

ECER 2017

Network:

22. Research in Higher Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

22 SES 09 E,

Paper Session

Time:

2017-08-24

13:30-15:00

Room:

K5.14

Chair:

Maja Jankowska

Contribution

Research-based teaching in higher education

A close relationship between research and teaching is considered to be a defining characteristic of higher education (Durning and Jenkins 2005; Trowler and Wareham 2008). Since research and teaching are two important activities within the same institution, and faculty are very often involved in both, the question about the relationship between the two is recurrent (Barnett, 2005).

The contemporary debate on the relationship between research and teaching is influenced by a strong movement in higher education to increase the research experience of students and by a strong focus on “research- based teaching” (Healey, Jenkins, & Lea, 2014; Zimbardi & Myatt, 2014). Currently in most European countries all types of higher education, also those that were traditionally more focused on teaching, are expected to offer research-based teaching to their students (Kyvik & Lepori, 2010).

The focus on research-based teaching is also visible in the literature. Qualitative studies concerning the relationship between research and teaching pertain to: (1) different ways in which students are confronted with research into their teaching (Verburgh, Schouteden, & Elen, 2013; Zimbardi & Myatt, 2014 ) or (2) teachers’ research conceptions (Griffioen, 2013; Hu, van der Rijst, van Veen, & Verloop, 2014). This focus on teachers’ research conceptions is based on the idea that conceptions determine behavior (Kember, 1997; Pajares, 1992) and by extension the idea that research conceptions determine teachers’ research-based teaching practices (Brew, 2003). The idea is plausible since similar research on the relationship between teachers’ teaching conceptions and teaching practices, revealed a close relationship between conceptions and practices (Kember & Kwan, 2000; Martin, Prosser, Trigwell, Ramsden, and Benjamin, 2000). However, while the literature suggests a close conceptual relationship between teachers’ research conceptions and their research-based teaching approaches, empirical support for this plausible idea is missing (Schouteden, Verburgh, & Elen, 2016).

Research question

Within this context and given the importance of research-based teaching we investigate the relationship between teachers’ research conceptions and their research-based teaching approaches in higher education. To shed a new light on the relationship between research conceptions and research-based teaching approaches this study explicitly takes the teaching context into account, by including, on the one hand, a new variable into this relationship, namely “contextualised research conceptions” and, on the other hand, by including program type.

Contextualised research conceptions

Whereas general research conceptions refer to teachers’ conceptions about (doing) research, teachers’ contextualised research conceptions refer to teachers’ conceptions about integrating research in their own teaching.

Program type

Similar to other countries (e.g., the Netherlands, Verhoeven, 2008) higher education programs in Belgium are either professional or academic. The distinction between professional and academic programs is part of the discussion about research-based teaching. Whereas professional programs focus on the preparation for a particular profession (Griffioen, 2013) and are organised in teaching-intensive institutions or university colleges, academic programs emphasize a broad academic and theoretical training and are provided by research-intensive institutions or universities.

Conceptual model

Given the elements introduced above a conceptual model on the presumed relationship, at the level of the individual teacher, is elaborated. The model reflects three expectations. At first the absence of a close relationship between general and contextualised research conceptions of teachers is expected. A second expectation argues that the relationship between contextualised research conceptions and research-based teaching approaches is closer than the relationship between general research conceptions and research-based teaching approaches. A third expectation specifies that the program type affects the relationship between research conceptions and research-based teaching approaches.

Method

Participants The study entails case-studies of 24 teachers. Teachers came from professional and academic bachelor programs. All bachelor programs were selected from the same disciplinary area: soft-applied sciences (Biglan, 1973). To increase the similarity between the programs, a specific sub-discipline is chosen, namely: business economics, classified by Biglan as: “soft-applied-non-life”. Moreover, all teachers were responsible for a similar course “Marketing”. Data collection We combined different data collection techniques for triangulation: a questionnaire, two semi-structured interviews, and document analysis. In the questionnaire teachers were asked to give a chronological overview of their research and teaching experiences. In addition, the questionnaire also contained questions on teachers’ teaching conceptions and their perceived professional identity. Teachers were interviewed twice. The first interview had four parts. The first part consisted of the systematic exploration of teachers' general research conceptions starting from a drawing assignment. Next, teachers were asked to describe and explain in detail their plans for integrating research into teaching. In a third step, teachers were asked to describe their teaching and research experiences. Finally, teachers described their Marketing course, regarding: goals, assessment and course documents. In the second interviewteachers were asked to describe and explain in detail their real and ideal teaching approaches. The interview had an open structure, allowing respondents to give a narrative account of their teaching approaches. For document analysis, two types of documents were collected: ECTS syllabus and study materials accompanying the discussed Marketing course (for example: slides, textbooks or course texts). The ECTS syllabus follows a central format and it provides a blueprint of the course, focusing on goals, content, study materials and evaluation. Analysis Data were analysed using within-case and cross-case-analyses (Miles & Huberman, 1994). A first analysis focused on generating more inclusive categories in the data or more specific on generating types of general research conceptions, types of contextualised research conceptions and types of research-based teaching approaches. Then these types of variables were compared by pairs. We gained insight into three relationships: the relationship between general research conceptions and contextualised research conceptions, the relationship between general research conceptions and research-based teaching approaches and the relationship between contexualised research conceptions and research-based teaching approaches. These pairwise comparisons were made for the dataset as a whole and for each type of program (professional and academic).

Expected Outcomes

The first expectation, namely the absence of a close relationship between general and contextualised research conceptions of teachers, gets support from the data. Teachers with similar general research conceptions do not necessarily have similar contextualised research conceptions. The second expectation, namely that the relationship between teachers’ contextualised research conceptions and their research-based teaching approaches is closer than the relationship between teachers’ general research conceptions and their research-based teaching approaches, gets support for academic programs but not for professional programs. In academic programs there is a very close, even one-to-one, relationship between teachers’ contextualised research conceptions and their research-based teaching approaches. In professional programs, however, a clear relationship between teachers’ contextualised research conceptions and their research-based teaching approaches is missing. It is found that research-based teaching approaches of teachers in a specific professional program are nearly identical irrespective of teachers holding different research conceptions. There is a one-to-one relationship between the specific program of teachers and their research-based teaching approaches. This means that teachers working in the same program confront students in a similar way with research into their teaching. These findings confirm the third expectation. The relationship between teachers’ research conceptions and their research-based teaching approaches seems, as expected, to be mediated by program type. The study highlights that by considering context it is possible to disclose the presumed relationship between research conceptions and research-based teaching approaches. Further research is needed to fully understand the complex interplay between general research conceptions, contextualized research conceptions and research-based teaching approaches in different types of teaching programs.

References

Barnett, R. (2000). Realizing the university in an age of super-complexity. Buckingham: Open University Press. Brew, A. (2003). Teaching and research: New relationships and their implications for inquiry-based teaching and learning in higher education. Higher Education Research & Development, 22, 3-18. doi:10.1080/0729436032000056571 Durning, B., & Jenkins, A. (2005). Teaching/research relations in departments: The perspectives of built environment academics. Studies in Higher Education, 30, 407-426. doi:10.1080/03075070500160046 Griffioen, D. M. E. (2013). Research in higher professional education. A staff perspective. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Healey, M., Jenkins, A., & Lea, J. (2014). Developing research-based curricula in college-based higher education. York, UK: The Higher Education Academy. Retrieved from: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/documents/heinfe/developing_research-based_curricula_in_cbhe_14.pdf Hu, Y., Van der Rijst, R. M., van Veen, K., & Verloop, N. (2014). “And never the two shall meet”? Comparing Chinese and Dutch university teachers about the role of research in teaching. Higher Education, 68, 607-622. doi: 10.1007/s10734-014-9734-0 Kember, D. (1997). A reconceptualisation of the research into university academics’ conceptions of teaching. Learning and Instruction, 7(3), 255-275. doi: 10.1016/S0959-4752(96)00028-X Kember, D., & Kwan, K.-P. (2000). Lecturers’ approaches to teaching and their relationship to conceptions of good teaching. Instructional Science, 28, 469-490. doi: 10.1023/A:1026569608656 Kyvik, S., & Lepori, B. (2010). Research in higher education institutions outside the university sector. In S. Kyvik & B. Lepori (Eds.), The research mission of higher education institutions outside the university sector (pp. 3-21). Dordrecht: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-1-4020-9244-2_1 Martin, E., Prosser, M., Trigwell, K., Ramsden, R., & Benjamin, J. (2000). What university teachers teach and how they teach it. Instructional Science, 28, 387-412. doi: 10.1023/A:1026559912774 Pajares, M. F. (1992). Teachers’ beliefs and educational research: Cleaning up a messy construct. Review of Educational Research, 62, 307-332. doi:10.3102/00346543062003307 Schouteden, W., Verburgh, A., Elen, J. (2016). Teachers’ general and contextualised research conceptions. Studies in Higher Education, 41, 79-94. doi:10.1080/03075079.2014.914915 Trowler, P. & Wareham, T. (2008). Tribes, territories, research and teaching. Enhancing the teaching-research nexus. York, UK: The higher education Academy. Verburgh, A., Schouteden, W., Elen, J. (2013). Patterns in the prevalence of research-related goals in higher education programmes. Teaching in Higher Education, 18, doi:10.1080/13562517.2012.719153, 298-310. Zimbardi, K., & Myatt, P. (2014). Embedding undergraduate research experiences within the curriculum: a cross-disciplinary study of the key characteristics guiding implementation. Studies in Higher Education, 39, 233-250. doi:10.1080/03075079.2011.651448

Author Information

Wendy Schouteden (presenting / submitting)

UHASSELT

Hasselt

An Verburgh

UCLL, Belgium

Jan Elen

KU Leuven, Belgium

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