The Teaching-Research Nexus

The teaching-research nexus is commonly associated with the process of enriching teaching by including aspects of an academic's current research, or that of colleagues, in classroom teaching. This has the potential to provide students with up-to-date or 'cutting edge' disciplinary knowledge, to increase student interest in the subject through the teacher's passion for his or her area of research, to make what is taught seem more relevant to the student or to provide a context for subject matter which may be dry or very abstract.

In addition to research informing teaching, teaching may also inform research. The challenge of trying to convey to students a particular concept or theory may stimulate thoughts in relation to current or future research. Students, particularly in final undergraduate years and postgraduate studies, often bring fresh perspectives and pose different questions that may feed into their teacher's current research or serve as a catalyst for new research projects. Richard Feynman, physicist, educator and Nobel Prize winner, describes this process:

The questions of the student are often the source of new research. They often ask profound questions that I've thought about at times and then given up on, so to speak, for a while. It wouldn't do me any harm to think about them again and see if I can go any further now.
(Feynman, 1986)

A developing area which also forms part of the teaching-research nexus is researching teaching, i.e. carrying out research into one's own teaching or investigating some aspect of teaching in the discipline. While carrying out research into teaching in higher education is slow in gaining acceptability in some disciplines, it is becoming an increasingly recognised field of research internationally.

Another perspective of the teaching-research nexus is that of teaching at the undergraduate level through the provision of authentic research experience. A paper produced by the Boyer Commission on Educating Undergraduates, Reinventing Undergraduate Education: A Blueprint for America's Research Universities outlines this teaching and learning strategy:

The basic idea of learning as inquiry is the same as the idea of research; even though advanced research occurs at advanced levels, undergraduates beginning in the freshman year can learn through research. In the sciences and social sciences, undergraduates can become junior members of the research teams that now engage professors and graduate students. In the humanities, undergraduates should have the opportunity to work in primary materials, perhaps linked to their professors' research projects. As undergraduates advance through a program, their learning experiences should become closer and closer to the activity of the graduate student. By the senior year, the able undergraduate should be ready for research of the same character and approximately the same complexity as the first-year graduate student; the research university needs to make that zone of transition from senior to graduate student easy to enter and easy to cross. For those who do not enter graduate school, the abilities to identify, analyze, and resolve problems will prove invaluable in professional life and in citizenship.
(Kenny, n.d.)

What relationship do you see between research and teaching? How is the teaching-research nexus viewed by your department or in the discipline?

• Feynman, R. (1986). 'Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman!' Adventures of a Curious Character. New York: Bantam Books.
• Kenny, R.W. Reinventing Undergraduate Education: A Blueprint for America's Research Universities. http://notes.cc.sunysb.edu/Pres/boyer.nsf/webform/images/$File/boyer.txt/ (version current at 25 Feb 1999).