Student Perceptions of Teaching-Learning Nexus

The ability to acquire and the ability to impart are wholly different talents. The former may exist in the most liberal manner without the latter.
Horace Mann (1796-1859) in On The Art of Teaching (1840)

If an academic's research enriched their teaching, would their students notice?

Neumann (1994) reports on an Australian study of undergraduate and postgraduate students to determine their views concerning teaching and learning , their contact with university research and whether the conduct of research had any impact on the teaching and learning they experienced.

Students in the study were selected from the disciplines of the humanities, sciences, social sciences and professional areas and from first year to postgraduate levels.

When asked whether a teacher's research role was important or beneficial to teaching, students views included that:

• it demonstrated that the teacher's work had a purpose
• academics were doing something for society rather than churning out degrees
• it placed students on the threshold of opinion and theory
• it enabled students to be in close contact with ideas and showed that knowledge and ideas were not static.

There was a general perception that researchers set different assignments for students than non-researchers. Students asked to perform research activities in their assignments expressed surprise and excitement at the challenge of doing something different from a usual assignment while reporting that the work was stimulating and enjoyable. Those teachers requiring research activities in assignments were perceived as good teachers.

Generally the study found that a majority of the students experienced a relationship between the teaching and research roles of academics and that their perception of this nexus was influenced by the:

• ability and motivation of student
• nature of the discipline
• type of course
• and the opportunity for personal interaction with teachers.

Neuman concludes that active research involvement is a necessary but not sufficient condition for good teaching.

• Neumann, R. (1994). The Teaching-Research Nexus: applying a framework to university students' learning experiences. European Journal of Education, 29(3), 323-338.