I don't think that being an active researcher necessarily makes you a better classroom instructor. HOWEVER, I do believe that faculty who are doing classroom teaching AND conducting research are (other things being equal) more valuable to the department than those who are "just teaching." Such faculty provide a great a great service to our better students by introducing them to research and helping them build their CVs for graduate school. And before people jump all over me, I said, "other things being equal." I know plenty of "teacher-researchers" who are very bad instructors and I know of many non-researchers who are devoted to teaching, advising & mentoring and who do all of these things exceedingly well. My point is simply that a professor who does those things well AND does research, is more valuable than the people (myself included) who no longer do research. But with a 3 course/semester load it is, of course, crucial that expectations be scaled down. Big external grants should not be expected and 1-2 solid papers/year should be considered an impressive accomplishment. And, yes, the type of research makes a big difference and allowance must be made for e.g., lab animal vs small survey research, etc. Ed Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D. Department of Psychology West Chester University of Pennsylvania http://mywebpages.comcast.net/epollak/home.htm <http://mywebpages.comcast.net/epollak/home.htm> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, bluegrass fiddler and herpetoculturist...... in approximate order of importance. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Subject: Is there evidence that being a researcher makes you a better teacher? From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2007 12:44:11 -0700 (PDT) X-Message-Number: 2
Sorry for cross-posting. Our small-to-middle sized university has been going through an identity crisis the past decade, wanting to be a bigger university. As a result, there has been a push to increase the focus on research productivity--and although NO ONE would ever say it out loud, it means reduce the focus on teaching. After all, most people can't manage grant writing, research productivity, and publications while teaching 3 courses per semester with no TAs and an expectation sold to parents of extensive faculty student interactions. So, one of the arguments I hear made all the time is that doing research makes teachers teach better. And when I ask for data, all I get is personal anecdotes, and rolled eyes. So, does anyone here know of any research that indicates that there is a positive relationship between "doing research" (read that as having publications) and better teaching? --- To make changes to your subscription go to: http://acsun.frostburg.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=tips&text_mode=0&lang=english
