George MacDonald Ross

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TURNING LEEDS INTO A HUMBOLDTIAN UNIVERSITY HOW
RESEARCH SHOULD INFORM TEACHING

• George MacDonald Ross
• PRS Subject Centre
• Leeds LT Conference, 08.01.10

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Programme

• Some history
• Some politics
• Some facts
• Two ways of linking RT

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When did HE become research-led?

• Not for Cardinal Newman
• Lecturers and doctors teach
• Research mission gradual in UK (discouraged at
  Leeds early 1900s)
• Disciplinary differences
• Mid 20th century
• US teaching-only colleges

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Why an issue?

• Unis funded better than polys
• RAE called bluff of unis
• Post 1992 almost all unis have research mission
• Present government wants to recreate binary
  divide
• Important to defend research-led teaching

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Do prolific researchers teach better?

• Academics generally say yes
• Government says no
• Research evidence finds no correlation
• Some apriori considerations pro and con

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Pro

• HE is higher because it is cutting-edge
• The next generation of researchers must be
  educated by researchers
• Good teaching requires at least up-to-date
  scholarship

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Con (1)

• Researchers may neglect teaching
• Outcomes of research may be too difficult for UGs
• Few UGs proceed to research (the mission of a
  university is not self-replication)

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Con (2)

• Most teaching is outside ones research
  specialism, and non-experts can be good teachers
• The RAE forces artificial split between RT
• Rewards for T excellence reinforce the split
  should be rewards for linkage

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Linking TR

• Two broad approaches
• Tell students about your research
• Treat students as fellow researchers

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Telling about

• Probably what is understood by most people
• Good if achievable
• But likely to be too difficult
• Students arent learning how to research

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Teaching how

• Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767-1835) Students as
  apprenticed researchers
• For example
• Laboratory practicals
• Field trips
• Case studies
• Dissertations and projects

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Advantages

• Were doing some of it already (but should do
  much more)
• Active learning rather than absorption and
  regurgitation
• Teachers know how to research, but their research
  neednt be front-line

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Disadvantages

• Less material can be covered (but less means
  more?)
• Doesnt justify front-line research in teaching
  institutions
• Difficult to implement with diminishing resources

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Conclusion

• The Humboldtian ideal is the best way forward
• The priority should be to develop cost-effective
  ways of achieving it in different disciplines

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References (1)

• John Henry Newman, The Idea of a University (New
  York, Longmans, 1947).
• Wilhelm von Humboldt, On the spirit and
  organisational framework of intellectual
  institutions in Berlin, Minerva VIII.2, April
  1970, 242-267.

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References (2)

• J. Hattie and H.W. Marsh, The relationship
  between research and teaching a meta-analysis,
  Review of Educational Research 66 (4), 1996,
  507-542.
• A. Jenkins, M. Healey and R. Zetter, Linking
  teaching and research in the disciplines and
  departments (York, The Higher Education Academy,
  2007).

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References (3)

• G. MacDonald Ross, Kant on Teaching Philosophy,
  in Discourse Learning and Teaching in
  Philosophical and Religious Studies 5/1, Autumn
  2005, 6582
• Other publications at
• http//www.philosophy.leeds.ac.uk/GMR/index.html

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Thank you for participating

• George MacDonald Ross
• Senior Adviser
• Subject Centre for
• Philosophical and Religious Studies
• of the Higher Education Academy