Relating Research and Teaching: comparing experiences and beliefs

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Description/Abstract

The relationship between research and teaching has possible benefits and inherent tensions. It is a recurrent topic of discussion by faculty including engineering educators. Exploring a potentially beneficial relationship and is of interest and possible value to engineering faculty, our students, and our stakeholders. Institutions and departments have developed a range of approaches including research-led, research informed, or just plain scholarly. This paper examines the relationship between research and teaching in the undergraduate curriculum. It compares and contrasts evidence of the beliefs and experiences of the engineering faculty and the engineering student. It presents and analyses the result of surveys which gathered qualitative and qualitative data to explore the inter-relationship of research and teaching; in the curriculum; and as it is delivered and experienced in the lab, seminar room and lecture hall. This research builds on existing work developed in a preliminary study which examined ways in which synergies between research and teaching could be achieved, particularly in the ‘hard/applied’ areas of the curriculum. It analyses data from the ‘research-intensive’ and the ‘teaching-intensive’ perspective.