Peter Newbury Center for Engaged Teaching, UC San Diego Published on Nov 20, 2015 collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu

1. The College Classroom Session 7:
Teaching as Research
November 10 and 12, 2015
Unless otherwise noted, content is
licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-
Non Commercial 3.0 License.
Reviewing ed research –boring!
Give some hypothetical case studies where something could/does harm
the students and have students identify and problem solve

2. 2
Scholarly
Teaching
Evaluate
document observations
summarize evaluation
Deliver
deliver learning experiences * assess
learning outcomes * conduct observations
Design
formulate big questions * identify learning
outcomes * plan assessment * design
learning experiences
Adapted from GabrieleWienhausen
Teaching as research - collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu

3. 3
Scholarly
Teaching
Study
identify key issues * analyze and synthesize
results * put results in context * solicit peer
review * publish, present, disseminate
Evaluate
document observations
summarize evaluation
Deliver
deliver learning experiences * assess
learning outcomes * conduct observations
Design
formulate big questions * identify learning
outcomes * plan assessment * design
learning experiences
Scholarship
of
Teaching
and
Learning
(SoTL)
Adapted from GabrieleWienhausen
Teaching as research - collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu

4. 4
Scholarly
Teaching
Study
identify key issues * analyze and synthesize
results * put results in context * solicit peer
review * publish, present, disseminate
Evaluate
document observations
summarize evaluation
Deliver
deliver learning experiences * assess
learning outcomes * conduct observations
Design
formulate big questions * identify learning
outcomes * plan assessment * design
learning experiences
Scholarship
of
Teaching
and
Learning
(SoTL)
Adapted from GabrieleWienhausen
Teaching as research - collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu

5. Teaching as Research (TAR)
Teaching as research
collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu5
At the core of improving teaching and learning is the need
to accurately determine what students have learned as a result of
teaching practices. This is a research problem, to which instructors
can effectively apply their research skills and ways of knowing. In
so doing, instructors themselves become the agents for change in
teaching and learning.
Teaching-as-Research involves the deliberate, systematic,
and reflective use of research methods to develop and implement
teaching practices that advance the learning experiences and
outcomes of students and teachers.
CIRTL Network [1]
Note: CIRTL’s description ofTAR describes STEM instructors teaching STEM
courses. I removed “STEM” because the description can be applied to all disciplines.

6. Categories of Educational Research[2]
Teaching as research - collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu6
Theoretical research
Action or practitioner research
Evaluative Experimental
'Cause and effect' research
Case study
Systematic review
Exploratory
Comparative
Grounded theory
Ethnography

7. The Effect of Interactive Instruction[3]
Teaching as research - collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu7
1 2
3 4

8. The Effect of Interactive Instruction[3]
Teaching as research - collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu8
 Students in 52 classes took astronomy-based concept
inventory (Light and Spectroscopy Concept Inventory)
pre- and post-
 Course instructors (self) reported % time lecturing
and % time when students were active
 Researchers computed normalized learning gain
 Researchers looked for correlations
𝑛 =
post test % − (pretest %)
100 − (pretest %)
(Action or practitioner research)

9. What is the value of course-specific learning goals?[4]
Teaching as research - collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu9
 3 classes (A = computer literacy Fa07, B = computer
literacy Sp08, C = microbiology Sp08)
 Last week of course (Wk 13): students asked to
complete up to five copies of,“For me, the use of
learning goals in this course is . . .”
 Comments put into categories using content-analysis
based coding
A B C total
Comments 225 252 120 597
Students 59 76 51 186
(Evaluative)

10. What is the value of course-specific learning goals?[4]
Teaching as research - collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu10
Research informs the
instructors about
 how students are
responding
 what’s working (or not)
 what to use again (or
not)
Helps instructors become
better educators.

11. Active learning increases student performance
in science, engineering and mathematics[5]
Teaching as research - collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu11
Meta-analysis of 225 research studies that explored the
impact of active learning:
Active learning engages students in the process of learning
through activities and/or discussions in class,as opposed to
passively listening to an expert.It emphasizes higher-order
thinking and often involves group work.
(Freeman et al., pp 8413-8414)
(Systematic review)

12. Teaching as research - collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu12
Active learning increases student performance
in science, engineering and mathematics[5]
 established active learning
has positive impact on
learning
 advances field of education
research: no need to
continue to replicate study
(in STEM)

13. What can you study?
Teaching as research - collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu13
Students’ knowledge and skills
 what are students able to do now that they couldn’t do
before taking the course?
 are students thinking more like experts?
(e.g. what questions do they ask in lab/discussion?)
Students’ attitudes
 what are they initially?
(e.g., what are students’ views on academic integrity?)
 how did they change after you did X?
(e.g., what do students think about learning goals?)

14. Discussion
Teaching as research - collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu14
Do you think carrying out these studies impacted students
in a negative way? Which one(s) and why/how?
A) Prather et al. (2009) – active learning in astronomy
B) Taylor and Simon (2009) – learning goals
C) Freeman et al. (2014) – active learning
D) No harm to students
Give some hypothetical case studies where something could/does harm the students

15. If you suspect your research could involve 1. or 2.,
you might need to apply for IRB approval or an
exemption from IRB review.
Humans are involved in TAR
Teaching as research - collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu15
Mission of the Institutional Review
Board (IRB):
1. Protection of human subjects from
physical harm.
2. Protection of your students’ privacy
and students’ success.

16. UCSD IRB grants exemptions to…
Teaching as research - collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu16
(1) Research conducted in established or commonly accepted educational
settings, involving normal educational practices, such as (i) research on
regular and special education instructional strategies, or (ii) research on
the effectiveness of or the comparison among instructional techniques,
curricula,or classroom management methods.[6]
Things a scholarly, reflective instructor
might and should do anyway.

17. Your turn
Teaching as research - collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu17
Imagine you’re going to
teach one section of a course
in your discipline.You’re
want to do research on it.
 What do you want to
learn?
 Why is that important
enough to do?
(10 minutes)

18. Common education research tools
Quantitative Qualitative
Teaching as research - collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu18
What is happening? Why is it happening?
 Multiple choice tests (pre- and post-testing?)
 Attitude surveys (Likert SD, D, N,A, SA scale)
 mini-writing (muddiest point, think-pair-share, etc.)
 document students’
 answers on a worksheets  responses to a question
 opinions/views  peer instruction votes  questions

19. Can You Solve This?
Teaching as research - collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu19
Play along with the Derek’s puzzle.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKA4w2O61Xo
Beware of confirmation bias: the
tendency to search for, interpret,
or recall information in a way that
confirms one's beliefs or
hypotheses.[8]
(Watch it again – this time look for for “A-ha!” moments
from an educator’s point-of-view. How can you tell that a
breakthrough occurred?)

20. Your turn
Teaching as research - collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu20
 How are you going to
investigate your issue?
 What do you anticipate
will happen?
 What will you do with
that result?
(10 minutes)

21. Share your TAR projects
Teaching as research - collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu21
One-by-one at your table, please take ~5 minutes each to
describe yourTAR project to your colleagues and get (and
give) feedback.

22. 2016 Summer Graduate
Teaching Scholars (SGTSs)
Teaching as research - collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu22
You’ll have an opportunity to design, execute, and analyze
a teaching-as-research project in your course.
Teaching for the first time can be extremely busy so the
Center for EngagedTeaching will support you via
 Education Research coordinator to help you make it
happen in your class with your students, your context
 small stipend to reward extra effort
 guidance on how to expand study to the level you could
present at your discipline’s annual meeting

23. 2015 Summer GraduateTeaching Scholars

24. References
Teaching as research - collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu24
1. Center for the Integration of Research,Teaching and Learning (2010) Teaching as Research.
www.cirtl.net/CoreIdeas/teaching_as_research
2. Lambert, M. (2012). A Beginner's Guide to DoingYour Education Research Project.Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE
Publications Inc. via Tomorrow’s Professor cgi.stanford.edu/~dept-ctl/tomprof/posting.php?ID=1233
3. Prather, E.E, Rudolph,A.L., Brissenden, G., & Schlingman,W.M. (2009). A national study assessing the teaching and
learning of introductory astronomy.Part I.The effect of interactive instruction.Am. J. Phys. 77, 4, 320-330.
4. Simon, B., &Taylor, J. (2009). What is theValue of Course-Specific Learning Goals? J. College ScienceTeaching, 39, 2,
52-57.
5. Freeman, S., Eddy, S.L. McDonough, M., Smith, M., Okoroafor, N., Jordt,. H. &Wenderoth, M.P. (2014)Active
learning increases student performance in science, engineering, and mathematics. PNAS 111, 23, 8410–8415.
6. Exemption from IRB Review, UCSD Human Research Protections Program, retrieved from
irb.ucsd.edu/Exempt_forms.shtml 24/2/ 2014.
7. Adams,W.K., Perkins, K.K., Podolefsky, N.S., Dubson, M., Finkelstein, N.D., &Wieman, C.E. (2006) A new
instrument for measuring student beliefs about physics and learning physics:The Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science
Survey (CLASS). Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 2, 010101.
8. Confirmation bias (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved February 16, 2015, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias