As college students today, whether you are entering freshmen or seniors, I am sure that you can quickly distinguish certain characteristics that universities may have. Some universities tend to take an active and engaging role in student learning. Some universities are more researched-based compared to others. Regardless of differences in a particular university, all universities recognize the importance found in teaching. Universities value the practice of teaching just as much as its own research objectives and projects. That said; being a college student today, I feel, unlike the Nature article “Education ambivalence”, University and college-level institutions place the same level of emphasis and importance in teaching practices compared to research initiatives - through teacher interactive assignments and tenure requirements. The Nature article holds the argument that universities put its own research and inquiry over teaching practices to students; however, the ideas of interactive professor assignments and university differences prove otherwise.
If you look at the teaching assignments implemented at certain colleges, there is significant evidence that universities are placing the same level of emphasis on student learning compared to the actual research done. In recent article (2003) in the National Academics Press publication group, new teaching initiatives, launched by a committee of college professors and teachers alike, aimed to help foster a better learning experience for undergraduate students in the biological sciences field from all over the country. The initiatives included providing more hands-on research projects for students, an increase in the amount of laboratory teaching conducted, and the continued encouraging of student presentational work based on past, student-led experiments conducted (2003). In addition, this project emphasized the ability of undergraduate students to learn from their own research. A quote made by James M. Gentile, president of Research Corporation for Science Advancement, in Academic Excellence (2000) sums up the reasoning behind undergraduate research, “Undergraduate research is not only the essential component of good teaching and effective learning, but also that research with undergraduate students is in itself the purest form of teaching.” What is more noteworthy about this particular national effort is it dealt with university teaching practices in the biological sciences, where the notion of professors being focused on personal, rather than student, research/learning, tends to exist stronger. However, as this recent article shows, even teachers in university biological sciences are genuinely interested in the learning experience of their students as well, by providing a variety of teaching assignments and projects.
Related to this idea of interactive teaching showing university attitude is the practice of graduate students engaging in teaching opportunities for students (CBE – Life Sciences Education 2006). Graduate students, just like university professors, are often busy with conducting their own research objectives, giving such students a reason to focus solely on their own work. However, they often end up teaching large-enrollment courses at universities. Graduate students teaching today are also participating in many teaching-development workshops designed to help hone teaching skill sets needed to provide undergraduate students with meaningful learning experiences (2006).
By looking at the interactive teaching methods university professors use, and the level of involvement of graduate students in undergraduate teaching, there is already strong piece of evidence that universities value teaching to the same degree as research. These interactive teaching methods show that universities, and the professors themselves, take the time and effort to help bring about the best learning experience for students, and more importantly, these same professors are not solely concerned with just personal research. The second piece of evidence that shows universities are just as concerned with teaching as research deals with the university type.
The idea of university differences deals with two overall concepts – the differences amongst different universities and an error in reasoning found in the Nature article discussed, the differences amongst universities and colleges is based on the idea that different types of universities tend to focus on different areas of interest. Liberal arts schools, such as UNC, tend to hold teaching standards and education curriculum at a high level of importance. On the other hand, though, there is also, what are called research universities. Research universities primarily devote its efforts towards the advancing of research efforts and projects. A local example of such a university would be N.C. State University. Now, with the distinction established between liberal arts and research universities, the second aspect of this evidence is regarding the reasoning found in the Nature article, “Education Ambivalence.” In this particular Nature article speaks to the audience as if research universities are all encompassing of all universities. The article does not make an effort to show that the differences in an institution, such liberal arts or research universities, influences the level of teaching and research done at a particular school. An example of this in the Nature article is in the discussion regarding a survey conducted by Nature Education, Nature Publishing Group’s educational division. The survey conducted was with 450 university-level science facility, from more than 30 countries, asking about the quality of undergraduate education in their opinion (2010). The results, as expected, showed a strong opinion towards science undergraduate education providing low levels of teaching and instruction. However, the solution proposed is intended towards all universities and colleges in general, not just scientific universities and colleges in particular (2010). Here is where the error in Nature’s reasons lies. Nature, in this instance, assumes that all universities and colleges take the form of scientific-research based institutions, and forgets the presence of liberal arts in today’s academic climate. Nature should have made a distinguishing division between liberal arts and research institutions before setting out to make a solution that dealt with all universities. This assumption flaws Nature’s argument made, because now it seems unclear as to whether the article was specifically dealing with research universities in particular.
The two, main pieces of evidence regarding professor teaching practices and differences amongst university types supports the notion that universities place an equal level of emphasis on teaching and research. Professor teaching practices show the level of dedication and commitment given to students, helping to bring about the most efficient and productive learning experience possible. The differences amongst university types helps to explain why it appears some colleges tend to focus on either teaching quality, or research opportunities. Integrating these two aspects not only explains the characteristics of a particular school, but moreover, show that universities and colleges hold teaching and researching to the same degree of importance.
Works Cited
1. “Education Ambivalence.” Nature. 03 June 2010. Pages: 525–526. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v465/n7298/full/465525b.html
2. “Approaches to Biology teaching and learning: On integrating pedagogical training into the graduate experiences of future science faculty.” CBE – Life Sciences Education. Spring 2006. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1635132/pdf/0001.pdf
3. Personal author, compiler, or editor name(s); click on any author to run a new search on that name.Doyle, Michael P. “Academic Excellence: The Role of Research in the Physical Sciences at Undergraduate Institutions.” Research Corporation. 2000. http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED477576&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED477576
4. National Research Council (US) Committee on Undergraduate Biology Education to Prepare Research Scientists for the 21st Century. “Bio2010 - Transforming Undergraduate Education for Future Research Biologists.” National Academies Press (US). (2003). http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bookshelf/br.fcgi?book=nap10497
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