Conceptualising the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning within the Context of the Research--Teaching Nexus in Higher Education

Abstract

Conceptualising the research-teaching nexus within the context of the scholarship of teaching and learning is really intriguing. This is attributed to the different notions held by several scholars and stakeholders within the higher educational landscape. Though, previous studies have attempted to espouse how several stakeholders have thought about the link between research and teaching, however, these attempts have not materialised. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to espouse how lecturers conceptualise the research-teaching nexus, especially, within the context of the scholarship of teaching and learning and to further establish whether their conceptualisation differ across their ranks. Using the descriptive cross-sectional survey design, and through a questionnaire, 732 lecturers were selected using the stratified proportionate technique to respond to the survey. In order to ensure the construct validity of the self-developed questionnaire, a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was conducted. An oblique, specifically, promax rotation was used, where the eigenvalue-greater-than-one rule was used to determine an appropriate number of factors to retain. In terms of data analysis, after a thorough check, the closed-ended questionnaire items were analysed statistically using descriptive statistics (i.e. frequency counts, percentages, means, and standard deviations) and inferential statistics (MANOVA) was also used to examine the statistical effects and differences between lecturers’ rank and their conceptualisation. It emanated from the study that lecturers conceptualise the research-teaching nexus as knowledge currency, as well as, scholarship and curriculum orientations. And that a statistically significant difference existed between the levels of lecturers’ rank and their conceptualisation of the link between research and teaching. It was therefore, concluded that several stakeholders and scholars have different connotations and representations of the research-teaching nexus, especially, within the context of the research-teaching nexus. It is therefore, recommended that University authorities should encourage their faculty to embrace and apply research-based teaching in their teaching and learning expedition. Lecturers must also ensure that pedagogical practices must be thoroughly prepared, constantly reviewed, and explicitly linked to the topic they teach by way of promoting scholarship at the highest level.

Keywords:Research-teaching nexus, scholarship of teaching and learning, knowledge currency conceptualisation, scholarship-oriented conceptualisation, curriculum-oriented conceptualisation

DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/12-6-02

Publication date:March 31^st 2022