Charlie Quigley

Faculty colleagues, college administrators, parents of my students, my wife and my children have asked me whether research supports or detracts from teaching. So has Ron Pitt. In response to my colleagues, students' parents, and family, I usually provide a flippant response; of course research is necessary for good instruction. Ron has requested a more detailed answer. Further, he also has asked that I put it in writing!

In contemplating my response I revisited my own graduate and undergraduate education. During many years of taking courses in a formal educational environment, I was exposed to many instructors. I also had the opportunity to work closely with faculty members both as a graduate teaching assistant and as a graduate research assistant. During this period, I can recall (which gets less with each fleeting moment) lectures that were lucid and motivating, lectures that challenged me to question my beliefs and that presented new and complex ideas in an exciting manner. Unfortunately, I can also recall more than an occasional dull, boring, sleep-inducing lecture that often clouded issues and left me befuddled.

Although senior faculty provided many of the inspiring lectures, part-time instructors also provided many. The part-time instructors were professionals in specific application areas. Most did not conduct what we normally consider academic research. Many senior faculty, well published and respected researchers in their fields, were noted for putting their students to sleep. I slept through my share of their lectures.

From these anecdotal insights should I conclude that no relationship, or perhaps an inverse relationship exists between doing research and effectiveness of classroom instruction? Obviously the answer is no! The evidence is purely anecdotal and there is more than a little bias in the collection process. During many of these lectures I was more interested in complaining about professors than in listening to them. However, this walk down memory lane has given me cause to question my assertion that research is necessary for good instruction.

A common thread of the memorable lectures and the instructors is the ability to relate information to the student. Faculty that just took their research and dumped it on their students frequently ended up confusing them and ultimately alienating them, often from a subject area that once interested them. I especially remember one course in which a senior faculty member entered class on the first day, accompanied by three graduate assistants, each holding half a dozen boxes full of computer cards. Each student in the class was given a box and the instructor then, over the next twelve weeks, proceeded to lecture from several published articles based on the data in the boxes. I was one of six students, from an initial class size of twenty that stuck it out. The only thing that I can recall from this class was developing a dislike for computer cards.

I believe my colleagues share many of the problems that I face: limited resources and never enough time to do what needs to be done. There is also the nagging question, is research worth the effort? Would the time and resources expended to conduct research be better allocated to teaching? Undoubtedly, there are other pursuits that we can engage in that will provide greater monetary rewards than either teaching or research (unless our research discovers the fountain of youth and we get a patent on it). However, if we are in this profession for the money, we probably selected the wrong career. Even the most limited research would have demonstrated that!

Doing research keeps us active in our own fields and expands the boundaries of our knowledge. It also provides us with new ways to share the information with our students. Having this knowledge, however, does not insure that we will be better teachers. Research provides us with tools, but how we use these tools is up to us.

To answer Ron's question: research can support classroom instruction if properly done or it can distract from teaching effectiveness if improperly done.

Is research worth the effort? I don't know. Maybe I am devoting too much effort to doing research. Maybe I am devoting too little effort! Twenty or thirty years from now, if I am still around, I may have a better answer.