The relationship between academics' conceptions of knowledge, research and teaching – a metaphor study

Universities are supposed to be institutes where research and teaching are closely related. To understand this relationship fully, it is necessary to learn how academics perceive these key components. Different conceptions among academics may stem from varying conceptions of knowledge. Thirty academics were interviewed by means of metaphors about their conceptions of research, teaching and knowledge. academics' conceptions of knowledge ranged from knowledge as facts in an external world to knowledge as a personal construction. Their conceptions of research ranged from research as disclosing patterns to research as creating patterns. Their conceptions of teaching ranged from teaching as knowledge transmission to teaching as encouraging critical thinking. Regarding the relationships between these conceptions, academics' conceptions of knowledge and research were shown to be closely linked, while their conceptions of teaching had a weaker association with their conceptions of knowledge and research.

[1]  D. Kagan.  Ways of Evaluating Teacher Cognition: Inferences Concerning the Goldilocks Principle , 1990 .

[2]  Roger Lindsay,et al.  Reshaping Teaching in Higher Education: Linking Teaching with Research. Staff and Education and Development Series. , 2003 .

[3]  Nico Verloop,et al.  A breed apart? A comparison of secondary and university teachers' perspectives on self‐regulated learning , 2006 .

[4]  Ruth Neumann,et al.  Perceptions of the teaching-research nexus: a framework for analysis , 1992 .

[5]  Bruce F. Gurney.  Tugboats and tennis games: Preservice conceptions of teaching and learning revealed through metaphors , 1995 .

[6]  ıs Sauledaa,et al.  Metaphors as blueprints of thinking about teaching and learning , 2001 .

[7]  A. Ortony.  Why Metaphors Are Necessary and Not Just Nice , 1975 .

[8]  Stephen E. Newstead,et al.  Teachers’ beliefs and intentions concerning teaching in higher education , 2005 .

[9]  Ronald Barnett,et al.  Relationships Between Teaching and Research in Higher Education in England , 2001 .

[10]  Gerlese S. Åkerlind.  An academic perspective on research and being a researcher: an integration of the literature , 2008 .

[11]  P. Pintrich,et al.  The Development of Epistemological Theories: Beliefs About Knowledge and Knowing and Their Relation to Learning , 1997 .

[12]  R. Linn,et al.  Qualitative methods in research on teaching , 1985 .

[13]  G. Lakoff,et al.  Metaphors We Live by , 1982 .

[14]  Dennis Fox,et al.  Personal theories of teaching , 1983 .

[15]  Angela Brew,et al.  Teaching and research: new relationships and their implications for inquiry-based teaching and learning in higher education , 2003 .

[16]  Michael Batty,et al.  RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN TEACHING AND RESEARCH , 1988 .

[17]  J. Calderhead.  Teachers’ beliefs and knowledge , 2019, Problem Solving for Teaching and Learning.

[18]  A. Brew.  Conceptions of Research: A phenomenographic study , 2001 .

[19]  Alan Jenkins,et al.  Reshaping Teaching in Higher Education : A Guide to Linking Teaching with Research , 2002 .

[20]  John Hattie,et al.  The Relationship Between Research and Teaching: A Meta-Analysis , 1996 .

[21]  Elaine Martin,et al.  University academics’ experience of research and its relationship to their experience of teaching , 2008 .

[22]  María A. Martínez,et al.  Metaphors as Blueprints of Thinking about Teaching and Learning. , 2001 .

[23]  D. Kember.  A reconceptualisation of the research into university academics' conceptions of teaching , 1997 .

[24]  M. Pajares,et al.  Teachers’ Beliefs and Educational Research: Cleaning Up a Messy Construct , 1992 .

[25]  Gerlese L Akerlind.  Phenomenographic methods: A case illustration , 2005 .

[26]  David Boud,et al.  Teaching and research: Establishing the vital link with learning , 1995 .

[27]  Paul Gibbs,et al.  Being a University , 2011 .

[28]  Ronald Barnett,et al.  Reshaping the University: New Relationships between Research, Scholarship and Teaching , 2005 .

[29]  R. Stofflett.  Metaphor development by secondary teachers enrolled in graduate teacher education , 1996 .