Facets of Northumbria’s Strategy to enhance Research-Teaching Links

1. Facets of Northumbria’s Strategy to enhance Research-Teaching Links An Overview of the Northumbria Initiative Changing Practice and Changing Thinking

2. Aims • Bringing research and teaching communities together • Encouraging shifts in departmental culture and teaching styles • Motivating staff to adopt new practice and new way of thinking • Influencing positive changes in student behaviour and their perceptions of research

3. Strategies – Resources and Information Support • Research and Teaching Steering Group • Project Officer • Central resources – e.g. CPD module, Red Guide, annotated bibliography • Dedicated web pages • Baseline student survey

4. Strategies – RIT project awards • Bidding process • School-based projects • Approaches to linking research and teaching • Tangible outputs

5. Strategies - Dissemination • Information sessions for bidders • RIT staff development events – like this one! • Cross-School project meetings • University/external conference events • Northumbria RIT publication

6. Is it making a difference? • Captured staff imagination and curiosity • Research and teaching worlds coming together • Positive reaction from staff involved in projects • Optimism that students are enjoying new styles of learning promoted by the projects

7. Facets of Northumbria’s Strategy to enhance Research-Teaching Links The Baseline Study

8. Baseline study Research question “What do students currently understand and experience in terms of research at Northumbria University?” Methodology Mick Healey’s work Mixed methodology - questionnaire - interviews

9. Student awareness 22% were aware of research/consultancy reputation of staff in their subject areas when they applied to Northumbria “Research is not as highly valued as far as I know, the University is more focused on teaching allegedly.” “I knew that the Psychology Department had a good reputation for research …they are quite high up in the league tables. I had looked on the website” “I looked on the Internet…If they are doing research in the Uni it gives the Uni a better name. I would not have wanted to go somewhere where they did not do research. “

10. Finding out about staff research Notice boards and posters “On the board you can look at their results of their experiments” Do they notice the notice? “Unless it is relevant …I probably don’t pay attention. If a poster was more specific to what I was doing, I would be more curious” Reading lists and journal articles “I love finding books and articles by lecturers!” Emails, handouts, leaflets, newsletters, VLE & website “They have their own websites and have referred us to them in class so we can see the stuff they are doing outside. It is fantastic” In seminars – scant!

11. Positive impact (1) 63.3% of students agreed ‘research staff are more enthusiastic about their subject’  Increasing student understanding: “Awareness of what is happening outside of academia within industry helps make learning relevant to practice and up to date”  “Gave me insight into industry and what they would be looking for in me and my work in terms of the understanding between client and designer.”

12. Positive impact (2) Stimulated student interest and enthusiasm: “Because of my lecturer's knowledge and her research the module is easy to understand and more interesting. I can't wait to read her work and learn from it a bit more”  “In the delivery of the module the staff don't come across as reeling off the facts and figures. They share true life experiences, drawn from vivid memory, which adds an exciting and vibrant dimension to the class sessions”

13. Facets of Northumbria’s Strategy to enhance Research-Teaching Links The CPD RIT Module

14. CPD RIT Module Intentions Support RIT initiative Improve quality of work on RIT projects Promote shared learning Increase engagement with existing CPD Academic Practice programme

15. Northumbria CPD Framework Free-standing 20-credit modules PG awards For staff who teach and support learning Funded by HR Close link to own practice Flexibility Underpinned by Scholarship of T&L

16. CPD Module on T-R Link Open 1st session Session themes: Conceptualising the link between T and R What is research? The student experience of research Evaluating your initiatives The potential of an enquiry-based approach to link T and R Participants’ own projects Evidence: reviews, meta-analyses Brew: communities of enquiry Summative assessment: Negotiable format Report on strengthening T-R link in own work context Can include bids for funding, project reports etc.

17. Participation in module

18. Evaluation of module Feedback from participants Sparked off new ideas and activities Provided conceptual underpinning for developments Enjoyed working with colleagues from different Schools Bonus to get credits Own reflections Contentious area – important to examine views Underpinning for good practice and projects Space for dialogue Modest contribution to culture change

19. Facets of Northumbria’s Strategy to enhance Research-Teaching Links School Based Projects

20. Developing Staff and Student Engagement with up to date Evaluation Research in Sports Development Linda Allin Division of Sport Sciences School of Psychology and Sport Sciences

21. Background to the Project • Research methods module does not specifically cover evaluation research, yet this was thought by staff to be a key form of research utilised within the sports development field. • Community Sports Development module had potential for engaging students with ‘real life’ evaluation research and enhancing learning, but links not established. • Staff in sports development are researchers, but insufficiently engaged with applied sports development research

22. Project Objectives • Through contact with key employers in the region, to identify specific evaluation research projects that could be undertaken by sports development undergraduates in conjunction with the organisation each year • To research employer views on research, the value of research to their field and the research skills needed by graduates (and feed back to students) • To develop guidelines for students in relation to working with organisations and build a database of case studies that can be used to inform subsequent modules • To develop potential research opportunities for sports development staff

23. Project Evaluation • Survey of reviews from students in relation to the benefits of their involvement in ‘real life’ evaluation research • Focus group with students to gain deeper understanding of their learning • Employer feedback • Longer term impact may be judged in relation to the quality of work and understanding across level 5 and 6, as well as student/staff engagement with employers and sports development applied research

24. Student Views • ‘When you’ve actually got to go out and do it, it gives you a better understanding of what you’re doing because you know the ins and outs of it. And you know exactly what you’ve asked, the process that has been there to answer it and the results that you’ve got from it, instead of just being given a piece of paper in black and white saying ‘We did this, this and this and this is what happened’ • ‘We’re going out and doing this and we might be going out looking for one result and there might be something completely different happen and we’ve got to change our whole focus, because it is real and you can’t predict what’s going to happen. You’ve got to change everything to go with what you’re given or what you get from your interviews’. • ‘Just how important the issues are relating to research and CSD. Not everything that is said actually gets done and there are a lot of tensions and contradictions that arise’

25. Benefits to learning • Students engagement in learning through first hand experience of ‘real life’ evaluation research in the discipline • Students developing research skills, and potentially contacts, relevant for employability • Staff research providing increased understanding of the place of research in sports development industry • Increased staff understanding of student learning through inquiry based approach

26. School of the Built Environment Enhancing Teaching through Research as Professional Practice: Developing Construction Site Safety Multimedia through Interdisciplinary Collaboration and Student Research Activities Tim Howarth School of the Built Environment Northumbria University tim.howarth@unn.ac.uk

27. Background to the Project’s Inception • Construction sites can be hazardous places – with around 80 fatalities per annum in UK. • There is an ongoing need to enhance construction site hazard awareness and safety management education and practice. • The project is interdisciplinary, links research and teaching within the curriculum, serves to facilitate research into practice, and provides for the development of a construction site safety awareness learning resource

28. The R-T Link Project Explained • An innovative, student developed, learner-centred multimedia tool will result from the project – this documents a journey around a large construction site (the RVI Hospital in Newcastle) and contains ‘hazard hotspots’ and embedded safety-related presentations’. • A community of collaborators been engaged with the project - including students and staff of the School of the Built Environment, students and staff of Northumbria University’s media production course and a very supportive construction industry contractor.

29. So …. • Media Production students undertake research into practice as they produce a film, 360o photography and the develop the multimedia learning resource for a real client – the School of the Built Environment. • Built Environment students research safety hazards and incidents occurring on construction sites – this involves desk top studies, visits to sites and interviews with construction personnel. Informative ‘hazard’ presentations are produced. These are embedded within the site film by media production students.

30. Key Features of this Interdisciplinary R-T Link Project • Serves to develops better understanding of professional practice (both construction safety management and media production) subject knowledge, research skills (in a professional context) and appreciation of research in the discipline are all developed • The project directs students to carry out their own research – H&S practice in the context of built environment students and aspects of commercial media production for media production students • Students learn about research within a professional context – not only do they engage as ‘consumers’ of research, they are also ‘producers’ – having undertaken research within an applied professional context and delivered a research-informed output

31. Key Project Features • We consider that the project presents significant benefits: • for student participants - enhanced knowledge and practice within a professional context • an innovative and interactive learning tool - a research output for future use within the curriculum • the opportunity to work collaboratively across traditional university discipline ‘boundaries’ • potential use by Universities and other agencies across the UK construction industry – as a learning tool to enhance awareness, knowledge and management practice regarding common construction sites hazards. (H&S competence and training is a legal requirement)