To teach or not to teach?
Autor: Roberto | Publicado: 2017-06-10T06:53:00-03:00





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To teach or not to teach? Tips and insights on how to combine lecturing and research well



Seema Sharma

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As an academic, the joint commitments of teaching and research can 
often feel at odds with one another. Applying for grants, undertaking 
research, writing publications and presenting your work to peers, 
require a significant commitment of time. Whilst these tasks underpin 
your success as a researcher, you may also have lecturing duties, as 
part of your role. So how do you balance the two? What are the pros and 
cons of a role with little or no teaching responsibility? Can teaching 
enhance your career and also, serve to benefit your research?





We’ll be exploring the answers to these questions, with input and 
opinions from Dr Hannah Batchelor, a Senior Lecturer in Pharmaceutics, 
Formulation and Drug Delivery at the University of Birmingham, UK, who 
has experience in making it work.







Most available academic research posts involve an element of teaching
 students. In turn, this part of the role requires significant time away
 from research activities, when you consider preparation time and the 
lectures themselves. Since institutional promotion opportunities and 
acknowledgement in your research field rely on your ability to research,
 publish and present your work — you’d be forgiven for wanting to 
minimise or exclude teaching.







The vast majority of posts on the market, however, do require 
teaching as part of the job. In many cases, the available positions 
where lecturing responsibilities are absent or limited tend to fall into
 the category of short-term postdoctoral posts. These may appeal to you,
 depending on your career stage and personal circumstances.







However, contract positions are not suited to everyone’s needs. They 
often come with the frequent necessity to move city or country, and the 
potential for financial instability.







One useful approach, before you conclude that lecturing and research 
are conflicting or indeed, dismiss any roles involving lecturing, is to 
look at the synergies between the two activities:








“If you do a direct comparison between how much funding is generated
 by research grants versus educating a large number of students, the 
latter pays a lot of the bills..”






Teaching: Synergies and advantages for your research





Presenting: Teaching students and communicating your research at conferences both improve your presentation skills.







Discussion and engagement with your research: 
Lecturing is an additional forum for the discussion of your research 
activities. A student’s question or research project input, may provide 
you with a new research direction.







Institutions are beginning to acknowledge teaching quality:
 Whilst it may not form a formal part of assessment, there is a growing 
emphasis on the contribution of teaching to career promotion. In the UK 
this will be formalised with the introduction of the Teaching Excellence
 Framework, (TEF), in the coming year.







Organisation: Preparing lectures involves a good level of organisation and time management, both of which could benefit your research.





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Case Study: Dr Hannah K Batchelor - Senior Lecturer, University of Birmingham, UK





Dr Hannah Batchelor has over 16 years research experience and has 
published over 40 peer-reviewed papers. She has an active interest in 
formulating medicines for children and has presented a TEDx talk and 
curates a blog: ‘Making medicines child-sized,’ on the topic.







Dr Batchelor’s successive academic positions as Lecturer, Research 
Fellow and Senior Lecturer, have all involved teaching. Here, she 
provides her honest insights and experience of striking a balance 
between her research and lecturing responsibility.







What has been your experience of teaching and lecturing to date?





Dr. Batchelor: “Generally, I enjoy teaching, but I admit 
that the lectures I find pleasure in the most, are those most closely 
linked to my research. For example in my current role, I find teaching 
Pharmacokinetics really interesting, but Pharmaceutical Packaging 
positively dull. One thing that we shouldn’t lose sight of is — the 
importance of teaching for institutional funding. If you do a direct 
comparison between how much funding is generated by research grants 
versus educating a large number of students, the latter pays a lot of 
the bills. In my experience, whilst there are some academic posts 
available that are research only, they tend to be on short fixed-term 
contracts like post-doctoral positions. These can present a challenge if
 you want a mortgage, have to balance your work life with a family, or 
if you take maternity or paternity leave. Most permanent academic 
positions in the UK involve teaching commitments.”







Did you ever feel like there was a conflict between teaching responsibilities with your research?





Dr. Batchelor: “Yes - all the time! I guess as stated 
before, teaching accounts for a lot of university funding but you get 
promoted based on your research. However, I think this might change in 
the future with the introduction of the Teaching Excellence Framework in
 the UK. It will help considerably, as Universities will be rated on the
 standard of their teaching, as well as their research. Previously, the 
criteria were unclear and often it was the hours taught that were 
considered most important, rather than the quality.”








“Talking about current issues in medication to students, can often result in interesting questions that merit further research.”






How do you balance your teaching and research role?





Dr. Batchelor: “It took 5 years of hands-on experience to 
get the balance right. In this time, I learnt it’s important to allocate
 a set amount of time to prepare your lectures and not go over that 
limit. Time-management is a key part of it. It’s so tempting when you 
start out to keep tinkering with your teaching material. You have to 
draw a line and say it’s good enough. One thing that I found really 
helped was when I completed most of my teaching in one block — in just 
one term rather than spread throughout the academic year. One year, a 
colleague asked if she could switch her teaching commitments with me, as
 she was going on maternity leave. As a result, all of my lectures were 
completed in the first term leaving me to focus on my research for the 
rest of the year. I realised then, that although not always possible, 
teaching in one block really helped balance my responsibilities.”







“One thing that I found really helped was when I completed most of my teaching in one block — in just one term”









What do you think are the advantages of teaching responsibilities? Can they serve to benefit you in your research in anyway?





Dr. Batchelor: “I think there are several benefits. You are 
often bringing your research into your teaching. In fact, I can think of
 several times I have used my teaching for research and vice versa. For 
example, when I undertook my certificate in teaching for higher 
education, I carried out a research project to better understand how to 
teach mathematics to pharmacy students, and managed to publish this 
study. Talking about current issues in medication to students, can often
 result in interesting questions that merit further research. Sometimes,
 an outside view can really clarify the research question or even take 
research in a completely new direction. I find that the opportunity to 
discuss your research with students is an important conduit for public 
engagement activities. In addition, undergraduate students conduct final
 year research projects, where they are actively engaged in conducting 
research in your group.”“I find that the opportunity to discuss your 
research with students is an important conduit for public engagement 
activities.”







What are the disadvantages to teaching?





Dr. Batchelor: “Aside from time pressures, the way things 
are set up in academia means that you are promoted on your research 
output, not your teaching excellence. Whilst some institutions maintain 
they do take teaching into account, I feel there is a lack of evidence 
to support this. Certainly in my experience, the criteria for being 
promoted for your research are a lot more transparent and therefore, 
easier to follow.”







There are some roles available that are research only posts 
with minimal teaching, do you think they offer advantages for your 
research?





Dr. Batchelor: “Definitely, but it depends where you want to
 go in your career. I feel if you want to be a good academic you need to
 be a good lecturer. Teaching provides a prime opportunity to educate 
the next generation and we have an obligation to fulfil that as 
dedicated academics. Research is only useful when it is shared, teaching
 provides the best opportunity to share your research with the next 
generation of scientists.”




&nbsp;“Research is only useful when it is shared, teaching provides the 
best opportunity to share your research with the next generation of 
scientists.”








Finally, in conclusion, what would your top 3 tips be for those finding it difficult to balance the two?





Dr. Batchelor:





Be strict about preparation times for teaching material. Set a time allocation, (e.g. 3 hrs), and stick to it!
Keep the learning objectives in mind, when writing lecture material. It will help you focus and cover the essentials.
Remember you don’t have to talk for the full time.
 Allow time in your lectures for discussions with students and 
Q&amp;A’s. This should help you cut down on preparation time and is also
 beneficial for student understanding.










Links:





Dr Hannah K Batchelor - University profile: http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/staff/profiles/clinical-sciences/batchelor-hannah.aspx





TedX Talk ‘Involving children in research’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGbqLsY5J4c





Teaching excellence framework: www.hefce.ac.uk/lt/tef/