Many decision-makers in graduate programs ascribe to the belief that, for graduate students, any time they spend teaching or learning to teach impedes their current or future research ability. To elucidate this relationship, one study investigated the potential trade-off (if any) between teaching and research among graduate students (Shortlidge & Eddy, 2018). The study specifically examined the effect of evidence-based teaching (EBT) on the research ability of PhD students in life sciences.
Methods
This study collected data through the Life Sciences Graduate Student Survey (LSGSS), which “was designed to gauge graduate students’ self-reported awareness of, training in, and use of evidence-based teaching methods, as well as report their confidence and training in a variety of tasks and experiences one might have as a graduate student in the life science related to research, teaching, and communication”. It was vetted for validity by “two education research groups as well as multiple STEM graduate students”. The survey was completed online.
Participants were asked about the following topics:
- Their confidence in:
- conducting their research
- explaining their research to scientists in formal and non-formal settings and to non-scientists in informal settings
- teaching laboratory science and non-laboratory science courses as TAs
- mentoring undergraduate and graduate students in research
- designing curricula
- Whether they feel their program will adequately train them for:
- writing grant proposals and peer-reviewed articles
- orally communicating about science
- getting a job in industry or academia
- teaching undergraduate courses in their discipline or outside of their discipline as well as teaching K-12 courses in their discipline
- leading their own laboratory
- collaborating with people outside of their discipline
- applying their research skills outside of their discipline
- analyzing large data sets
- using a variety of software programs
- Their awareness of, level of training in, and personal experience integrating the following teaching concepts:
- traditional lecture/didactic teaching
- clickers
- concept maps
- course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs)
- discussion-based instruction/Socratic method
- flipped classrooms
- learning assistants
- problem-based learning/inquiry-based learning
- process oriented guided inquiry
- teaching with case studies
- think-pair-share
- any additional teaching strategies not mentioned
- Level of interest in the following careers:
- teaching at a research-intensive or teaching-intensive institution or a community college
- non-academic research (such as industry or government research)
- non-research
- medical/health
- Current level of teaching experience
- Number of peer-reviewed publications from that graduate program, as well as papers in review or in preparation
- Highest degree earned to date
- Type of institution from which their undergraduate degree was received
- Current graduate institution
- Degree currently being pursued
- Current discipline
- Years in program
- Expected total number of years needed to graduate
- Percentage of financial support from:
- teaching assistantship
- research assistantship
- fellowship
- personal/family earnings, savings, or loans
- military or veteran support
- employer reimbursement
- foreign support
- other
- Gender
- Race/ethnicity
- Primary language spoken at home
- Time living in the United States
- Age
Ultimately, data from 338 PhD students in life science research programs were analyzed.
Results
Regarding EBT training, the results showed that:
- increased EBT training did not have any negative effects on:
- student confidence in their research preparedness
- student confidence in their ability to communicate about research
- number of publications
In other words, students who had spent more time in their graduate programs learning about and practicing EBT did not report experiencing any negative effects in terms of their ability to conduct, publish, and discuss research. In addition, the authors cited other studies suggesting that graduate students desire to learn about and use EBT. The authors concluded by suggesting that, since EBT training does not harm research output, graduate students should receive EBT training to diversify their portfolio.
Wrapping up
The results of this study suggest that it is incorrect to assume that incorporating teaching (specifically EBT) training into graduate programs will negatively impact research efforts. While there is no negative effect of such training, there are potential positive effects, specifically in terms of increasing the range of careers for which a graduate student is qualified. Therefore, more graduate programs should include teaching training alongside their focus on research.
References
Shortlidge, E.E., Eddy, S.L. (2018). The trade-off between graduate student research and teaching: A myth? PLoS One, 13(6), e0199576. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0199576.
