Research Informed Teaching and Enquiry Based Learning: From Theory into Practice

The main focus of the paper was on Research Informed Teaching (RiT) and Enquiry Based Learning (EBL) theory and practice, and the work the presenters and others are doing to incorporate RiT and EBL approaches into the UG and PG programmes at Staffordshire University Law School. The initiative helps to promote the research-teaching nexus having regard to the Staffordshire University Plan 2012-17 and the university's Academic Strategy (2012).

The four main types of project identified by Griffiths (2004) were considered: research-led work informed and led by the specialist research interests of teaching staff, and utilising their published work; research-oriented work, (similar to 'type 1' but putting increasing emphasis on the understanding of the processes by which knowledge is produced); research-based work; and last but not least research-informed work and outputs - the main focus of the paper. The presenters went on to discuss the work being undertaken by the Enquiring Minds project - part of the Faculty's Institute of Industrial Law - and some of the earlier projects aimed at bringing students into the academic community, promoting more information literate student researchers, and aimed at other ways of promoting the rese3arch-teaching nexus.
The presenters also discussed current work that is being undertaken by three of the EMs team as part of a proposed three-year project entitled 'Research Informed Teaching: An Evaluation of the Use of Author-Lecturers’ Publications and their Publishers’ Web-Based Materials as a Teaching and Learning Resource' (Keith Puttick, Judith Tillson, Christine Harrison). Project aims and objectives are to assess the value of author lecturers’ publications as a teaching and learning resource(traditionally a cornerstone of the 'nexus', but which merits enquiry in an era when on-line and web-based resources have come to the fore. Among other things the project is investigating the use and applications of publications and web-based resources based on such publications, and their use in the Law lecturing context. A key part of this is concerned with examining such resources' use and applications when supported by tools like PebblePad3 and other on-line systems like Blackboard 9 (used for, among other things, formative and formal assessment).