Research-Informed Teaching Toolkit

Research-informed teaching is a term used to describe the different ways in which students are exposed to research content and activities during their time at university. Depending on your discipline this could also be called practice-informed teaching. A four-year body of research involving over 600 students from across Sheffield Hallam University has been used to draw together the following five key Curriculum Design Principles to embed research and practice into teaching:1) Embed research and practice skills at the course level and develop them through the course. Moving students from consumers of research and best practice to creators of research and best practice. 2) Academic research and practice can form the basis of taught content and be used as direct examples of applied knowledge. 3) Accessing research literature is a high-level skill and requires scaffolding. 4) Research and practice skills should be taught in context and task linked. 5) Research undertaken by the students should be co-created, with students involved in the design process. Students and University staff from Sport, Nursing, Midwifery, Biosciences and Chemistry were involved in the creation of this toolkit. This toolkit is most relevant for those looking to embed research-informed teaching in their practice. The toolkit includes an introduction to research-informed teaching, how students perceive research, the barriers and enablers for staff and students to engage with research-informed teaching, skills students develop and ideas for the integration of research-informed teaching.