Award Winning University Teachers' Beliefs About Teaching Versus Research

Abstract

ABSTRACT The restructuring of higher education in Australia has meant the redefinition of the roles of former Colleges of Advanced Education staff regarding research, thus re‐opening for debate the question of the relative importance of teaching and research in universities and the relationship between the two. This article explores these issues through the perceptions of the first 12 winners of awards for excellence in teaching at the University of Sydney. As might be expected, the award winners tended to give higher priority to teaching than to research but in doing so made many significant comments about the two. Comments about the relationship between teaching and research ranged from supporting the idea that the two are independent to the belief that they were interdependent. More complex views were taken by those who saw teaching and research in constant interaction. The article concludes with questions as to the likely beliefs of those whose eminence is as researchers rather than as teachers.