Integrating Teaching and Research Through Writing Development for Students and Staff

Abstract

Written output is a key topic in higher education for individuals and institutions. The importance of writing development for academics is established in the literature. What has not been examined is the effect of this development on participants’ teaching. While writing development delivers in terms of professional skills and the research assessment exercise, lecturers reveal that this form of effective staff development often has a knock-on effect, leading to effective educational development. One innovative approach to writing development for academics is a credit-bearing module on academic writing. During and after this module self-reporting and tracking were recorded. Analysis of writings, discussions and emails over the course of a year shows that participants took good practice learned about writing for publication into their teaching. These lecturers made genuine connections between research and teaching roles, integrating their work for the research assessment exercise with the aims of the Institute for Learning and Teaching.