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Research Informed Teaching

Research Informed Teaching (RIT) is recognition of a paradigm shift in teaching at university level, where the emphasis has moved to how students actively make sense of what they are taught rather than passively accruing knowledge. Part of this process involves progressively encouraging students themselves to become active enquirers, which is why research informed teaching is of such importance.

At Hope, students are taught by scholars who are active researchers and who not only inspire and enthuse them about the subject but who also model what it means to challenge and push forward the boundaries of new knowledge.

Different disciplines have slightly different interpretations of research informed teaching, but broadly the principle is the same: that the curriculum and the assessment allow students to produce work that is close to the research processes within that discipline. This means that students begin to think like a ‘geographer’ or a ‘scientist’ and understand how knowledge is constructed and disseminated in that discipline. This may involve going on a field trip to study the local sand dunes or developing laboratory skills in measuring levels of physical fitness, for example.

How does Hope practise RIT?

The aim of research informed teaching is to encourage our students to develop into rounded and employable graduates who can take their place confidently as global citizens in the 21st century with an appropriate knowledge base, a deep understanding of its limitations as well as its potential, and a desire to apply and add to new knowledge.

Research informed teaching is fundamental to the student learning experience at Liverpool Hope University. It is a central plank in the University’s Learning, Teaching and Assessment Strategy?.

The process will vary according to the discipline taught, but will include students learning:

  • about their lecturers’ own research
  • how to carry out research themselves (often in research methods courses)
  • how to work in a research ‘mode’, which builds on powerful pedagogical principles of enquiry-based , active, collaborative and experiential learning (sometimes this involves problem-based or enquiry-based learning)