Optimizing Teaching and Learning
Practicing Pedagogical Research
Chapter One
What Is Pedagogical Research?
How do we know if our students are learning? How do we know if we are
teaching well? Do research methods really exist that allow us to answer
these questions? We all realize the importance of understanding if our
students are learning and whether we are teaching well. However, the
process by which to answer these important questions is often outside the
area of expertise of many academics, though if given the tools we could all
head into the classroom with a greater understanding of how our methods
of teaching influence students' learning.
In addition to learning the tools and methods available to conduct
pedagogical research, we also need to gain an understanding of the existing
literature in which many scholars have emerged as pioneers in the field
of scholarship of teaching and learning. We must identify those pioneers
and use the knowledge gained from their research and use that to develop
our own pedagogical investigations. ... read full excerpt from Optimizing Teaching and Learning: Practicing Pedagogical Research ebook
