JCE Software, 3D2: Editorial

Research, Teaching, and Learning

John W. Moore
University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706-1396

Note:
This issue is out of print.

There is seemingly endless debate about the relative importance of research and teaching in the work of academic scientists. State legislators and members of university boards of governors castigate faculties for their flight from teaching in favor of research. Tenure review committees seemingly value research over everything and are sometimes accused of attributing a negative importance to teaching. But those who do teaching and research best often find the two so intertwined as to be inseparable.
A case in point is Roald Hoffmann, Nobel Laureate and this year's winner of the ACS George C. Pimentel Award in Chemical Education Sponsored by the Union Carbide Corporation. In his award address, titled "Teach to Search", at the ACS Spring National Meeting Hoffmann stated, "Whatever success I have I owe to teaching. The logic or rhetoric of teaching underlies my research within chemistry, and my writing outside of chemistry." Hoffmann argues that research involves teaching, teaching involves research, and that each permeates the other. He goes on to say that teaching undergraduates at Cornell has made him a better theoretical chemist, and that the discipline of explaining to students with little or no mathematical background subjects usually cloaked in mathematical sophistication can result in new, better understanding on the part of the teacher as well as the students.
The content of this issue exemplifies the creative tension between teaching and research. WinDNMR, by Hans Reich, can be used to interpret research data from NMR spectrometry, and it can also be used very effectively in courses on NMR. By simulating the effect on a spectrum of changes in chemical shifts and coupling constants, WinDNMR provides a quick and effective way for students to become familiar with the kind of knowledge they will need to interpret spectra of compounds synthesized in research projects. The program can also simulate the effects on spectra of dynamic processes, and students can use it to obtain kinetic parameters by comparing simulated with real spectra.
HPLC for Windows, by Robert C. Rittenhouse, also has a firm foundation in research -- in this case on liquid chromatography and the factors that affect retention times of different substances on different types of columns. HPLC provides an interesting and effective means for students to explore actively the effects of different columns, solvents, and other parameters on chromatograms. Because the computer quickly calculates and plots chromatograms, students can explore a great many parameters in a short time, discovering things that will help them deal appropriately with a real HPLC instrument when it becomes available to them.
Perhaps the dichotomy between teaching and research could be eliminated if we concentrated more on learning than on teaching. The software in this issue has been designed to enhance student learning. And what is learning if not the result of research? Much of the recent interest in cooperative learning, active learning, and other techniques dear to the hearts of educational reformers is based on the principle that students must be actively involved in the learning process if they are going to assimilate and retain the knowledge and understanding we hope they will. In other words, we would like students to behave in much the same way as scientists involved in a research project would behave -- to learn by doing research, not by passively listening to or watching what a professor says or does.
If learning involves research and active exploration of a subject, and if the aim of teaching is to induce and help students to learn, then the distance between teaching and research becomes minuscule. Rather than waste time on unproductive discussions of the relative merits of teaching and research, we ought to be considering how we can intermingle them to create systems within which students can learn most efficiently and effectively. This too can be accomplished by a scientific, research-oriented approach: try different ways to achieve an educational goal, test and evaluate each approach, and select for further development those that fare the best. Through such a process of research on learning we are most likely to arrive at a really successful educational system -- one in which both teachers and students are active researchers.

First Published: March 1996
Citation: Moore, J. W. Research, Teaching, and Learning J. Chem. Educ. Software 3D2
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Last Updated: April 26, 2001
Created: December 3, 1996 Created by: J. L. Holmes
Comments to: jceonline@chem.wisc.edu

© 1997 Division of Chemical Education, Inc., American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.



Research, Teaching, and Learning
John W. Moore University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706-1396

Note:	This issue is out of print.

There is seemingly endless debate about the relative importance of research and teaching in the work of academic scientists. State legislators and members of university boards of governors castigate faculties for their flight from teaching in favor of research. Tenure review committees seemingly value research over everything and are sometimes accused of attributing a negative importance to teaching. But those who do teaching and research best often find the two so intertwined as to be inseparable. A case in point is Roald Hoffmann, Nobel Laureate and this year's winner of the ACS George C. Pimentel Award in Chemical Education Sponsored by the Union Carbide Corporation. In his award address, titled "Teach to Search", at the ACS Spring National Meeting Hoffmann stated, "Whatever success I have I owe to teaching. The logic or rhetoric of teaching underlies my research within chemistry, and my writing outside of chemistry." Hoffmann argues that research involves teaching, teaching involves research, and that each permeates the other. He goes on to say that teaching undergraduates at Cornell has made him a better theoretical chemist, and that the discipline of explaining to students with little or no mathematical background subjects usually cloaked in mathematical sophistication can result in new, better understanding on the part of the teacher as well as the students. The content of this issue exemplifies the creative tension between teaching and research. WinDNMR, by Hans Reich, can be used to interpret research data from NMR spectrometry, and it can also be used very effectively in courses on NMR. By simulating the effect on a spectrum of changes in chemical shifts and coupling constants, WinDNMR provides a quick and effective way for students to become familiar with the kind of knowledge they will need to interpret spectra of compounds synthesized in research projects. The program can also simulate the effects on spectra of dynamic processes, and students can use it to obtain kinetic parameters by comparing simulated with real spectra. HPLC for Windows, by Robert C. Rittenhouse, also has a firm foundation in research -- in this case on liquid chromatography and the factors that affect retention times of different substances on different types of columns. HPLC provides an interesting and effective means for students to explore actively the effects of different columns, solvents, and other parameters on chromatograms. Because the computer quickly calculates and plots chromatograms, students can explore a great many parameters in a short time, discovering things that will help them deal appropriately with a real HPLC instrument when it becomes available to them. Perhaps the dichotomy between teaching and research could be eliminated if we concentrated more on learning than on teaching. The software in this issue has been designed to enhance student learning. And what is learning if not the result of research? Much of the recent interest in cooperative learning, active learning, and other techniques dear to the hearts of educational reformers is based on the principle that students must be actively involved in the learning process if they are going to assimilate and retain the knowledge and understanding we hope they will. In other words, we would like students to behave in much the same way as scientists involved in a research project would behave -- to learn by doing research, not by passively listening to or watching what a professor says or does. If learning involves research and active exploration of a subject, and if the aim of teaching is to induce and help students to learn, then the distance between teaching and research becomes minuscule. Rather than waste time on unproductive discussions of the relative merits of teaching and research, we ought to be considering how we can intermingle them to create systems within which students can learn most efficiently and effectively. This too can be accomplished by a scientific, research-oriented approach: try different ways to achieve an educational goal, test and evaluate each approach, and select for further development those that fare the best. Through such a process of research on learning we are most likely to arrive at a really successful educational system -- one in which both teachers and students are active researchers.


News \| Issues \| CD-ROM / Video \| Find It! \| Technical Support \| For Authors
JCE Online \| Journal \| Software \| Internet \| Happenings \| About JCE \| Contact JCE

Last Updated: April 26, 2001 Created: December 3, 1996	Created by: J. L. Holmes Comments to: jceonline@chem.wisc.edu

© 1997 Division of Chemical Education, Inc., American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.