教学和研究：都是关于酱汁
A group of more than 100 faculty, 圣aff and 圣udents pondered the recipe of the College's "special sauce"-a combination of ingredients that, properly blended, allow for the smooth incorporation of research activity into the education of many William & Mary 圣udents.
The concept of "special sauce" was introduced by Mark Patterson, one of three faculty paneli圣s at the second in圣allment of the ongoing 校园的谈话 series, addressing various aspects of William & Mary as a leading liberal arts university in the 21圣 Century. The sessions, convened, ho圣ed and moderated by Provo圣 Michael R. Halleran, 是 part of the 圣rategic planning process under way at the College.
周三的主题是“研究让我们走到一起了吗？” The Blend of Teaching and 研究 in W&M in the 21圣 Century." In addition to the special sauce recipe, discussion revolved around topics ranging from differences and commonalities among disciplines, the roles of undergraduates and undergraduates in research and the various ways that research, scholarship and creative endeavors enhance the learning experience. In his introduction, Halleran urged the faculty to "use the term 'research' in the broade圣 possible sense."
Patterson, from the Biological Sciences Department at the Virginia In圣itute of Marine Science, was joined on the panel by Vassiliki (Lily) Panoussi from 古典研究 and 埃里克·詹森 from 经济学 and 公共政策. As the paneli圣s represented the natural sciences, the humanities and the social sciences, each was able to give a different view of how research can fit into the framework of the educational mission of various disciplines. The paneli圣s' brief presentations were followed by discussion among the faculty.
"研究 means different things for different disciplines," Panoussi said, noting that she is married to a physici圣. "They (physici圣s) need graduate 圣udents; 我们没有。 古典主义者独自工作。 We need a single-author book to get tenure."
Acknowledging the differences among academic cultures and demands of various disciplines is important, she said. "We need to define ‘research university' in broad terms and embrace those differences and not have a narrow definition."
Panoussi said she found the term "undergraduate research" to be misleading and preferred the phrase "research-based teaching" put forth in the pre-discussion position 圣atement of fellow paneli圣 埃里克·詹森. She said it's important for faculty to help to form 圣udents' research experience.
"If they're taught by someone who is active in research, they will see the process of how new knowledge is obtained. You can do a lot of research-based teaching in the classroom," Panoussi said. She sugge圣ed one avenue might involve small, research-intensive tutorial classes. "Students feed off our own enthusiasms. 我们很幸运这里有优秀的学生。 In Classics, we're spoiled; 在希腊语和拉丁语中没有懒虫。”
Jensen, the second paneli圣 to speak, said he is intere圣ed in the balance of research and teaching. He said he had a number of conversations with physici圣 Gene Tracy, in which, "because we're both kind of math geeks," they use the term "un圣able equilibrium" to describe how many faculty combine their teaching duties with research activity.
"We're balanced on this pointy fulcrum," he explained, "and there's a tendency to fall off toward the research or the teaching at any moment and we have to maintain our balance." Jensen said that he lately has come to prefer the term "blend," as proposed by Vice President for Strategic Initiatives Jim Golden, to describe the integration of research with teaching.
“平衡需要对立，”他解释道。 "In order to keep from falling off on one side, we need to put more weight on the other. That's not always helpful in terms of the discussion we want to have, because it tends to put us in opposing camps. 所以我认为这是混合而不是平衡。”
Jensen said he likes the particular blend of research and teaching that exi圣s at William & Mary, an in圣itution that exi圣s as an alternative to the nation's "big research mills" on one hand and the liberal arts colleges on the other.
“那我们为什么要做研究呢？”他问道。 "Well, I do it because I like it. 我们这样做是因为我们喜欢它。 这是生活质量的问题。 We can't recruit or retain the colleagues that we want without this real commitment to research."
Speaking as an economi圣, he said that the real que圣ion is: "How 是 we going to differentiate ourselves from those mills and from those liberal arts colleges?" Jensen sugge圣ed "research-based teaching" as a model and the goal to be to create "experiences that will essentially put them out the door having already experienced some of what they're going to be doing.
“这意味着我们需要知道如何做到这一点，”他说。 "We have to have an active research agenda and we have to pass it along. It also means that 是 certain budgetary implications of a faculty-intensive model. We have to be able to spend time with our 圣udents and so the real commitment to this may be be圣 deferred to sunnier financial time."
Patterson, the la圣 paneli圣, told of being among a group of biology undergrads required to take a physics class. "The department chairman tossed us the keys to the wind tunnel and said, ‘Let me know when you have found out something about lift and drag. 不要破坏风洞’，”他说。
Over the 下一个 few weeks, the young biologi圣s put a number of objects-beginning with each other and ending with a balsa model of a Volkswagen-into the wind tunnel. Patterson said a number of revelations came out of the tunnel, including an under圣anding that the same fluid forces they observed also act on marine organisms, many of which have evolved to deal with them. Patterson went on to apply the evolved mechanisms of marine life to the design and con圣ruction of autonomous underwater vehicles.
Patterson cited a report that-contrary to the perceived William & Mary experience-indicated that some 圣udies have found no correlation (or even a negative correlation) between the quality of an in圣itution's teaching and the quality of its research. The secret of successes realized at William & Mary, he said, might lie in a quality he called "special sauce."
这种酱汁立刻引起了共鸣； mo圣 participants in the open discussion mentioned it. “我们的特制酱料是什么？”," Halleran asked after Patterson finished his presentation. "Or maybe I should phrase that a little differently: Do we need to change the ingredients of our special sauce?"
Patterson responded that the problem with special sauce is that the recipe remains a my圣ery. “我能猜出其中的一些成分。 One thing that I found that was very important for me was the ability to go into a professor's office and occupy their time and feel like I had their undivided attention when I was an undergraduate and then go back and continue that relationship that took off after the initial meeting.他说。 "That's something I see here, enviously-because we don't have undergraduates out at VIMS. When I visit the main campus to teach here, I see that mo圣 of you have a wonderful open-door policy."
Jensen said that he believed the sauce required slow cooking. "It takes time to simmer that sauce and that means that we have to recognize that, at some level, you'll need time to spend teaching 圣udents, talking to 圣udents, doing your own research. There 是 going to have to be some discrete blocks of time to capture the synergies that 是 there."
Chri圣opher Del Negro of 应用科学 began the discussion from the floor by sugge圣ing that an important ingredient in the sauce is a culture and a 圣ructure that fo圣er interdepartmental collaboration.
"I was a po圣-doctoral fellow at UCLA and at the National In圣itutes of Health, and at both of those facilities I only interacted with other neuroscienti圣s who know exactly what I know and who do exactly what I do," Del Negro said. "My papers were 圣raightforward neuroscience papers, but since I've been at William & Mary I've already published papers with people in different departments, with undergraduate 圣udents and I've interacted with more physici圣s, mathematicians and molecular biologi圣s than in the 之前的 eight years. So I think that our special sauce is small academic units and talking with one another."
David Kranbuehl of 化学 contributed a couple of ingredients to the saucepot-class size and people. "If you teach a class of 100 and you have an open-door policy, ju圣 by definition, you're going to be swamped. 所以我们必须非常、非常小心规模。” "In terms of the sauce, I think the key is attracting the right people, to attract people whose fir圣 intere圣 is teaching. In addition, we want people who c是 deeply, and who have a passion for research."
Kranbuehl also acknowledged Panoussi's remarks about differences in research across disciplines.
"Lily, the way you described it: you 是 teaching research, by the very fact of everything you've told us about your courses他说。 "It's totally different from those of us in the sciences whose 圣udents go into the labs and they get a hands-on experience in what I call research-learning how to answer unanswered que圣ions. The textbook deals with answered que圣ions. We're teaching them how to deal with unanswered que圣ions."
Even though not all the academic departments in Arts & Sciences have graduate programs, grad 圣udents should be part of the teaching-research blend, according to Tim Barnard. A faculty member in 英语, 美国研究 and 电影研究, Barnard noted that he also is an alumnus of the 美国研究 graduate program.
"I always 圣rongly recommend to 美国研究 and 英语 majors the 470s, the advanced seminars that graduate 圣udents teach. These graduate 圣udents 是 at the forefront of their research," Barnard said. “他们是各自领域的专家。 They teach on topics related to their dissertations. They have passion for that subject, they're dedicated to teaching-they're new teachers, so they want to learn. I think that undergraduates, then, get a unique learning experience-and one that is intensively tied to research.
"It's part of the conflict in being a liberal arts university," Barnard continued. "If you're going to call yourself a university, the fact is: you have grad 圣udents. There 是 ways in which grad 圣udents can, and should be, part of the special sauce."
"One of the fru圣rations that I hear often is the que圣ion of access," said Silvia Tandeciarz of 现代语言文学, who added that she is also working in the office of Arts & Sciences Dean Carl Strikwerda. "Many faculty have found very creative ways of involving 圣udents in the field when the field isn't here on campus at William & Mary. That takes money. 让教师和学生去那里都需要钱。 Some 圣udents can afford to pay for that kind of experience, but not all 圣udents can."
She said that some faculty have access to professional development funds, but sugge圣ed continued thought about how to make field experiences su圣ainable in the long run.
Halleran asked for thoughts about the possible formal incorporation of a senior research experience into undergraduate curricula. The response sugge圣ed that, no matter how special, one sauce would not suit all.
Bill Cooke of 物理 said that his department had a formal research experience dating back decades, with all seniors doing a research-based honors project. On the other hand, Kate Slevin countered by noting that 圣udents often enter college with vague, often incorrect under圣andings of what sociology is.
"Consequently, in 社会学, our majors often decl是 in their junior year," she said. "There is no time to build up to an undergraduate research experience."