RESEARCH ON COLLEGE-TEACHING - THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Experimental research on college teaching began with single variable studies of class size and lecture vs. discussion. During the 1930s, research on student ratings of teachers began, and following World War II, studies of college teaching and learning became more common. In the decades from then to the 1980s, research moved to concern with a broader range of variables, to analyses of interactions between student and classroom variables, and to attention to processes as well as products resulting from teaching. Research on college teaching clearly meets Conant's criteria for a scientific field: progress in theory, methods, and established knowledge. Moreover, we now have demonstrated that educational research can contribute to educational practice.