20 | JADE
ARTICLE #2 | 21
ANGELO LEONE ET AL.
teaching and research for the “Review of Educational Research”
and found no relationship between the two. They concluded that
“The common belief that research and teaching are inextricably
entwined is an enduring myth,” they wrote (Hattie and Marsh,
1996). According to Feldon (2011) that “myth” is one of the reasons
graduate students in the sciences are often divided into two camps:
the more-promising scholars starting graduate school tend to
receive generous fellowships and grants, which allow them to focus
on research without the distraction of teaching undergraduates;
while the other group is assigned the job of teaching, and their
research has long been thought to suffer as a result (Feldon, 2011).
This dilemma continues recognizing that higher education is a
sector of the society, which involves two different principal types of
activities: teaching and research. It is of course of highest interest to
know and understand whether a synergy between these activities
could exist and what are the mechanisms that govern this effect.
After a few decades of teaching and academic experience, I came
to agree with what is almost unanimously recognized that synergy
between teaching and research is very important and exists in many
forms. Actually, there are very few studies (Hattie and Marsh 1996;
Jenkins et al 2007; Lueddeice 2008) that systematically analyze
this issue and the existing frameworks in universities to explicitly
stimulate the synergy between teaching and research, creating
harmony leading to strong knowledge communities affecting
society (Figure 1)
TEACHING AND RESEARCH SYNERGY IN A COMPETENCY BASED EDUCATION ERA
Historical perspective of research and teaching
At best, the literature is divided about whether teaching is an asset
or e