Teaching and research at the university: a profession, two worlds

Abstract

The main aim of this article is to explore the relationships between the two primary activities in higher education institutions: teaching and research. This task could be done from different perspectives. Due to opportunity and interest reasons I have focused the content of this article in two broad and complementary issues. The first one deals with the meaning of interdependencies between research and teaching, its coincidences and divergences, and its influence in the improvement of both activities. The second one, explores to what extend higher education institutions and those who work in them use research results about how people learn and the nature of knowledge to organise teaching and learning environments to enhance the improvement of teaching.