Relevance of Academic Research Collaboration: Pathway for Obtaining Qualitative Teaching and Learning
- October 11, 2020
- Posted by: RSIS
- Categories: Education, IJRISS
International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume IV, Issue IX, September 2020 | ISSN 2454–6186
Ibe Helen (Ph.D), Onyeagbako Stella (Ph.D), Ezere Chimmuanya
Department of Life Science Education, Faculty of Education, Imo State University Owerri, Nigeria.
Abstract: Collaborations in academic research have been popularized previously in the academic world. This study examines the perception of academics towards academic research collaborations. The survey research design was adopted for this study. The population of the study comprises of all the academic tutorial staff of Imo State University Owerri. The sample was selected in multi stages and 100 tutorial staff were drawn using purposive and random sampling techniques. Four objectives guided the study. Questions which sought to find out lecturers’ level of involvement in academic research collaborations, patterns of collaboration, application of new methodologies in the research collaborations and impact of the collaborations on productivity guided the study. Data was presented using pictorial graphs and simple percentages. Results from the study amongst many reveal that 73% of the sampled population engage in academic research collaborations, 40% of these collaborations are intra departmental/faculty/institutional, 27% are inter departmental/faculty/institutional while 20% are both intra and inter while 13% of the sample did not engage in academic research collaborations. It was recommended that academic research collaborations between different institutions, departments and faculties should be emphasized by academics to enhance cross fertilization of ideas in the world of education and academics should think out ways to carry out joint (collaborative) groundbreaking researches which would bring about an increase in academic opportunites.
I. INTRODUCTION
Collaboration in the context of higher education, is a situation where two or more higher institutions of learning, team up to work together towards sharing educational and research goals, achieving common goals, and enhancing collective effort in meeting educational needs in focus (Depaepe, Verschaffel, & Kelchtermans, 2013). Collaboration between higher institutions of learning has long been an accepted practice in the educational system and as a result, academics from different disciplines in either the same or different institutions team up to carry out a research (Read, 2010).
