Teaching-As-Research:  TAR Project

Teaching-as-Research involves the deliberate, systematic, and reflective use of research methods to develop and implement teaching practices to advance the learning experiences and outcomes of students and instructors. 

The TAR Project core objective is to improve teaching and learning practices.  It is an introductory or exploratory teaching-as-research project to increase teaching and learning practices.  Instructors serve as researchers in their own teaching and learning practices and apply on-going reflective teaching and learning practices. 

Teaching-as-Research, TAR Project, follows the CIRTL Core Ideas.  Participants in Teaching-as-Research, TAR Project, apply research approaches to their teaching practice. 

Image of people writing sticky notes to plan out things

Conceptual steps in the TAR Project process are:

  • Learning foundational knowledge. (What is known about the teaching practice?)
  • Creating objectives for student learning. (What do we want students to learn?)
  • Developing a hypothesis for practices to achieve the learning objectives. (How can we help students succeed with the learning objectives?)
  • Defining measures of success. (What evidence will we need to determine whether students have achieved learning objectives?)
  • Developing and implementing teaching practices within an experimental design. (What will we do in and out of the classroom to enable students to achieve learning objectives?)
  • Collecting and analyzing data. (How will we collect and analyze information to determine what students have learned?)
  • Reflecting, evaluating, and iterating. (How will we use what we have learned to improve our teaching?)

TAR Project Support

The TAR Project is part of the Practitioner Certificate for the CIRLT-UTA Teaching Certificate Program.  Graduate students completing the Practitioner Certificate, level 3, are required to attend three (3) TAR workshops over one academic year.  These TAR workshops provide step-by-step guidance, mentorship, and accountability during the creation process of their TAR Project. 

CIRTL network: A supplemental workbook was designed to support the creation of the TAR Project. This workbook compiles materials and exercises from the CIRTL course ‘Planning your Teaching-as-Research Project’ in a format that allows participants to work through the material individually. 

TAR Project Videos:

Introduction to Teaching-as-Research (5 min YouTube video)

What is Teaching-as-Research? (10 min YouTube video)

How TAR impacted my Career, CIRTL Alumni Panel (75 min YouTube video)

TAR Project Grant

The Graduate School offers Teaching-As-Research (TAR) Project Grants for motivated applicants to expand and/or formally test learning outcomes and various teaching methods beyond their TAR project. 

We encourage team applications with collaborative groups of undergraduate-graduate students/post doc/faculty.  Amounts vary based on the scale of the project, but funding starts at $500 and up. 

TAR Project Grant Process

  • Complete the TAR Project Grant Application Form
  • Application deadline:  Applications are reviewed at the start of each semester (Fall, Spring, Summer)