About TAR

What is TAR?

Teaching-as-Research (TAR) is a reflective teaching cycle that begins with addressing a student learning challenge or interest. Participants design a small-scale, classroom-based study to see if they can improve student learning outcomes or experiences using a small teaching intervention. They collect data to evaluate their intervention's effectiveness, analyze the data, and reflect on how what they learned can inform their future teaching. The process is designed to model the kind of inquiry- or curiosity-based approach to teaching that is centered on students and their learning.

TAR is one of the signature programs in the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL@Arizona). See the video to the right to hear from fellow CIRTL institution Texas A&M's graduate students about what interested them in TAR as future faculty members.

The TAR inquiry cycle

On this website, you will find various projects conducted by graduate students around the University of Arizona. The main goal of the TAR project is to pick a learning outcome that students are curious about and find a means to study that outcome.

On the left, you will see the TAR inquiry cycle that students progress through during the semester. Students follow this cycle, week by week, as they go through their project development, implementation, analysis, and reflection.

Meet the facilitators

Dr. Kristin Winet

Dr. Winet is an Associate Professor of Practice in the University Center for Assessment, Teaching, and Technology (UCATT) and the Program Administrator for CIRTL@UArizona. She is originally from the English Department, where she served as interim assistant director of the Writing Program and taught a variety of courses in writing and rhetoric. In addition to directing CIRTL, she co-facilitates the Teaching-as-Research (TAR) program, teaches in the Certificate of College Teaching (CCT), and facilitates a variety of workshops and mini-courses on writing pedagogy and inclusive teaching.

Dr. Lisa Elfring

Dr. Byron Hempel received his PhD in Environmental Engineering at the University of Arizona in 2019, having received his B.S. in Chemistry at the University of Kentucky in 2014 and Masters in the Chemical and Environmental Engineering Department at the University of Arizona in 2017. Working under Dr. Paul Blowers, his focus was on improving the classroom environment in higher education by working in the active classroom by using evidence-based teaching practices to improve student learning. This semester, he loves to rock climb, plays on the "Fierce Price" co-ed soccer team, and enjoys acro yoga.

Dr. Erin Galyen

Dr. Winet is an Associate Professor of Practice in the University Center for Assessment, Teaching, and Technology (UCATT) and the Program Administrator for CIRTL@UArizona. She is originally from the English Department, where she served as interim assistant director of the Writing Program and taught a variety of courses in writing and rhetoric. In addition to directing CIRTL, she co-facilitates the Teaching-as-Research (TAR) program, teaches in the Certificate of College Teaching (CCT), and facilitates a variety of workshops and mini-courses on writing pedagogy and inclusive teaching.

Dr. Byron Hempel

Dr. Byron Hempel received his PhD in Environmental Engineering at the University of Arizona in 2019, having received his B.S. in Chemistry at the University of Kentucky in 2014 and Masters in the Chemical and Environmental Engineering Department at the University of Arizona in 2017. Working under Dr. Paul Blowers, his focus was on improving the classroom environment in higher education by working in the active classroom by using evidence-based teaching practices to improve student learning. This semester, he loves to rock climb, plays on the "Fierce Price" co-ed soccer team, and enjoys acro yoga.