Preparation for teaching is a good opportunity also as preparation for research. This is because reminding oneself of and arranging known facts often gives a hint for research. On the other hand, experiences in research work gives good hints for teaching. Thus, a professor who makes use 50% of his or her work time for teaching and the rest for research, for example, can be a better researcher than a professor who spend his or her time fully for research and can be a better teacher than a professor who send his or her time fully for teaching.

That's a tough question. The answer depends on your own goals, the mission of the institution where you work, and your career stage. The trick is getting a match among those three things.

If your own goals revolve around teaching, emphasize that and do some research on pedagogy so that you can meld the two to some degree. If, on the other hand, you want to become a world-renown researcher and work at an R1 institution, then spend more time on research. Be sure to put enough into your teaching, however, to take care of your ethical responsibilities to students and to those who pay the bills (taxpayers, parents, students, etc.). Researchers who persistently do a lousy job in the classroom hurt us all in the eyes of the public (thus the cries for accountability and job-related outcomes measures).

My university, with primarily a teaching mission, requires at least 60% of one's evaluation (and thereby your work) be based on teaching, at least 10% on research, and at least 10% on service. That means we can adjust the 40% of non-teaching work to suit our current activities and goals.

In my opinion, a new assistant professor should be emphasizing research and teaching. That prepares you for either tenure or being mobile enough to shift to another institution. A full professor, on the other hand, does a bit more with service and often turns to acquiring resources, mentoring junior faculty, building programs, building industry/academic relationships, and so forth.

Just my musings on the topic.

Kim

To have a balance between research and teaching, make sure you do not overburden yourself with lot of PhD research scholars and project staffs. Make sure, the primary goal (teaching B.Tech/ M.tech students) is not compromised. Research work can be carried over till night, so that is not an issue.  

Ypu will require to make sure you give enough time to your research scholars and still have time for conducting resaerch at your personal level. You do not want to make your research scholars feel that you are unable to give them time. You can put off some class duties with the help of your scholars. 

To have the passion and love for your work that makes you balance both  under pressure and live happily . I mean that if you enjoy your work and you are passionate about  conducting researches at the same time you will balance them enjoyably and without any effort , but if you are forced to do your researches by any outsider , like a manager or a system , you will never balance and you will quit one of them. 

Dear Basema Younes 

I agree with you totally..

Though it is exhausted process to make balance between teaching and researching, but at the end I feel happy and satisfied. 

Liqaa 

Preparation for teaching is a good opportunity also as preparation for research. This is because reminding oneself of and arranging known facts often gives a hint for research. On the other hand, experiences in research work gives good hints for teaching. Thus, a professor who makes use 50% of his or her work time for teaching and the rest for research, for example, can be a better researcher than a professor who spend his or her time fully for research and can be a better teacher than a professor who send his or her time fully for teaching.

For many years, theory and practice were considered as wrong bedfellows in the teaching profession . In recent years and in the post modern era , however,  teachers are involved in a consistent preparation for a global society moving towards engagement, critical thinking, and an ever-developing self identity. As such, teachers cannot ignore the validity of the theories advocated by the related theoreticians. Instead, through action research they try to determine to what extent the said theories are applicable to the teaching/learning problems dominating the teaching context. In effect, by adopting a critical instance, they try to substantiate the evidential basis of the theories underlying their current practices. Consequently, making an appropriate balance between  teaching work and research work, as you have rightly observed, provides teachers with a solid ground by which they can meet the demands of teacher education in the 21st century. 

Best regards,

R. Biria

While there is no perfect balance, one should attempt to incorporate their research into their teaching so that their students benefit from what is being studied. 

I think that time management is of crucial lmportance here.

I endorse all the contributions shared. You can also maximize your teaching time, as indicated before, by researching issues in teaching in your department. In that way, you would not have to dedicate time outside of teaching to investigate your topic. Here's an example of what I did that worked.

Best regards,

Debra

Conference Paper Debating: A Dynamic Teaching Strategy for Motivating Student...

I think there is no perfect balance between these two, one should do their research with  teaching, as students benefited with his research. 

Dear Nirajkumar Mehta ,

Your question and the answers of the participants motivated me a lot. The issue depends on the demands of your institution. But as suggested here you can research from your teaching (pedagogical research).

I think that it is difficult to give unambiguous recommendations. We can assume that the "ideal balance model for the professor" will be somewhat similar to the law of conservation of energy for a mechanical pendulum. While doing research, accumulating "potential energy", spend it (accumulated knowledge) in working with students - an analogue of "kinetic energy."

The sum of "energies" = a constant. And so the whole professorial life :) There is no, I think "static" model for some kind of "universal point of balance." And in different periods of life there will be different priorities - in youth, probably it is necessary to gain "potential energy" - to get experience, then to share it in more mature age, again getting experience.

The whole question is - how many cycles does this "pendulum" have?

You may align your research interests in your teaching so that time management will be smoother. 

Your teaching load will vary at the type of university you are employed by. For example in the United States, a 4/4 load is common at most Division II universities. Teaching 4 classes each semester takes a great deal of time and effort if it is done right. That leaves less time for research.  But we still do research. At a major R-1 Research university you class load might be 2/1 or even 1/1 depending one the rules of the university and how much grant money or other outside funding that you are bringing in. Then the emphasis is placed on research over teaching. I'm not sure that there ever is a perfect balance, but you can craft a manageable one. I try to make steady progress in my research, while maintaining a high quality of instruction for my classes.

Dear Nirajukmar:

You ask the following: What should be ideal and perfect distribution of research work and teaching load in a professor's life?

I am assuming that you are referring to higher education, that is, teaching and researching when one is a professor at the college/university level.

I cannot imagine a professor at this level that is only interested in teaching and that does not keep on doing research. When a professor is not interested in research and research-oriented activities, s/he risks being out of date and, thus, delivering, say, poor teaching. Note that for one to be a professor at the college/university, it is generally the case that one has a Master or a Ph D degree, which required to have done research. In the same vein, it would be a sad reality that good researchers had no opportunity to teach. Note that while teaching it is often the case that we may be confronted with questions that can give rise to future research. Schools, in general, are a kind of scientific laboratory. Again, it would be a pity that researchers were deprived of having this opportunity. So, there are good reasons for one to argue for a perfect balance between research work and teaching work. Actually, this is not always the case, namely in the US, where we are doomed to "publish or perish". However, research that is performed, say, in a hurry and by institutional imposition is almost doomed to being poor, and even dispensable research, True researchers look more for the unknown than for being promoted and get tenure, for example. The former are intrinsically-oriented researchers, whereas the latter are extrinsically-oriented researchers (see, for this respect, Deci's theory of self-determination and his distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.

As you certainly know, there are teaching-oriented universities and research-oriented universities. In the former, teaching counts more than research. In the latter, research counts more than teaching. I think that we need good professors and good researchers, but I also think that we need colleagues who do both.

This means that, from an ideal point of view, there are good reasons for one to argue for a more or less perfect balance between research work and teaching work. When this were the case, I believe that will have good professors and good researchers.

Best wishes