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[zenith]

I am an American applying for a position in the U.K., and I'm having a bit of trouble with the terminology.  According to the prospectus, the primary responsibility of the position is "to provide research-led teaching to all years of the undergraduate BA modules" in this particular humanities subject, and number one on their list of "essential criteria" is "evidence of ability to provide research-led teaching" in said subject.  Pardon my ignorance, but does "research-led" mean that my own research/work should be my top priority at this job, followed by teaching?  Or that my teaching should be based largely on my "research" (which is kind of a stretch in this field)?  Or that said "research" should be on pedagogy?  Or what?  Strange as it seems, I'm encountering a bit of a language-barrier here.

And while I'm asking:  The application contains large blank spaces dedicated to "Additional Information" (this comes after another such space for "Publications"), and "Statement in Support of your Application."  Again, please pardon my ignorance, but I have never seen either of these on an application form for an academic job in the U.S.  What kind of "additional information" are they seeking, in general?  And as for the "statement," do you think it would be appropriate, with a little editing, to just cut and past my standard job app cover letter (which is, in essense, a statement of support for my application)?

Thanks in advance for your guidance, o forumites. 

[sandgrounder]

Research-led teaching = teaching based on your own research. I.e. ability to deliver more specialised modules than the 'any PhD in this discipline should be able to teach' modules. So if it was French say - they want to know what culture, literature, history, film modules you could teach, not that you could contribute to the general language teaching (that would be taken for granted). Have you taught such modules? If so, list them and any you'd like to teach. If not, say what you could offer potentially. If you're stuck, have a look at the list of modules offered at a large UK department in your subject to get an idea of what might be deemed appropriate. Also check what is currently on offer - there's no point antagonising someone unnecessarily by offering to teach something someone is already teaching.

Statement in support of your application - here you should explain point by point how you meet the essential and desirable criteria outlined in the job advert. This shouldn't really be a standard cut and pasted cover letter but instead really spell out that you fit the person specification.

Additional information - this is hard to answer without seeing the form or knowing the field or institution type. Possibly things like extra professional qualifications including teaching ones, grants, third strand activity, administrative roles etc might go here if there aren't specific sections for them. Or if your c.v. is unusual e.g. has long career breaks or non-academic career prior to the PhD, this might be the space to explain it.

[secretweapon]

Sandgrounder is right.  "Research-led teaching" is supposed to mean that students are getting cutting-edge stuff in the classroom.  I suspect, although I don't really know, that this is a part of how we justify our research in a publicly-funded system - we argue that our research quickly makes its way into the classroom.  Could you develop a module around your own research?  Could you explain how your research gives you a new and exciting take on a traditional module?

You do know that a "module" is a class or a course?  That "course" means "course of study" (ie degree programme)? 

Some online forms do not have any place for you to upload a cover letter, so the statement and additional info page is where you add the information that you would put in a cover letter (minus the niceties and stock intro/conclusion).  In this system, people are largely looking to check boxes at the first level of shortlisting, so you should be explicit about how you meet each of the essential and desirable criteria. 

[scotia]

At my last interview (for this job) I was asked how I would bring my research into a core course in my area. It is worth thinking beyond providing a specialist course to using material in a broader context. Anyone who is research active can do the specialist course for a small number of students but the members of the committee that interviewed me were looking for someone who could make the research relevant to a group of second year undergraduates being introduced to the field, even if it only involved the use of a couple of relevant examples in a course.