As expressed in this essay, the basic aim of pedagogical research on teaching methods should be to describe existing practices and to work out theories which will allow researchers to explain the causal relationships leading to extant teaching practices, which in their own turn reinforce the existing educational pattern. Research in the area of university-level instruction has consistently ignored the economic and social factors that contribute to the overall reality of university education. The study of teaching must be linked to the determinants of that activity, i.e., meaningful research cannot exist at the universities unless it is defended and anchored in political, social, and economic understanding. (Author/LH)