Artists and designers find themselves in an unsteady position in relation to the world of research. Visual art and design practice is relatively new to the domain of academic research, and a level of critical engagement with the theory and practice of art-as-research is required at all levels, from undergraduate student to senior academic. This involves determining an intellectual position with regard to the nature and purpose of artistic research, as well as finding or developing a methodological approach appropriate to visual practice. With the complexity of this situation in mind, this paper advocates for the integration of appropriate research experience from the very beginning of higher learning. Research-oriented teaching is a framework developed to describe a particular category of the teaching-research nexus (Griffiths, 2004). With an emphasis on understanding "how" knowledge is developed (similar to ideas of constructivism) research-oriented approaches sit well alongside the widely shared view that the area of expertise of the artist-researcher is in the "processes" that lead to finished objects. In this position paper, I draw on BFA teaching experience in order to illustrate how, at early programme levels, research-oriented teaching can support student learning and the development of graduate attributes related to understanding and appreciating the philosophical basis and characteristics of artistic practice as research. I propose that the evolution of practice-based research over the last two decades has had an impact on our pedagogical content knowledge and that we are developing a distinctive, subject specific "research-oriented" approach that holds the potential to be of wider pedagogical interest and value.