Education Commons^™

Students With Hidden Disabilities’ Perceptions Of Online Versus On-Campus Education, And Disability Support Services, Susan Young

Theses

A focus on widening access and participation in Higher Education has resulted in increased numbers of tertiary students with hidden disabilities in recent decades, globally. While academic supports at an institutional level are available for this student population, issues are reported with them consistently, which often leads to their non-utilisation. This is one possible explanation for why these students experience inequitable academic circumstances compared to their peers concerning lower grades and welfare levels, and higher withdrawal and failure rates. There is a paucity of research available on adequate accommodations that support the academic success of students with hidden disabilities in …

Authentic Assessment Framework May 2021 Version, Jen Harvey, Derek Dodd

Reusable Resources

The TU Dublin Authentic Assessment (AA) framework was designed to be used as a general guide.for staff undertaking assessment redesigns as part of a University Initiative under the IMPACT SATLE 1 funding call.

The Framework builds on the work of Gulikers et al, (2006) and Villerarroel et al (2020) and is structured across four dimensions: ‘Realism’, ‘Cognitive challenge’, ‘metacognition’, and ‘feedback processes’.

The resource provides a set of ideas that can be used to build the four dimensions into programme based Authentic Assessment strategies and practices.

Narratives Of Creativity Among Social Care Educators In Irish Higher Education, Louisa Goss

Theses

Research on creativity in the delivery of social care highlights growing evidence of its importance for the wellbeing and quality of life of those in receipt of care, as well as benefits for the workforce. However, what is less well understood and overlooked in the literature is how creativity is conceptualised and operationalised in practice and education. This thesis attends to this gap in research from the perspective of social care educators. With the aim of deepening understanding of higher education teachers’ construction of creativity, the study explores small stories about creativity from six educators teaching into an undergraduate degree …

Community-Based Learning: A Primer, Zeinab Bedri, Ruairí De Fréin, Geraldine Dowling

Practitioner Research Projects

Employers are increasingly demanding graduates with industry-ready communication, decision-making, problem-solving, leadership, emotional intelligence and social ethics skills. Community-based learning (CBL) has been identified as a pedagogical approach which has tremendous potential to produce graduates with these attributes; its prominent role in the future of Ireland's third level landscape is outlined in the Irish National Strategy for Higher Education (Hunt, 2011). However, for many early-career lecturers, distilling the insights from the teaching and learning literature, and then producing a well-designed CBL module, can be an intimidating task. What is missing is a primer which presents the core ideas of CBL in …

Strategies For Enhancing The Mature Student Experience In Higher Education, John O'Carroll, Cathy Ennis, Keith Loscher, Deirdre Ryan, Niall Dixon

Practitioner Research Projects

A principle of the Irish Education system is its endorsement of equity of access to higher education for all Irish citizens. This principle has been enacted through successive government policies including the National Plan for Equity of Access to Higher Education 2015-2019 (HEA, 2015). The aim of this policy is to “ensure that the student body entering, participating in and completing higher education at all levels reflects the diversity and social mix of Ireland’s population” (p.8). Data from this plan shows that participation in higher education by the adult population has increased and that there is a potential for increasing …

Blended Learning - What Practitioners Can Learn From Moocs, Aine Whelan, Aimee Byrne, Keith Colton, Patrick Crean, Conor Mcgarrigle

Practitioner Research Projects

The rapid increase in the use of information technologies in third level education is changing the way courses are provided. Online multimedia have helped reduce the difficulties teachers face with a diversity of student profiles and a large number of students in a classroom. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) present an extreme with regard to student groups in relation to size and diversity and, therefore, many techniques and methods of overcoming the difficulties that this can present have been developed. Much of these methods can apply to online courses generally and to blended teaching environments. This study identifies four key …

Methods For Deriving Individual Marks From Group Work, Miriam Delaney, Lucy Bowe, Breiffni Fitzgerald, Peter Maccann, Christina Ryan

Practitioner Research Projects

Group assessment is a valuable teaching and learning method (Springer et al., 1999). This has been comprehensively demonstrated in the teaching and learning literature both in general (Johnson et al., 1991) and in specific contexts. This assessment practice promotes questioning, discussion and debate and encourages students to become active team players (DIT, 2013). However, when using this form of assessment, it is important to recognise that it is "individuals who graduate and gain qualifications" (Gibbs, 2009, p.4). The problem of freeloading has been identified and one of the suggested methods of reducing this is to incorporate individual assessment into the …

An Intrinsic Case Study Into The Appropriateness Of A Bespoke Training Model As An Approach To Supporting The Postgraduate Demonstrator In Developing Pedagogical Skills Suitable For Undergraduate Scientific Laboratories., Barry Ryan

Theses

Postgraduate demonstrators (PGDs) are crucial to the smooth running of undergraduate teaching laboratories; however, they are oftentimes exiled to superficial duties such as enforcing health and safety and procedural instruction. The aim of this intrinsic case study was to characterise the support required by postgraduate demonstrators (PGDs) to develop the key pedagogical skills that would assist them in effectively demonstrating undergraduate science teaching labs. Through supporting PGD development, it is hoped to centralise the PGD in the undergraduate teaching lab and set in place the foundations for a move towards undergraduate teaching labs that encompass aspects of tailored research in …

Participatory Action Research: Effect Of Emphasising Graduate Attributes On Work-Placement Reflection, Julie Dunne

Theses

This project aimed to investigate what the effect of activities to promote awareness of graduate attributes development introduced during 2014/15 would be on the quality of reflection displayed in student pharmacy technicians’ workplacement blogs. The project was undertaken in response to a deficit in critical reflection shown in earlier years. The work-placement blogs from 2013/14 were used as a comparison for this study. The theoretical perspective included a constructivist ontological position and an interpretivist epistemological position. The methodology was participatory action research involving the Pharmacy Technician students as co-researchers. The cycles of action and research aligned to three research objectives, …

Authentic Assessment, Sinead Freeman, James Fox, Vanessa Murphy, Nicola Hughes

Practitioner Research Projects

No abstract provided.

How Can We Nurture And Develop Creativity In First Year Design Students, Kerry Meakin

Theses

This research paper investigates the perceptions of first year third level design students regarding their creative thinking and use of creative strategies, while studying a first year design based curriculum in an Institute of Technology in Dublin. The research was conducted in a three-phase, sequential project. The first phase, questioned twenty seven students by issuing anonymous questionnaires to gather data on their methods of incubating design ideas, if they experienced any levels of anxiety when doing so, and their satisfaction levels in their design and creative abilities. Literature was reviewed to discover the attributes of those we perceive as creative …