Education Commons^™

A French Take On Irish History : Histoire De L'Irlande : De 1912 Á Nos Jours' Review, Eamon Maher

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No abstract provided.

Supervision Of Students In Social Care Education: Practice Teachers' Views Of Their Role, Fiona Mcsweeney

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This paper presents findings from research about how practice

teachers in social care education in Ireland view their role, in

particular what elements they prioritise and what they see as relatively

unimportant. The aim of the research was exploratory, seeking to

discover commonalities and differences in how practice teachers saw

their role in the supervision of social care students. Q methodology

was used to compare the participants’ viewpoints. Twenty practice

teachers, from varying practice backgrounds and levels of experience,

sorted statements outlining aspects of the practice teacher’s role,

during individual interviews. Analysis indicates participants had two

ways of conceptualising the …

Emotional Intelligence And Graduates - Employers' Perspectives, Ailish Jameson, Aiden Carthy, Colm Mcguinness, Fiona Mcsweeney

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Research has demonstrated that employers favour graduates who possess higher levels of emotional intelligence. Many

initiatives to increase students’ levels of EI have involved ‘whole school’ approaches, whereby generic EI skills programmes are

delivered to all students in a third level institute. This paper details an initial survey of employers’ (n = 500) opinions on the

importance and current level of graduates’ social and emotional competencies. The survey was completed across five sectors:

engineering, IT/computing, professional services (including accounting, business, finance, HR, law, retail), science (including

pharmaceutical and life), and social science which are identified growth industries in Ireland. It …

Quizmastery: Students As Bloggers And Testers In Pursuit Of Grammatical Competence, Sue Norton, Odette Gabaudan

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This article considers the challenges confronted by instructors of composition and writing skills in higher education. Identifying key aspects of grammar, syntax, and punctuation, it argues that a grammatically informed terminology is helpful to learner-writers endeavouring to improve the clarity of their written assignments. To aid assimilation of this terminology, and the concepts it signifies, e-learning tools can be integrated into the curriculum so that students can consolidate knowledge through their own construction of it. As they create blogs and peer to peer quizzes, they become more theoretically and practically informed about the basis of effective writing practices.

Developing Appropriate Educational Modules Aimed At Industry - An Example From Surveying At Masters Level, Audrey Martin

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This paper describes the process from inception to completion of developing academic modules appropriate for upgrading survey professionals engaged in the public sector. It focuses on one such module continuing professional development module in ‘Gravity and Height’ for National Mapping, developed by the Technological University Dublin Spatial Information Sciences Group for the National Mapping Agency, Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSi) and staff from similar organisations.

Case Study On Performance And Acceptance Of Computer-Aided Assessment, Bianca Schoen-Phelan, Brian Keegan

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Computer aided assessment (CAA) comprises a set of assessment techniques that are conducted on a computer. These forms of assessment may be purely online or network based or single, stand-alone device based. The device may be a desktop computer or include the use of mobile devices. This paper investigates if CAA leads to improved performance and satisfaction. The student cohort that participated in this pilot study came from a degree in computer science. A preliminary investigation was performed by executing two continuous assessments with one cohort of four students in an advanced databases class. One of the assessments was purely …

Digital Literacy: Why It Matters, Allison Kavanagh, K.C. O'Rourke

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In the past two decades the internet, email, apps, mobile devices and all associated hardware and software have become firmly embedded in everyday life, to the extent that it often feels that we have had no control over this phenomenon. What are the implications for education?

Primary and secondary students today have grown up with the always-connected life which the internet has enabled. However, the credence given to the idea that this makes them fully comfortable and aware as "digital natives" is misguided. The social implications of the internet society – surveillance and the decline of privacy, cyberbullying and so …

Exploring The Student Experience Of The Final Year Of A Professionally-Oriented Undergraduate Degree In Education Studies, Julie Uí Choistealbha, Roisin Donnelly, Marian Fitzmaurice

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Within Higher Education there is growing expectations that graduates will enjoy smooth transitions into practice or further study and thus it is important to understand how higher education students’ experiences in university should be best organised and integrated to realise these purposes. This qualitative research study investigated the impact of the curriculum design of the final year on student experience, engagement and progression routes post-graduation in a new four year professionally-orientated degree for students in a BSc in Education Studies in an Irish education institution. This study involved 26 lecturers and 25 recent graduates from the programme. Students were required …

Analysing The Correlation Between Secondary Mathematics Curriculum Change And Trends In Beginning Undergraduates’ Performance Of Basic Mathematical Skills In Ireland, Fiona Faulkner, P. Treacy, Mark Prendergast

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The phenomenon in which students enter university under-prepared for the mathematical demands of their undergraduate courses, regularly referred to as the ‘Maths Problem’, has been widely reported in Ireland, UK, Australia, and the US. This issue has been of particular concern in Ireland recently, with beginning undergraduates’ performance of basic mathematical skills showing signs of significant decline in recent years. New mathematics curricula, commonly referred to as ‘Project Maths’, were gradually introduced into the Irish secondary school education system from 2010 onwards. These new curricula aim to place greater emphasis on student understanding of mathematical concepts, use of contexts, and …

Using Architecture Design Studio Pedagogies To Enhance Engineering Education, Shannon Chance, John Marshall, Gavin Duffy

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Problem-Based Learning pedagogies that require high levels of inquiry and hands-on engagement can enhance student learning in engineering. Such pedagogies lie at the core of studio-based design education, having been used to teach architects since the Renaissance. Today, design assignments and studio-based learning formats are finding their way into engineering programs, often as part of larger movements to implement Student-Centered, Problem-Based Learning (PBL) pedagogies. This spectrum of pedagogies is mutually supportive, as illustrated in the University of Michigan’s SmartSurfaces course where students majoring in engineering, art and design, and architecture collaborate on wickedly complex and ill-defined design problems. In SmartSurfaces …

Heritage Sites And Schoolchildren: Insights From The Battle Of The Boyne, Dervilia Roche, Bernadette Quinn

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Children are very much under-represented in heritage tourism studies, particularly in terms of their own perspectives. This exploratory study begins to redress this imbalance by investigating how 34 primary school-going children experience and make sense of the Battle of the Boyne Visitor Centre, an Irish heritage site. Among the research questions posed are: How does the group make sense of heritage? Where do they get their ideas about heritage attractions? What appeals to them about heritage attractions? The research adopted an interpretivist approach and employed a variety of innovative data collection tools, gathering ideas from the children through discussions, writing, …

Supporting Sustainability Through Developing A Learning Network Among Traditional Food Producers: Applications Of Action Learning, Paul Coughlan, David Coghlan, Denise O'Leary, Clare Rigg, Doireann Barrett

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Purpose: The chapter describes and reflects upon an EU-funded research initiative, TRADEIT, which has attempted to develop a learning network among European traditional food producers as one way of contributing to the economic sustainability of the ventures, the social sustainability of the food’s regional character, and the environmental sustainability of food production through the use of traditional methods.

Design/methodology/approach: The chapter describes TRADEIT before moving on to an exploration of learning in organizations and networks. It outlines the action learning research methodology developed and implemented to explore the development of a learning network in TRADEIT. A single case history …

Turning To Case Studies As A Mechanism For Learning In Action Learning, Denise O'Leary, Paul Coughlan, Clare Rigg, David Coghlan

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Case studies are a useful means of capturing and sharing experiential knowledge by allowing researchers to explore the social, organisational and political contexts of a specific case. Although accounts of action learning are often reported using a case study approach, it is not common to see individual case studies being used as a learning practice within action learning sets. Drawing on a network action learning (NAL) project, this paper explores how the process of coaching, articulating, authoring, sharing and editing case studies provided a vehicle for learning and research within a NAL set. The intended contribution of this paper to …

The Effects Of High Literacy Demands In Mathematics On International Students, Fiona Faulkner, Clare O'Hara, Mark Prendergast

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Project Maths is an ambitious reform of Irish post-primary education. It involves changes to what students learn in mathematics, how they learn it and how they will be assessed. There is a much greater emphasis placed on student understanding of mathematical concepts, with increased use of contexts and applications that will enable students to relate mathematics to their everyday experiences. The assessment reflects the different emphasis on problem solving and applications in the teaching and learning of mathematics and there is a much greater emphasis on reading and understanding the problems. Hence there is a greater emphasis on student’s English …

Mathematics Learning Support Across A Multi-Campus Institution: A Prototype Of Virtual Support, Cormac Breen, Ciaran O'Sullivan, Damian Cox

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In this paper, a study on Mathematics Learning Support (MLS) that was undertaken across three institutes intending to form the Technological University for Dublin is outlined. This study consisted of a survey that was circulated to both staff and students in each of the three institutes. The survey had two objectives. Firstly it sought to identify the students’ needs for MLS in each of the three institutes. Secondly, it sought to ascertain the preferred method of provision of MLS, on a scale ranging from exclusively online, to exclusively in person. Following on the results of this survey it was decided …

The 12 Apps Of Christmas: An Innovative And Effective Online Student And Educator Support, Frances Boylan

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The 12 Apps of Christmas course is a free open online course that has run at the Technological University Dublin, Dublin, Ireland, in both 2014 and 2015. The 2014 version of this course was aimed specifically at instructors and went on to win the Mobile Learning Division of the International E-Learning Award (iELA) and come joint third-place at the eLearning Excellence Awards run as part of the 14th European Conference on eLearning. The 2015 iteration was aimed primarily at students of all ages undertaking further education, third-level education and/or postgraduate study, but also included additional supporting information for educators. This …

A Comparison Of The Mathematical Performance Of Mature Students And Traditional Students Over A 10-Year Period, Fiona Faulkner, Olivia Fitzmaurice, Olivia Hannigan

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Every student who enrols in a degree programme involving service mathematics in the University of Limerick in Ireland is given a mathematics diagnostic test. The diagnostic test was developed due to mathematics lecturers’ anxiety regarding students’ mathematical competency levels. Students receive the 40 question paper-based test in their first service mathematics lecture without prior notification. Initial analysis of students’ work revealed that many students were having difficulties with basic algebra and arithmetic in particular [Gill, O. 2006. “What Counts as Service Mathematics? An Investigation into the ‘Mathematics Problem’ in Ireland.” PhD diss., University of Limerick]. Further research highlighted the significant …