Education Commons^™

The 21st Century Graduate: Delivering A Tailored Approach To Social And Emotional Competency Training For Final Year Students To Enhance Graduate Attributes And Increase Employability, Ailish Jameson, Aiden Carthy, Colm Mcguinness, Fiona Mcsweeney

Conference Papers

The Higher Education Authority recently reported an average drop-out rate of 16% for Irish third level students, which poses significant pedagogical and economic challenges across the educational sector and negatively impacts the Irish economy. With respect to tackling this issue, a considerable body of international research has identified a strong positive correlation between higher levels of emotional intelligence (EI) and increased levels of student engagement and academic attainment. A wealth of previous research has also shown that employers favour graduates who possess higher levels of EI, for example, Job Outlook Survey, 2008, therefore, increasing students’ levels of EI is also …

Examining The Relationship Between Physics Students’ Spatial Skills And Conceptual Understanding Of Newtonian Mechanics, Aaron Mac Raighne, Avril Behan, Gavin Duffy, Stephanie Farrell, Rachel Harding, Robert Howard, Edmund Nevin, Brian Bowe

Conference Papers

One of the primary motivating factors of physics educators is to ensure a high level of conceptual understanding is achieved by their students. Furthermore it has been shown that success in physics and engineering courses is strongly related to students' spatial skills. Conceptual and spatial skills tests have been independently developed and reported in the literature as a measure of each of these competencies. In this study we examine correlations between spatial skills and conceptual understanding using two of these tests in order to determine the relationship, if any, between students' conceptual understanding of Newtonian mechanics and their spatial skills. …

Community Engagement In Second Life, John O'Connor

Conference Papers

This paper records my contribution to a panel presentation titled 'Virtual Ability: Support, Collaboration, Research, Community' at the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education Conference 2015. I provide a brief outline of the class I teach, 'Virtual Environments: Is once life enough?' and a field trip we made to Virtual Ability Island, a community established specifically to enable people with a wide range of disabilities by providing a supporting environment for them to enter and thrive in online virtual worlds like Second Life.

Constructing A Practice Informed Graduate Attributes Toolkit: Built In Not Bolt-On, Jen Harvey, Allison Kavanagh, Dave Kilmartin, Rachel O'Connor, Ciaran O'Leary, K.C. O'Rourke

Conference Papers

It is generally recognised that Higher Education students should be afforded a range of formal and informal learning opportunities to develop skills, or graduate attributes, that have the potential to enhance their success both in their chosen career choice and as active global citizens. This requires a shared understanding of these graduate attributes among programme team members, students and external stakeholders.

The DIT Graduate Attributes policy (2012) therefore requires that all programmes make explicit an agreed set of graduate attributes intended to be fully integrated within curriculum design, with their development clearly mapped across programmes. To facilitate the sharing of …

Engineering Students’ Perceptions Of Their Preparation For Engineering Practice, Eileen Goold Dr

Conference Papers

A common theme in the scholarly literature describing engineering is associated with the conception of the term global engineer where the role of the engineer has become quite broad. This study investigates engineering students’ perceptions of their future careers and their preparation for professional practice. This is important information for engineering educators as students with heightened interest in professional practice demonstrate more cognitive engagement. Additionally many graduate engineers are challenged by the transition into engineering practice. A mixed methods approach is employed. The degree competencies are required and learned by electronic engineering students, at the Institute of Technology Tallaght Dublin, …

Connected: An Enhanced Online Interface For Engagement Between Industry And Academia, David Kirk, John J. Keogh, Terry Maguire

Conference Papers

The drive for third level education institutes to engage with industry, enterprise and the community recognises their interdependence and need for continuous knowledge exchange. The extent to which students are capable of embracing their post-qualification roles, may be determined by the currency of the curriculum and work-readiness, which is informed by the context of the ‘real-worlds’ however they are shaped. Similarly, the activities that challenge industry, enterprise and the community could find support in the broad the spectrum of knowledge, skills and expertise that resides in the domain of formal education.

A key obstacle to collaboration between higher education institutes …

Professional Formation Of Engineers: Enhancing The First Year Student Experience, Eileen Goold

Conference Papers

This paper reports on a study investigating engineering students’ perceptions of engineering practice and whether engineering students’ cognitive engagement benefits from bridging the gap between the technical issues in their education and the practical realities of modern engineering practice.