Education Commons^™

Newgrange Skyscape In Stellarium, Frank Prendergast

Articles

Newgrange Skyscape in Stellarium is a new customised landscape planetarium model giving the user the unique ability to interrogate the dynamic sky above the Boyne Valley on any date of interest during the hours of daylight or darkness. Archaeological, astronomical and topographical points of interest are labelled in the model and visible even during the hours of darkness. These are summarily described in a short gazetteer appended at the end of the instruction document to encourage further exploration of the wonderful heritage found in the Boyne Valley and beyond.

Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=aGPsVGBXkY4

Watch on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/493351576

A Novel Parabolic Model Of Instructional Efficiency Grounded On Ideal Mental Workload And Performance, Luca Longo, Murali Rajendran

Articles

Instructional efficiency within education is a measurable concept and models have been proposed to assess it. The main assumption behind these models is that efficiency is the capacity to achieve established goals at the minimal expense of resources. This article challenges this assumption by contributing to the body of Knowledge with a novel model that is grounded on ideal mental workload and performance, namely the parabolic model of instructional efficiency. A comparative empirical investigation has been constructed to demonstrate the potential of this model for instructional design evaluation. Evidence demonstrated that this model achieved a good concurrent validity with the …

Increasing Gender Balance Across Academic Staffing In Computer Science - Case Study, Susan Mckeever, Deirdre Lillis

Articles

As at 2019, Technological University Dublin* Computer Science is the top university in Ireland in terms of gender balance of female academic staff in computer science schools. In an academic team of approximately 55 full-time equivalents, 36% of our academic staff are female, 50% of our senior academic leadership team (2 of 4) are female and 75% of our School Executive are female (3 of 4), including a female Head of School. This is as a result of our seven year SUCCESS programme which had a four strand approach: Source, Career, Environment and Support. The Source strand explicitly encouraged females …

Ungrading, Supporting Our Students Through A Pedagogy Of Care, Shaun Ferns, Robert Hickey, Helen Williams

Articles

The awarding of grades or marks to student work is traditionally considered a fundamental feature of assessment. Grades became more widely established in the twentieth century becoming ubiquitous across most educational institutions. There is increasing evidence to suggest that grades are not effective tools for promoting or measuring learning. One alternative approach for promoting and measuring learning is "Ungrading," in which no letter grades or marks are given to students. Instead, they are replaced with formative feedback provided through strategies such as individual feedback, peer review and self-assessment. An Ungrading approach promises increased learner motivation, a reduction in stress, and …

Profiling Mathematical Procedural And Problem-Solving Skills Of Undergraduate Students Following A New Mathematics Curriculum, Fiona Faulkner, Mark Prendergast, Cormac Breen, Michael Carr

Articles

In 2010 a mathematics curriculum was introduced in Irish second level schools entitled ‘Project Maths’ (PM). It aimed to refocus second level mathematics teaching and learning away from an over emphasis on procedural mathematics towards problem solving and real understanding [Department of Education and Skills (DES). (2010). Report of the Project Maths implementation support group. https://www.education.ie/en/Publications/Policy-Reports/Report-of-the-Project-Maths-Implementation-Group.pdf]. This paper aims to examine the performance of 1st year undergraduate students’ procedural and problem solving skills after the introduction of PM. A diagnostic test was developed to determine students’ skills in each area and findings demonstrated that students perform statistically significantly …

History Of The Pruet School Of Christian Studies/Department Of Religion At Ouachita Baptist University/Ouachita Baptist College (1886-2021), J. Daniel Hayes

Articles

This is a short history of the Religion Department/School of Christian Studies at Ouachita Baptist University. This document includes a historical overview, faculty publications, the theological and educational philosophy of the school, history of Bible-related CORE courses, curriculum, and lists of faculty/staff with some biographical information.

Synergies In Scholarship At The Research Teaching Nexus At Tu Dublin: Building Research Synergies Into Teaching Activity Workshop, Deirdre Mcquillan

Articles

Objective of workshop is to provide and recognise possibilities for research synergies for individuals attending and to help participants develop more research supportive personal teaching philosophies. The workshop is evidence based and drawn from a survey of academics at TU Dublin in early 2021 on research synergies at the research teaching nexus.

Why Parents Chose To Send Their Children To Irish-Medium Immersion Preschools: Learning From Parental Choice Strategies In Celtic Countries, Maire Mhic Mhathuna, Fiona Nic Fhionnlaoich

Articles

This study investigated the reasons Irish parents chose to send their children to Irish-medium preschools settings over other forms of early childhood education. The international literature on parental decision making regarding childcare and relevant studies on immersion education in Celtic countries were reviewed. A parental questionnaire, informed by this literature, was distributed through selected immersion settings in Ireland. Social and cognitive development were the main reasons parents cited in regard to early childhood education and an interest in the Irish language and bilingualism along with the good reputation of the immersion preschool were the reasons they chose immersion preschooling. Comparisons …

Transitioning Cell Culture Cure Labs From Campus To Online: Novel Strategies For A Novel Time, Jaime L. Sabel, Kendra Wright, Jacob J. Adler, Gary Bates, La Shall Bates, Sumali Pandey, Amanda M. Simons, Sarah J. Swerdlow, Nathan S. Reyna, Lori Hensley

Articles

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) provide a way for students to gain research experience in a classroom setting. Few examples of cell culture CUREs or online CUREs exist in the literature. The Cell Biology Education Consortium (CBEC) provides a network and resources for instructors working to incorporate cell-culture based research into the classroom. In this article, we provide examples from six instructors from the CBEC network on how they structure their cell-culture CUREs and how they transitioned the labs to online in the spring semester of 2020. We intend for these examples to provide instructors with ideas for strategies to …

Gene Expression And Data Analysis Pipeline Using Cancer Bioportal In The Classroom, Chassidy N. Barnes, Blake P. Johnson, Stefanie W. Leacock, Ruben M. Ceballos, Lori L. Hensley, Nathan S. Reyna

Articles

At institutions with an emphasis on authentic research experiences as an integral part of the biology curriculum, COVID created a huge challenge for course instructors whose learning objectives were designed for such experiences. Moving such laboratory experiences online when remote learning became necessary has resulted in a new model for CUREs that utilizes free online databases to provide not only a novel research experience for students, but also the opportunity to engage in big data analysis. Cancer BioPortal (cBioPortal) is an open-access collective cancer research resource for storing and exploring clinical, genomic, proteomic, and transcriptomic data. cBioPortal eliminates the computational …

Synergies In Scholarship At The Research Teaching Nexus, Deirdre Mcquillan

Articles

Survey instrument for examining research synergies in scholarship at the research teaching nexus

You Can't Lose A Game If You Don't Play The Game: Exploring The Ethics Of Gamification In Education, Dympna O'Sullivan, Ioannis Stavrakakis, Damian Gordon, Andrea Curley, Brendan Tierney, Emma Murphy, Michael Collins, Anna Becevel

Articles

Gamification has been hailed as a meaningful solution to the perennial challenge of sustaining student attention in class. It uses facets of gameplay in an educational context, including things such as points, leaderboards and badges. These are clearly efforts to make the student experience more entertaining and engaging, but nonetheless, they are also clearly digital nudges and attempts to change the students’ behaviours and attitudes to a specific set of concepts, and in which case they must, and should, be subject to the same ethical scrutiny as any other form of persuasion technique, as they may be unintentionally eroding the …

'It All Depends … ' A Real Life Learning Model Informing Childminding Pedagogy In Ireland, Miriam O'Regan, Ann Marie Halpenny, Noirin Hayes

Articles

This doctoral research addressed the dearth of research focussed on childminding in Ireland, despite its significant role in national childcare provision. One overarching aim was to explore childminders’ pedagogy. The research was conducted within the theoretical framework of Ecocultural Theory (ECT) against the backdrop of Irish Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) policy on the eve of mandatory regulation of childminding. A mixed method approach was adopted, using the Ecocultural Family Interview for Childminders (EFICh) , including participants’ photographs, a case study survey, researcher field notes and holistic ratings. (Tonyan, Holli A. 2017. “Opportunities to Practice What Is Locally Valued: …

Impact Of A National Professional Development Programme For Out-Of-Field Teachers Of Mathematics In Ireland., Merrilyn Goos, Máire Ní Riordáin, Fiona Faulkner, Ciara Lane

Articles

Out-of-field teaching refers to the practice of assigning teachers to teach subjects that do not match their training or education. This paper reports on a study evaluating the impact of a national professional development programme for out-of-field teachers of post-primary school mathematics in Ireland – the Professional Diploma in Mathematics for Teaching. Evidence of impact was collected from three surveys. Two surveys evaluated changes in the prevalence of out-of-field teaching before and six years after the introduction of the programme. The third survey investigated programme graduates’ beliefs about mathematics, mathematics teaching and mathematics learning, and reported changes in teaching practices. …

Professional Development For Out-Of-Field Post-Primary Teachers Of Mathematics: An Analysis Of The Impact Of Mathematics Specific Pedagogy Training, Niamh O'Meara, Fiona Faulkner

Articles

Research shows that teachers influence students’ attitudes towards; performance in; and perceptions of a subject. Hence, the need to improve the teaching and learning of many curricular subjects has been well documented for many years. This paper focusses on efforts made to develop competence among out-of-field teachers of mathematics and evaluates the impact of one component of a continuous professional development (CPD) programme on teachers’ selfefficacy and self-reported teaching styles. As part of this CPD programme, teachers engaged in a series of subject-specific pedagogy workshops and while classroom observations were not feasible they did complete pre- and postworkshop questionnaires to …

Communities Of Practice As A Solution For The Implementation Gap In Internationalisation Of The Curriculum., Deirdre Ryan, Fiona Faulkner, Robert Flood, Dominic Dillane

Articles

The educational benefits of internationalisation in higher education are of paramount importance for all students. Despite an increasing presence of best practice guides and internationalisation strategies, there appears to be a significant implementation gap in terms of lecturers’ engagement with internationalisation in their teaching practice. Through an Action Research-informed Community of Practice approach, this study aims to provide new insights into lecturers’ engagement with Internationalisation of the Curriculum by examining their own perspectives, an area which has been underdeveloped to date. The Community of Practice provided an effective way of raising lecturers’ awareness of Internationalisation of the Curriculum, while simultaneously …

It All Depends … ’ A Real Life Learning Model Informing Childminding Pedagogy In Ireland, Miriam O'Regan, Ann Marie Halpenny, Noirin Hayes

Articles

This doctoral research addressed the dearth of research focussed on childminding in Ireland, despite its significant role in national childcare provision. One overarching aim was to explore childminders’ pedagogy. The research was conducted within the theoretical framework of Ecocultural Theory (ECT) against the backdrop of Irish Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) policy on the eve of mandatory regulation of childminding. A mixed method approach was adopted, using the Ecocultural Family Interview for Childminders (EFICh) , including participants’ photographs, a case study survey, researcher field notes and holistic ratings. The research documents a previously unidentified cultural model of pedagogy among …

Breaking Down Silos Through Authentic Assessment: A Live Case Analysis, Olivia Freeman, Rosie Hand, Aileen Kennedy

Articles

One of the aims of Technological University Dublin (TU Dublin) is to create graduates who problem solve as socially responsible global citizens. We wanted to provide an opportunity for our students to address relevant, marketing and consumption challenges in new and innovative ways, and to develop analytical competences and professional skills and comportment in a real-life context. This paper describes the design, implementation and outcome of an inter-disciplinary and cross-programme 'authentic assessment' method which we have termed a 'live case analysis'. The assessment comprised fieldwork, wider industry engagement, formative assessment components and a summative presentation. The method is discussed against …

The Nature Of Verbs In Sign Languages: A Role And Reference Grammar Account Of Irish Sign Language Verbs, Irene Murtagh

Articles

This paper is concerned with the special nature of sign language verbs, in particular to this research, Irish Sign Language verbs. We use Role and Reference Grammar to provide a definition of the structure of lexical entries that are sufficiently rich and robust in nature to represent Irish Sign Language verbs. Role and Reference Grammar takes language to be a system of communicative social action, and accordingly, analysing the communicative functions of grammatical structures plays a vital role in grammatical description and theory from this perspective. This work is part of research on the development of a linguistically motivated computational …

Exploring The Role Of Peer Observation Of Teaching In Facilitating Cross-Institutional Professional Conversations About Teaching And Learning, Muireann Okeeffe, Martina Crehan, Morag Munro, Anna Logan, Ann Marie Farrell, Eric Clarke, Michelle Flood

Articles

This paper explores how cross-institutional Peer Observation of Teaching (PoT) provided a structured opportunity for professional conversations by which observers and observees shared and developed their perspectives on teaching experience and skills. Such professional conversations offer opportunities for both parties to gain a perspective on practices that may have been taken for granted. Participants from three Higher Education institutions engaged in cross-disciplinary and cross-institutional PoT, followed by facilitated reflective conversations. This paper captures the factors for success that enabled continuing conversations on teaching and learning and highlights the value of supporting such conversations outside formal, uni-institutional peer observation programmes.

A New Adaptive Frame Aggregation Method For Downlink Wlan Mu-Mimo Channels, Lem Lem Kassa, Mark Davis, Jingye Cai, Jianhua Deng

Articles

Accommodating the heterogeneous traffic demand among streams in the downlink MU-MIMO channel is among the challenges that affect the transmission efficiency since users in the channel do not always have the same traffic demand. Consequently, it is feasible to adjust the frame size to maximize the system throughput. The existing adaptive aggregation solutions do not consider the effects of different traffic scenarios and they use a Poison traffic model which is inadequate to represent the real network traffic scenarios, thus leading to suboptimal solutions. In this study, we propose some adaptive aggregation strategies which employ a novel dynamic adaptive aggregation …

Embracing Online Engagement With Undergraduate Supervisors: Collective Perspectives On The Online Pivot, Roisin Donnelly, Yurgos Politis

Articles

The sudden national move to online/remote teaching and learning has presented a unique dual opportunity to explore the strategic value and importance of embracing learning technology toincrease the proportion of the undergraduate (UG) supervision community actively developing their practice. We have delivered a redesigned module as part of an accredited professional development (PD) masters programme, which offers online practices and approaches sought by UG supervisors. This paper proposes an experiential and reflective contribution by educational developers in supporting the PD of UG supervisors. Our aim is to boost institutional informal conversations on UG supervision through formal engagement strategies in the …

Nurturing A Teaching And Learning Community In Business Education: Disseminating Practical Strategies From A Technological University., Roisin Donnelly

Articles

This paper discusses a professional perspective for nurturing teaching and learning (T&L) practice to support a community of Business Educators in a XXX in Ireland. It is aimed at deans and associate deans by disseminating practical T&L strategies for use as a basis of envisioning their own School approaches, and in so doing is offering an approach to the systemizing of administration of academic organizations. It explores faculty professional development, communication strategies and faculty engagement initiatives – all designed to support the ongoing development of a community of Business educators. Addressing the challenges of T&L at scale requires strategic pedagogical …

Embedding Eportfolios In Programme-Level Assessment In Business Disciplines: Reflections On A Pilot Project, Roisin Donnelly

Articles

This practice report reflects on a pilot project embedding ePortfolios in programme-level assessment in a number of Business disciplines across the College of Business in the Technological University Dublin. The pilot was important for a triad of reasons; firstly for the university, positioning of an ePortfolio programme level strategy required an understanding of the importance of professional development and support structures for staff and students, and guidance on scaling from a pilot project to a full-scale implementation. Secondly, for staff, highlighting the purpose of the ePortfolio and particular effective teaching and learning strategies was crucial e.g. personalization for increasing student …

You, The Professional Development Framework And Reflective Practice, Roisin Donnelly

Articles

This National Forum Insight is for all staff with a teaching role in Higher Education in Ireland who are engaging with the National Professional Development (PD) Framework.

This Insight is designed to be used to support staff in using the PD Framework to reflect on their professional development and gather evidence for their PD portfolio. We advise the reader to ensure they are familiar with the PD Framework and its domains of professional development in order to use this Insight most effectively.

Embracing Universal Design For Transformative Learning, Larry Mcnutt, Ger Craddock

Articles

The purpose of this paper is to introduce participants to our journey of integrating Universal Design as a central part of a new Technological University in addressing the challenge of a consistent quality experience for all learners. Adopting and combining both the principles of universal design and universal design for learning is not to make it easier but to offer a framework of principles and guidelines to make education appropriate and challenging for everyone. Ken Robinson wrote “A vibrant school can nourish an entire community by becoming a source of hope and creative energy……Poor schools can drain the optimism from …

Learning Development’S Role In Supporting Academic Synergies Through Co-Evolution Of Teaching Excellence And Practice. Report From The Field., Roisin Donnelly

Articles

This report from the field discusses a new approach taken to the co-evolution of teaching excellence and evidence-based practice in the context of learning development in a Technological University in Ireland. It explores supporting faculty in their exploration of pedagogic inquiry and teaching excellence and how this can co-evolve to generate synergies in academic productivity (the core activity sets of the faculty). A key part of this learning development work is understanding how integrating inquiry and teaching can drive excellence and pedagogic innovation in practice.

Analytics Capability In Marketing Education: A Practice-Informed Model, Justina Setkute, Simone Kurtzke Dr.

Articles

As marketing continues to be transformed by technology and the explosion of big data, academic research has identified a significant need for analytics skills in marketing education. However, it is unclear whether current curriculum approaches to marketing analytics equip students with the skills employers need and prepare them effectively for data-driven marketing roles. This study identifies the knowledge and skills marketing graduates require for analytics practice to bridge the theory-practice gap and increase students’ employability. Our research reveals that a blend of knowledge, soft and technical skills is needed, and that the ability to communicate insights from data to stakeholders …

Thoughts On The Future Of Higher Education In The Uk: A Personal View With A Historical Context, Jonathan Blackledge

Articles

Before the effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic, there had been continued debate about the future of Higher Education (HE) in the UK. It is now accepted that the effect of the pandemic will have a long-lasting effect on HE in the UK and elsewhere. This paper addresses the changes that are currently taking place, based on a strategy that aims to develop a future knowledge-based economy, following the UK governments 2019 landmark review of HE. It explores the underlying parallels between the current situation and certain historical events that catalysed the development of a new approach to HE in the …

Playing At The Crossroads Of Religion And Law: Historical Milieu, Context And Curriculum Hooks In Lost & Found, Owen Gottlieb

Articles

This chapter presents the use of Lost & Found – a purpose-built tabletop to mobile game series – to teach medieval religious legal systems. The series aims to broaden the discourse around religious legal systems and to counter popular depiction of these systems which often promote prejudice and misnomers. A central element is the importance of contextualizing religion in period and locale. The Lost & Found series uses period accurate depictions of material culture to set the stage for play around relevant topics – specifically how the law promoted collaboration and sustainable governance practices in Fustat (Old Cairo) in twelfth-century …