First post

Hello all,

I'm entirely new to this but would like to give it a try to discuss aspects of Educational Change in Ireland with a particular focus on second level (middle and high school or ages 12-18) and higher education although I have some interests in the primary school science curriculum. I am specifically interested in educational change, science education, active learning, and integrated curriculum. I am working in the University of Limerick (UL) and have several ongoing projects in the following areas

• A Virtual Chemistry Laboratory for Irish Post-Primary Schools (VCLIPPS): we are developing a lab for senior cycle chemistry in collaboration with Carnegie-Mellon University who are providing the base code. We are engaging with all stakeholders including policy makers, teachers and students. Interesting results from early interviews are indicating radically different perspectives - more anon. We hope to integrate VCLIPPS into the assessment system of the revised senior cycle syllabus (key skills framework), providing a vehicle for the authentic assessment of problem solving and inquiry-based approaches to learning.


• Educational Interventions for Sustainable Regeneration: UL has a strong commitment to the regeneration efforts in the city. We are examining the possibility of "replicating" the success on the Manchester Craftsmen's Guild (MCG) in Pittsburgh, USA. This remarkable school (setup and run by Bill Strickland - well worth a look by the way) is located in a district with the highest crime rate in the state where it achieves remarkable success with 95% of incoming students progressing to college. They also have an adult training centre with sponsorship from companies that has a nigh 100% employment rate. We are collaborating with the UPCLOSE group from the University of Pittsburgh to try to understand how MCG uses the creative arts, informal and personalised learning to create meaning in the lives of students and switch them on to learning.


• Improving science teaching and learning through Inquiry-based dialogue: this work is focused on supporting primary school science teaching and learning. Many primary (elementary) teachers confess to low levels of confidence in teaching science, primarily due to limited Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK - see below) which arises from limited exposure to science teaching during pre-service and in-service education. As a result they tend to keep things "tight" in the classroom and limit inquiry and questions. This is a pity since the primary science syllabus is essentially experiential in nature. We aim to study dialogue in classrooms to produce a set of audio-visual and text resources to examine what impacts these "scaffolds" can have on teaching practice. All going well, our results will be input into a Virtual Tutor (conversational agent) that will interact with teachers and students alike.


• An Educate Together Secondary School Curriculum: Educate Together (ET) provides multi-denominational, democratic education at primary school level in Ireland. It is pretty unique as almost all other providers at this level are run by religious institutions (unlike every other European state I think). It is a rapidly growing organisation (12 new schools opened last year) with huge demand from parents for places. We are now working on a second-level curriculum and lobbying the Department of Education and Science (DES) to recognise ET as patrons at second-level. This curriculum is very exciting and looks to place the student at the center of a democratic system of learning where they define what interests them from the beginning of the school year and teachers devise problem-based approaches to learning that reflect these interests (Integrated Curriculum). We are exploring exciting professional structures for teachers using peer-coaching and student observation and feedback to teachers. Teaching approaches will draw on the most recent results emerging from the literature as to what makes a difference in student learning ("evidence-informed" - a contentious term - more later) - see "Visible Learning" by John Hattie for details. You can get more information from ET head office here and please support this in any way you can.

I am developing further interests in PCK (with John Loughrane in Australia) as a distinct area of investigation following on from a conference I attended in Berlin (great city) on the results of the Pollen network which was setup to promote Inquiry-Based Science Education (IBSE) in primary schools across Europe, but more on that later.

Well there's a start to my blog!