News

On Friday, 15th November the School of Education celebrated the launch of the Routledge International Handbook of Constructivist Grounded Theory in Educational Research. The 20-chapter volume was edited by Professor Elaine Keane (Head of the Discipline of Education, University of Galway), and Professor Robert Thornberg (Linköping University, Sweden). Proceedings were chaired by Professor Dan Carey (School of English, University of Galway) and the edited volume was launched by Professor Tony Bryant (Leeds Beckett University, England). Across 5 parts and 20 chapters, the book offers exemplars of good practice by educational researchers from Australia, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, and the USA. It makes explicit how Constructivist Grounded Theory (CGT) techniques and processes were implemented in the field, the way(s) in which challenges were navigated, and how educational researchers aligned their research processes to constructivist principles. The Handbook synthesises learning from the experiences of CGT researchers in education to establish a framework of guidance for early-career and more experienced researchers. Additionally, it directly interrogates and considers how to address challenges in the implementation of high-quality CGT and looks to the future of the methodology in educational research. This Handbook provides guidance and education-specific examples to doctoral students and researchers who wish to use or are using CGT in educational research. It will also be of significant interest to qualitative researchers in other disciplines like sociology, psychology, and nursing.

On Wednesday evening, 30th August 2023, the 'It’s not just Science!' Project team (from the School of Education; and the Centre of Pedagogy and Public Engagement Research (CoPPER)), led by Dr Veronica McCauley, is holding a Teacher Training Seminar. Twelve DEIS school Science teachers from the Northwestern Region are being taught to deliver the SCIENCE4SURVIVAL TY module, which is an educational initiative to ignite non-traditional male students’ interest in Biology and consider progression to higher education. Postdoctoral researcher Dr Carmen Kealy, who coordinates the project says: ‘SCIENCE4SURVIVAL, which is based on the Science Capital Teaching Approach, was developed and initially implemented as a pilot educational intervention earlier this year. Having incorporated feedback from students and teachers, we are now scaling the programme to a regional level with the aim to encourage more male senior cycle DEIS students to consider study at higher education afforded through Biology at leaving certificate. The project is funded the Department for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (DFHERIS) under the Programme for Access to Higher Education - Pillar 3 (PATH 3) from 2021-2024. The programme of work is carried out in conjunction with the Access Centre at the University of Galway and the Atlantic Technological University.

Our colleague Dr Cornelia Connolly was awarded the 2022-2023 College of Arts, Social Sciences and Celtic Studies and the 2022-2023 President’s Award for Teaching Excellence. The University of Galway President’s Awards for Teaching Excellence recognise the outstanding efforts of teaching staff to ensure students receive the highest quality learning experience. In awarding Dr Connolly, the University recognise her sustained commitment to innovative and outstanding pedagogy. The University thrives on academic excellence and supportive relationships in equal measure, and Cornelia’s work is a stellar example of this. Congratulations Cornelia from your School of Education, CASSCS and University colleagues.

2nd International Teacher Diversity Symposium - Call For Abstracts Diversifying initial teacher education, and the teaching profession, in Ireland and internationally, has been of research and policy significance for some time, and since 2017 has been operationalised in practice (in Ireland) through projects funded by the Higher Education Authority under the Programme for Access to Higher Education (PATH): Strand 1 (Equity of Access to Initial Teacher Education). On Friday, 20th October 2023, the School of Education at the University of Galway will host the second international research symposium on Teacher Diversity. Similar to our 2019 event, the main aim is to provide a forum for the sharing of research findings from the projects funded under PATH1, and other relevant projects in national and international contexts. Dr. Helen Maher, Vice President for Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion at the University of Galway will open proceedings, and this will be followed by a keynote address (TBC). The symposium main proceedings will consist of parallel sessions and a panel discussion. If you are interested in having your work considered for presentation at the symposium, please send the completed template to Kaitlin Kaufman at k.kaufman1@nuigalway.ie by July 28th 2023. We are very much looking forward to receiving your submissions and to seeing you in Galway in October! Dr Elaine Keane & Dr Manuela Heinz, School of Education, University of Galway Abstract Submission Template

Professor Tony Hall has been invited by the OECD to speak at their online global educational event next week, "The future of education: how ambition loops can help transform the teaching profession." It is on Wednesday 31st May 2-3pm Irish time, and 3-4pm Paris time. Further details of the event can be found here: https://oecdedutoday.com/oecd-education-webinars/#Upcoming

April 18th, our colleague Dr Cornelia Connolly, was invited to appear at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Education, Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. Associate Professor Cornelia Connolly delivered a powerful speech to the Education Committee on the Future of STEM in Irish Education, where she highlighted the need to develop a shared understanding and strengthen the acceptance of Computer Science as a foundational competence for every child, irrespective of race, gender or socioeconomic background. Dr. Connolly's insights and recommendations will have a significant impact on future policies and initiatives to advance equality in STEM. Her speech has been widely praised not only by Oireachtas members, but also by academics and experts in the field of STEM education. The transcript of her opening statement is available here. Dr Connolly highlighted the recent research findings by the University of Galway School of Education in regard to capacity for, access to, and participation in Computer Science Education in Ireland (https://doi.org/10.13025/bccm-2c38).‌ Watch the Oireachtas Committee on Education, Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, roundtable Discussion on the Future of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) in Irish Education with School of Education Associate Professor, Dr Cornelia Connolly. (Video starts at 28 seconds)

The School of Education, University of Galway project ‘CodePlus’ brought 50 students to Fidelity Investments last week! 5th year and Transition Year girls from Dominican College, Taylors Hill, Galway spent the afternoon at the Fidelity Investments offices to explore what it’s like to work in technology. The students were given talks by software engineers Mary Tyrell, Oluchi Anyabuike, and Sinead O’Mahoney – introducing the sector and industry to the young people. Then the students conducted some hand-on agile activities with Conor Dunne & Mary McMahon. CodePlus is a national programme co-delivered by University of Galway, University of Limerick and Trinity College Dublin (funded by SFI, Google and others). It provides coding workshops, CS-focussed career talks and industry site visits to 5K+ students annually. Project website: https://www.codeplusireland.ie/

Capacity For, Access To, and Participation in Computer Science in Ireland - report launch with Prof Michal Molcho (Head of the School of Education), Prof. Pól Ó'Dochartaigh (Deputy President and Registrar), Dr Cornelia Connolly and Dr Claire Connelly. Listen back to Dr Connolly on RTÉ's Morning Ireland news programme: https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/clips/22230190/

Are you enrolled in an initial teacher education programme (post-primary)? Would you be interested in a certificate programme that would you give you an understanding of Irish-medium education?  The School of Education the University of Galway are offering the Teastas Teagaisc don Earnáil Ghaeloideachais (TTEG). It is an online programme that is available free of charge. For further information contact: breandan.b.macgearailt@universityofgalway.ie An bhfuil tú ar chúrsa in oiliúint tosaigh múinteoirí? An bhfuil roinnt Gaeilge agat? An mbeadh suim agat post a fháil i scoil a bhíonn ag teagasc trí Ghaeilge?   Ba cheart duit cuir isteach ar TTEG mar sin. Tabharfaidh an Teastas Teagaisc don Earnáil Ghaeloideachais (TTEG) léargas agus tuiscint do na rannpháirtithe ar chomhthéacs agus dea-chleachtais iomaire an Ghaeloideachais ag an iar-bhunleibhéal. Tá an TTEG saor in aisce do mhúinteoirí faoi oiliúint. Breis eolais: breandan.b.macgearailt@universityofgalway.ie  

The School of Education recently held 2 days of workshops delivered by 10 domain experts in Global Citizenship Education (GCE). The purpose of this annual event is to introduce our student teachers to the concept of GCE, and the critical issues related to it. The Global Citizenship Education event is organised by Drs Brenda Gallagher, PME Year 1 Programme Director, and Manuella Heinz, Head of the Discipline of Education. The aim of the Global Citizenship Education component of the initial teacher education (ITE) programmes within the School of Education (SoE), University of Galway, is to enable our student teachers to develop their critical consciousness on sustainable development and related issues. As a result, GCE is integrated, in a variety of ways, into all of our programmes. Activities in Year 1 focus on equipping our student teachers with the skills and knowledge that will enable them to be effective in terms of bringing GCE into their classrooms. Follow on activities in Year 2 focus on the importance and impact of GCE and on the evidencing the practice of bringing GCE into the classroom in a manner that has value and meaning in terms of teaching, learning and assessment. The promotion of our student teachers’ professional identity and agency, and personal development in a manner that is consistent with the role of Global Teacher is also a core aim. This is of key important because it equips our student teachers with the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to be instrumental in educating their pupils for their future role as global citizens; citizens with the capacity for critical thinking and thoughtful action.

If you are conducting research in the areas of equity, inclusion and learning environments consider submitting a proposals for an important Special Issue focussing on: Reconceptualising learning environments for equitable and inclusive education futures Call details: https://link.springer.com/collections/ghhadjejej Guest Editors: Manuela Heinz, Linda Graham, Ridwan Maulana Deadline for proposal abstracts: 30 April 2023 Learning Environments Research Journal https://www.springer.com/journal/10984

School of Education, Léachtóir and Stiúrthóir ar an Máistir Gairmiúil san Oideachas (MGO), Sinéad Ní Ghuidhir, provides RTÉ Brainstorm with an opinion piece on: why is the Irish language so widely abused on public signs? https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2023/0111/1345850-ireland-irish-language-public-signs-badly-translated-misspellings-typos/

A lovely profile on Evan Doyle, one of our 4th year BA Education (Computer Science and Mathematical Studies) students, features in the Irish Independent. https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/education/going-to-college/case-study-my-ty-work-experience-gave-me-the-confidence-to-be-a-teacher-42271205.html

Keane, E., Heinz, M. and Mc Daid, R. (Eds.) (2023) Diversifying the teaching profession: Dimensions, dilemmas and directions for the future, London: Routledge Our recently published book was launched by Dr. Helen Maher, Vice President for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, and Professor Gerry Mac Ruairc, (then) Head of the School of Education, University of Galway, in the Moore Institute on December 9th, 2022. Proceedings were facilitated by Professor Daniel Carey, Director of the Moore Institute, and included a panel discussion featuring Dr. Aileen Marron (Senior Manager, Access Policy, Higher Education Authority), Dr. Vivian Rath (Research Project Officer, Reasonable Accommodations and Professional Placements Project (RAPP), Association for Higher Education Access and Disability (AHEAD)); Ms. María Florencia Sala Rothen (Independent Researcher and Teacher); and Mr. Owen Ward (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Programme Manager for Race Equality, University of Galway). Panel members discussed the significance of the book and implications for national and international policy, practice and future research. ‌ L-R Back Row: Dr. Helen Maher, Vice President for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion; Professor Daniel Carey, Director of the Moore Institute; Professor Gerry Mac Ruairc, (then) Head of the School of Education, Dr. Manuela Heinz, Dr. Elaine Keane, and Dr. Rory Mc Daid.L-R Front Row: Mr. Owen Ward, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Programme Manager for Race Equality; Ms. María Florencia Sala Rothen, Independent Researcher and Teacher; Dr. Aileen Marron, Senior Manager, Access Policy, Higher Education Authority; Dr. Vivian Rath, Research Project Officer, Reasonable Accommodations and Professional Placements Project (RAPP), Association for Higher Education Access and Disability (AHEAD) Biography:Elaine Keane is a Senior Lecturer and Associate Professor as well as Director of Doctoral Studies in the School of Education and the University of Galway.Manuela Heinz is Senior Lecturer and Associate Professor as well as Head of Discipline of Education in the School of Education at the University of Galway.Rory Mc Daid is Senior Lecturer and Associate Professor in Sociology of Education as well as Director of Research at Marino Institute of Education, Dublin.

Book Launch! You are invited to the launch of Diversifying the Teaching Profession: Dimensions, Dilemmas and Directions for the Future Friday, 9th December 2022, 11am - pmMoore Institute, Room (G010), University of Galway. Biography:Elaine Keane is a Senior Lecturer and Associate Professor as well as Director of Doctoral Studies in the School of Education and the University of Galway.Manuela Heinz is Senior Lecturer and Associate Professor as well as Head of Discipline of Education in the School of Education at the University of Galway.Rory Mc Daid is Senior Lecturer and Associate Professor in Sociology of Education as well as Director of Research at Marino Institute of Education, Dublin.    

Methodologies, Applications and Programmes - Teaching Programming and Computational Thinking in Early Childhood, Primary and Secondary Education Speaker: Prof. Raquel Hijón NeiraMonday, 21st November 2022 at 11 amZoom: https://nuigalway-ie.zoom.us/j/92297028763 The interest in children learning to code has grown exponentially recently. In recent years, we have tried effective ways to bring programming to the classrooms of Primary and Early Childhood Education. In this talk, the experiences carried out to bring programming closer to these levels are explained: proposed methodologies, applications and programs used and developed, different approaches, different types of interaction and results obtained in both stages, as well as some experiences to support the introduction of programming in Secondary Education and future work. In Early Childhood, Primary and Secondary Education, results are presented in which significant improvements are observed using different approaches and ways of interaction, which depend on factors such as age. For further information on this and all our Research Seminars please contact Dr Cornelia Connolly cornelia.connolly@universityofgalway.ie ‌    

Based on recent statistics, we consider that access to toilets, and more precisely school toilets, is no more an issue in the European region. Indeed, compared to the global figure of 63% of schools equipped of a basic sanitation service in 2019, the rates in Europe and North America are much higher (99%). The differences are of the same level regarding handwashing facilities in schools (57% vs. 98%) (UNICEF, 2020). However, use does not only rely on the presence of a given facility. Complementary perspectives will illustrate the scope of this universal yet unrecognised and under discussed public health issue: the avoidance of public and school toilets use by adolescents.  For further information on this and all our Research Seminars please contact Dr Cornelia Connolly cornelia.connolly@universityofgalway.ie  ‌

The first ever national Computer Science Week (#CSWeek) was held 8-15 October, with the School of Education organising several workshops for teachers, pre-service teachers and the wider community. There were workshops facilitated by visiting Professor Raquel Hijon-Neira from Universidad Rey Juan Carlos de Madrid and Postdoctoral Researcher Dr Sally McHugh on Micro:Bits, App Inventor and there was a also a webinar chaired by Dr Cornelia Connolly entitled “Eolaíocht ríomhaireachta don ardteistiméireacht.” A national conference to mark Computer Science Week was held on 13th October in Athlone. This conference was based on the CSforALLie event hosted by Dr Cornelia Connolly at University of Galway, supported by Google, in 2019 as referred to by Minister Foley (https://www.gov.ie/en/press-release/dc389-minister-foley-launches-inaugural-computer-science-week-8-15-october-2022/). The week cumulated with support by Google for the SFI CodePlus project. CodePlus is a national project aiming to address the gender imbalance in the fields of Computer Science providing workshops, in-company talks for young people identifying as female. https://www.siliconrepublic.com/careers/google-codeplus-trinity-women-it CS Week 2022 images: https://photos.app.goo.gl/hAy4UggAvvH5zPUH8

Congratulations to School of Education Postdoctoral Researcher Dr Colette Kirwan, who was successfully awarded a Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Postdoctoral Fellowship. Colette, who is collaborating with PI Dr Cornelia Connolly on Computer Science Education research, will contribute to the different areas of the SFI organisation, including the Education and Public Engagement strand. The Fellowship Award is for two years and will offer Colette the opportunity to experience the diverse activities of the SFI first-hand, while remaining with University of Galway.

Dr. Cornelia Connolly, School of Education at University of Galway, has been appointed to the Executive of Lero, the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Research Centre for Software. Dr. Connolly will chair the EDI (equity diversity inclusion) Committee, and contribute to Lero’s vision in establishing Ireland as a location synonymous with high-quality software research and development. Cornelia holds a M.Eng. in Computer Engineering and a Ph.D. in pedagogical innovation, as well as an M.B.A. Her prior experience as a business and management consultant with Accenture informs her research and practice, drawing from related disciplines of education, computing and technology. Since its foundation, Lero has very much extended its focus beyond purely software engineering to embrace a more expansive research agenda, reflecting the needs of industry partners, education and society.

New book published! This edited volume is about diversifying the teaching profession. It is unique in its inclusion of multiple dimensions of diversity; its chapters focus on a wide range of under-represented groups, including those from lower socio-economic groups, Black and minority ethnic groups, migrants, the Travelling community, the Deaf community, the LGBTQI+ community and those of mature age. The book includes contributions from Australia, England, Iceland, Portugal and Scotland, as well as a number of chapters from the Irish context, mostly emanating from projects funded under Ireland’s Higher Education Authority’s Programme for Access to Higher Education (PATH): Strand 1—Equity of Access to Initial Teacher Education. The book also critically engages the rationale for diversifying the profession, arguing not only that representation still matters, but also that ultimately teacher diversity work needs to encompass system transformation to achieve a diverse, equitable and inclusive teaching profession. Biography: Elaine Keane is a Senior Lecturer and Associate Professor as well as Director of Doctoral Studies in the School of Education and the University of Galway. Manuela Heinz is Senior Lecturer and Associate Professor as well as Head of Discipline of Education in the School of Education at the University of Galway. Rory Mc Daid is Senior Lecturer and Associate Professor in Sociology of Education as well as Director of Research at Marino Institute of Education, Dublin. Please see Discount Code below. Valid until 31st December 2022

‌ Primary Teachers - participate in study exploring religious tolerance in Catholic Primary Schools in Ireland and South Korea Jinmin Cho, primary teacher and PhD Researcher at NUI Galway is exploring teachers’ experiences and perspectives regarding the promotion of intercultural understanding and religious tolerance in Catholic schools in Ireland and South Korea’. The study also compares challenges faced by teachers in both countries. The project aims to support the promotion of religious tolerance and understanding of religious diversity in educational contexts. Jinmin is looking for teachers to participate in research interviews of approx. 1 hour duration. Please contact Jinmin at j.cho2@nuigalway.ie / 083-460-5775 if you would like to participate.

Policy recommendations: The past two years have seen disruptions on a global scale, which have been deeply unsettling for many and highlight the uncertainty of our everyday lives. For young people, the abrupt closing of schools meant that this key part of life either came to a halt or significantly changed the way of ‘doing’ school. As responses to the crisis developed, it became clear that while school closures had negative implications for most young people, the effects had greater consequence for some than for others. Concerns continue as schools reopen and develop new norms for teaching and learning and the practices of everyday life in schools. This study aims to create a rapid response through co-designing and co- developing coping, wellbeing and support strategies for young people (aged 12-18 years) and their parents, in the context of coping with COVID-19, including fast- tracking dissemination to facilitate educational engagement. The following Project Briefs emerged and provide recommendations to policy makers, educators and support service providers. Keane, E., Kealy, C., Dolan, Flynn, P., Flynn, N., Forkan, C., Furey, E., Mac Ruairc, G. and Murray, C. (2022). ‘The Impact of COVID-19 on young people (Project Brief 1)’, Crisis Coping-Marginalised young people’s living and learning experiences during COVID-19 in Ireland Project Brief Series, Galway: UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre and School of Education, NUI Galway. Project Brief 1‌  Murray, C., Kealy, C., Flynn, N., Forkan, C., Dolan, P., Flynn, P., Furey, E., Keane, E. and Mac Ruairc, G. (2022). ‘The coping of young people in the school reopening phase of COVID-19 (Project Brief 2)’, Crisis Coping-Marginalised young people’s living and learning experiences during COVID-19 in Ireland Project Brief Series, Galway: UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre and School of Education, NUI Galway. Project Brief 2‌  Kealy, C., Murray, C., Flynn, P., Dolan, P. Flynn, N., Forkan, C., Furey, E., Keane, E. and Mac Ruairc, G. (2022). ‘Parents’ perspectives on their children’s living and learning during COVID-19 (Project Brief 3)’, Crisis Coping-Marginalised young people’s living and learning experiences during COVID-19 in Ireland Project Brief Series, Galway: UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre and School of Education, NUI Galway. Project Brief 3Below for circulation:https://www.nuigalway.ie/cfrc/projects/currentprojects/crisiscopinglivingandlearningthroughcovid-19/outputs/

Dr Cornelia Connolly donates a piece of the Transatlantic Cable to Brendan Smith, Education and Public Engagement Officer, Insight Centre for Data Analytics, NUI Galway.  The cable promises to be a wonderful historical piece and a popular exhibit at the NUI Galway, Computer and Communications Museum of Ireland (https://ccmireland.com/).   The Transatlantic Cable was laid from Valentia in County Kerry to Newfoundland in Canada in the 1800’s – an amazing engineering feat to happen not long after the Irish famine and a short number of years before the establishment of our University.  The laying of the cable established Ireland as a hub for telecommunications.  To read more about the Transatlantic Cable check out the following:    RTE Brainstorm article: https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2021/0616/1228379-transatlantic-cable-valentia-island-newfoundland/  C. Connolly, (2002) "The transatlantic cable-an Irish perspective," in Proceedings of the IEEE, vol. 90, no. 4, pp. 623-625, https://doi.org/10.1109/JPROC.2002.1002531  Also check out the Computer and Communications Museum of Ireland (https://ccmireland.com/).

Dr Cornelia Connolly has been invited by the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) to design the formative assessment system for the computational problem solving framework. ‘Computational problem solving’ is that iterative process of developing computational solutions to problems. Forming part of the OECD’s PISA 2024 Learning in the Digital World assessment – the impactful international project involves collaboration with Stanford University, University of Maryland and Vanderbilt University.  

Dr Cornelia Connolly from the School of Education and colleagues from NUI Galway School of Medicine and the University of Limerick are collaborating on a SFI Discovery project ‘SpaceShipEarth.’ SpaceShipEarth (www.spaceshipearth.ie) is a research study to promote and engage young people in STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine). On Tuesday 15th June 2021 the team conducted their first workshop with over 300 primary school children attending from schools in Galway, Limerick and Kerry.  In the workshops children were taught about the importance of STEMM in our lives and how to ask interesting scientific questions and then to develop experiments to find the answers. The project involves launching high-altitude space balloons into space carrying experiments from the young people.  When the experiments are returned, the class will engage in analysis and discussion – extending and deepening their learning. SpaceShipEarth plans on launching July 2nd at Valencia Co. Kerry. Project website: www.spaceshipearth.ie  

June 9th Dr Cornelia Connolly, School of Education, presented along with colleagues from the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) at their ERASMUS+ project meeting.  The project “Computational thinking and mathematical thinking: digital literacy in mathematics curricula” focuses on the use of digital tools which young people and pre-service teachers will explore in our technology-rich learning environment. The project outcomes will influence the design of national curricula and the research questions how we can develop computational thinking skills in relation to mathematical thinking, in pure and applied mathematics. This ERASMUS+ (2019-2021) project is a collaboration with the School of Education, NUI Galway, National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA); Eötvös Loránd University, Hungry; KU Leuven, Belgium; National Education Institute Slovenia; Estonian Education Competence Center; Norwegian University of Science and Technology; and SLO, Netherlands Institute for Curriculum Development.

A new paper, published today, by School of Education, NUI Galway colleagues Drs Manuela Heinz, Elaine Keane and Kevin Davison explores Gender and Diversity in Teaching. Drawing on a national dataset, the authors explore entry patterns to primary and post-primary Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes, socio-demographic backgrounds and career motivations of male and female ITE applicants and entrants in Ireland. The paper provides new insights into the complexities of male positionalities in teaching and calls for dialectic debates about reasons for and implications of the underrepresentation of male teachers as well as the transformative potential of diverse and ‘caring’ masculinities for schools and society. 50 free copies available at:https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/SR2XBWK3VVT8HWGDUJBM/full?target=10.1080/02619768.2021.1890709

On 1st March, we celebrated Traveller Ethnicity Day in NUI Galway with a series of high-profile virtual events providing insights into Traveller culture, history and social issues.  Among the speakers were Minister Simon Harris and Senator Eileen Flynn.  Well done to our recent PME graduate Owen Ward who worked with the Access Office on the organisation of the Day. Owen also organised a panel session focusing on Diversity in the Teaching Profession, with panellists Josephine Walsh (NUIG Career Development Centre), Dr Manuela Heinz and Rachel Konisberry (School of Education), Joseph Nyirenda (Access Office), Brian Fahy (Teaching Council) and Denise Frawley (Higher Education Authority). During the session, research findings from the Diversity in Initial Teacher Education (DITE) National Study (PIs: Drs Manuela Heinz and Elaine Keane), the rationale for a diverse teaching profession, and experiences of teachers from non-traditional and minority backgrounds were shared and discussed. Panellists also provided information about the Higher Education Authority’s Programme of Access to Higher Education - PATH 1 Strand focusing on the diversification of the teaching profession in Ireland.

‌ Are you a pre-service post-primary teacher with an interest in Irish-medium education?  An bhfuil roinnt Gaeilge agat? Do you have conversational Irish?  Would you like to get a job in an Irish-medium school?  If the answer to those questions is ‘Yes’/’Tá’ then you should think of applying for the TTEG?  The School of Education in NUI Galway has developed the Teastas Teagaisc don Earnáil Ghaeloideachais (TTEG) in conjunction with the Department of Education and Skills and COGG. This online programme will give pre-service teachers an understanding of Irish-medium education. The TTEG is being offered free of charge and will run concurrently with your PME and not effect that programme in any way.   Main Points:  Six online sessions (Zoom)  The certificate will be presented on a pass/fail basis.  The assessment is on an oral presentation (there are no written assignments/examinations). This presentation will be based on application of course content to your own subject areas.  Conversational Irish is the only language requirement for TTEG.   Enclosed are more details as Gaeilge in relation to the programme: content, dates, etc. Completed application forms and queries should be sent to:  breandan.b.macgearailt@nuigalway.ie  Tá an Teastas Teagaisc don Earnáil Ghaeloideachais (TTEG)  á chur ar fáil ag foireann an Mháistir Ghairmiúil san Oideachas in OÉ Gaillimh i gcomhar leis an Roinn Oideachais agus Scileanna agus COGG.  Tabharfaidh an TTEG léargas agus tuiscint do mhúinteoirí faoi oiliúint ar chomhthéacs agus dea-chleachtais iomaire an Ghaeloideachais ag an iar-bhunleibhéal. Beidh an TTEG ag rith comhthreomhar le do chúrsa múinteoireachta agus ní chuirfidh sé as don chúrsa sin ar aon slí. Beidh an TTEG á reáchtáil go hiomlán ar líne agus tá sé saor in aisce do mhúinteoirí faoi oiliúint.  Príomhphointí  6 sheisiún ar líne (Zoom)  Bronnfar an TTEG ar bhonn pas/teip.  Beidh an measúnú bunaithe ar chur i láthair ó bhéal ós na scoláirí. Sa chur i láthair seo beidh ar na mic léinn ábhar an chúrsa a chur i bhfeidhm ar a n-ábhar féin.   Gaeilge chumarsáideach amháin atá ag teastáil don TTEG.  Tá tuilleadh sonraí (dátaí, ábhar an chúrsa srl.) mar aon le foirm iarratais iniata.   Ba cheart ceisteanna agus foirmeachas iarratais comhlánaithe a sheoladh chuig: breandan.b.macgearailt@nuigalway.ie 

We are delighted to be involved with this eight country Erasmus+ funded project.  Research Instruments are currently going through final piloting phase and we look forward to implementing new and innovative participatory pedagogies in second-level schools soon. The Ireland team is led by Professor Gerry MacRuairc, Dr Manuela Heinz and Dr Elaine Keane from the School of Education NUI Galway in collaboration with Dr Mary Shanahan from St Angela’s College, Sligo. Newsletter Erasmus+ Project LIFE 2 – Learning Interculturality from Religion

‌‌ A team of researchers in the School of Education at NUI Galway, in collaboration with the National Parents’ Council, are conducting an online survey exploring parents’ and children’s experiences and views of ‘schooling at home’ as a result of the closure of school buildings due to COVID-19.  It is believed that now, when the academic school year has recently ended (for post-primary students) or is coming to an end (for primary students), is a very good time to reflect on ‘schooling at home’, and to think about schooling into the future.  A particular focus of the research is whether the experience of ‘schooling at home’ has been different for different groups within society, particularly individuals from disadvantaged and/or minority communities.  All individuals in the Republic of Ireland who have a primary or post-primary school-aged child who has been ‘schooled at home’ as a result of COVID-19 are being invited to participate in the study.  School-aged children are also being invited to participate in the survey as we feel it is extremely important to capture the experiences and opinions of young people. Further information on the study, including details about what participation in the anonymous survey involves, what the potential benefits and risks of participation are, and how the data will be used, can be accessed at the following links: Information sheet for primary school-aged children and parents Information sheet for post-primary school-aged children and parents The survey, which will be live from 23rd June until 10th July, can be found at: English language version: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/surveyschoolingathomeLeagan Gaeilge ar fáil anseo: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/scolaiochtsabhaile

The 2020 4th Year BA Mathematics and Symposium  It is with great regret that the annual 4th Year BA Mathematics and Education Symposium had to be cancelled this year due to the current COVID-19 circumstances. We would like to thank everyone who had already expressed an interest in attending and our Guest Speakers who had offered to present to what was going to be an excellent event (Lynne McClure, Cambridge Mathematics, Shane Flanagan JCT Mathematics, Brendan Doheny PDST Applied Mathematics).  Thank you also to Dr Cornelia Connolly for her help in organising the event.  In preparation for the Symposium we had organised a Table Quiz in February and raised funds, from the quiz entry fee and raffle.  We wish to thank our friends and our lecturers who attended, participated and contributed prizes for the night.  As our Symposium event is not happening this year and the funding for such is no longer pertinent - the class group decided to make a donation to Charity.  We decided on two very honourable charities close to our thoughts: The Olive Branch for Children and Barretstown.  The Olive Branch for children helps remote communities in Tanzania assess their primary needs and establish programs that target the most vulnerable.  Two members from our class have spent some time there in Summer 2019 https://www.theolivebranchforchildren.org Barretstown is a serious fun camp in Kildare for sick children.  They offer completely free camps for children and their families living with a serious illness https://www.barretstown.org Although the country, and indeed the world, is currently at a standstill due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus we thought about charities and needs in the world that are still in need of support.  We are sad for the way our four years at NUI Galway ended yet very grateful for the memories and times had.

Invitation to attend lecture by Professor Kalwant Bhopal We are excited to announce that the School of Education at NUI Galway will host Professor Kalwant Bhopal (Director, Centre for Research in Race & Education (CRRE), University of Birmingham) on Thursday, April 30th 2020 at 3pm.  Venue TBC (NUI Galway).  Her lecture is titled: BME Experiences in Higher Education: Policy making, Social Justice and White Privilege  Abstract: This lecture will examine recent statistics on the representation of BME staff and students in higher education and explore how processes of racism, exclusion and marginalisation continue to disadvantage BME groups.  It will use empirical research which explores BME academic flight from higher education to suggest ways forward for the inclusion of BME focusing on issues of equity and social justice.  The lecture will discuss how white privilege works to disadvantage those from BME backgrounds and will explore how universities can develop good practice for the inclusion of BME groups in higher education.  Biography: Kalwant Bhopal is Professor of Education and Social Justice.  She was appointed Professorial Research Fellow from 2017-2020.  In January 2020 she became Director of the Centre for Research in Race and Education (CRRE) in the School of Education.  Kalwant’s research focuses on the achievements and experiences of minority ethnic groups in education.  She has conducted research on exploring discourses of identity and intersectionality examining the lives of Black minority ethnic groups as well as examining the marginal position of Gypsies and Travellers.  Her research specifically explores how processes of racism, exclusion and marginalisation operate in predominantly White spaces with a focus on social justice and inclusion.  Kalwant is Visiting Professor at Kings College London (Department of Education and Professional Studies) and was Visiting Professor at Harvard University in the Harvard Graduate School of Education from 2017-2019.  Registration: Please register as soon as possible but no later than April 24th.  Register at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bme-experiences-in-higher-education-professor-kalwant-bhopal-tickets-97151261037  Any queries, contact Dr Elaine Keane at elaine.keane@nuigalway.ie

An NUI Galway study has been published in the Irish Educational Studies peer-reviewed academic journal calling for the provision of a range of supports for parents of young children with Down Syndrome to enable them to enhance the home literacy environment. We are delighted to see our paper exploring Shared reading practices between parents and young children with Down Syndrome in Ireland published in Irish Educational Studies. https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/7JJT2X5WNTVX328STAN2/full?target=10.1080/03323315.2020.1729836 The paper is based on Ms Sinead Lusby’s M.Ed. study (supervised by Dr. Manuela Heinz) conducted at the School of Education, NUI Galway. Ms Lusby is a Primary school teacher in Scoil Chaitri̒ona Junior, Renmore, Galway with 23 years teaching experience in mainstream, learning support, resource and EAL. The focus of this study was influenced by professional and personal factors.  In her role as a primary school teacher, Ms. Lusby has witnessed the immense benefits of parent-child shared reading in the literacy development of both typically developing children and children with special needs.  Further, as a parent of a young girl with Down syndrome, with whom she introduced shared reading at an early age, she has seen first-hand the significant benefits of shared reading in promoting the development of her daughter’s emergent literacy skills.  Additionally, the significant interest of many parents of young children with Down syndrome, particularly in the Galway Down syndrome branch, in supporting the literacy development of their children, and the call for assistance from parents in this regard, further reinforced Sinead’s motivation to undertake this research study.  In particular, Sinead strongly believed that there was a need to quantify current nationwide shared reading practices in order to explore the need for parental education and support in this area.  We are delighted and very proud to see this important research published in Irish Educational Studies. Dr Heinz, supervisor of Ms Lusby’s M.Ed. study says that: Ms Lusby’s study provides very important baseline data regarding the current reading practices of parents with their young children with Down Syndrome which may be used in the planning and implementation of parental education programmes.  Findings point to high levels of commitment among parents to reading with their children and a call for further guidance and support.  The paper outlines specific recommendations regarding the provision of parental support which we hope can make a significant contribution towards enhancing the development of the emergent literacy skills of young children with Down syndrome.

Dr Cornelia Connolly hosted the “Leadership Reserves: Agents of transformation in teacher education” at NUI Galway.  The delegation from the Ministry of Education and MOFET Institute in Israel visited the School of Education at NUI Galway where they attended a series of presentations learning from and gaining an understanding of the Irish education system and teacher education.  Dr Connolly hosted the event and there was a series of presentations from colleagues in the School of Education, School of Sociology and Politics, PDST, Centre for School Leadership and the UNESCO Child & Family Research Centre. 

The School of Education, NUI Galway are proud to host the Team Math Quiz for students from second level schools from the catchment area. The Irish Mathematics Teachers' Association (IMTA) Galway Branch are organising the Regional Rounds and the Quiz will be held on Friday January 24th at 7:30pm in Block E, South Campus, NUI Galway. Team Math is a table quiz for teams of 4 students from Leaving Cert year with questions based on the Leaving Certificate higher level syllabus. This competition has been a long running activity of the Irish Mathematics Teachers' Association with local and regional competitions organised since 1991.  The first national final for the quiz was held in Trinity College Dublin in 2005.  The Irish Mathematics Teachers' Association is one of the longest established teacher subject associations, having been founded in January 2nd, 1964 – the inaugural meeting was in Newman House, St. Stephen's Green, Dublin. The IMTA run and support a number of maths competitions for students throughout the year such as Peters Problem, The Pi Quiz and The Junior Maths Competition. NUI Galway are proud to host the Team Math Quiz again this year and look forward to welcoming many local and regional schools! 

Are you interested in learning more about intercultural education and enhancing your pedagogical skills in a culturally diverse classroom? Are you a primary school teacher in Galway? If the answer to the above questions is ‘Yes’ then you should consider signing up for an exciting Collaborative Action Research project with teachers starting in February 2020. Seun Adebayo, a PhD student at the School of Education in NUI Galway, is currently conducting an action research project to enhance primary school teachers’ pedagogy so as to create more culturally inclusive learning environments in Ireland. See leaflet for information, and you can also contact Seun Adebayo: s.adebayo2@nuigalway.ie for more details and to sign up!

On Thursday, 14th November, organised by Dr. Elaine Keane and Dr. Manuela Heinz, the School of Education at NUI Galway hosted the Diversity in Teaching research symposium. Building on their previous Diversity in Initial Teacher Education (DITE) project funded by the Irish Research Council (2013-2015), the Diversity in Teaching event was Ireland’s first research symposium on the topic.   Professor Anne Scott, Vice-President for Equality and Diversity at NUI Galway, opened the event and welcomed the 60+ participants who were in attendance from higher education institutions all over Ireland, as well as from Canada, the US, and the UK. Professor Liz Thomas (Edge Hill University, England) provided the keynote address, examining the role of professional passion in improving diversity and success in teacher education.  Drs. Elaine Keane and Manuela Heinz further contextualised the symposium’s work by examining the rationale for diversifying the teaching profession. The remainder of the day featured 18 papers presented by national and international participants, many drawing on projects funded under the Higher Education Authority’s innovative Programme for Access to Higher Education (PATH), Strand 1 (Equity of Access to Teacher Education), which in 2017 committed €2.4 million to projects to diversify the teaching profession in Ireland. Chaired by Dr. Rory McDaid (Marino Institute of Education), the day closed with a panel session looking to the future in the area, with contributions from Neil McDermott (Higher Education Authority), Eilish Bergin (Department of Education and Skills), Owen Ward (Professional Master of Education student), and Drs. Elaine Keane and Manuela Heinz (School of Education, NUI Galway).   Dr. Elaine Keane:  "We were delighted to welcome so many colleagues from the national and international contexts to Ireland’s first research symposium on Diversity in Teaching here at NUI Galway. Diversifying the teaching profession has long been a core research focus for us here in the School of Education, and the symposium’s work here today has laid the foundation stone for the progress of this important work into the future." Dr. Manuela Heinz:  "The research symposium offered teacher educators, representatives from the Department of Education and the Higher Education Authority, teachers, student teachers and education researchers the opportunity to discuss ways forward. Our previous DITE research identified a significant ‘diversity gap’ between student and teacher cohorts. Now that we are supporting the recruitment of a more diverse student teacher cohort, we need to provide the necessary supports for teachers from currently underrepresented groups, an important focus for research." L-R  Dr Manuela Heinz (School of Education, NUI Galway), Professor Anne Scott (Vice-President for Equality and Diversity, NUI Galway), Professor Liz Thomas (Keynote Speaker, Director and Chair, Widening Participation Research Centre, Edge Hill University, England), Dr Elaine Keane (School of Education, NUI Galway) Panel Session L-R   Dr Elaine Keane and Dr Manuela Heinz (School of Education, NUI Galway), Neil McDermott (Senior Manager, Access Policy, Higher Education Authority), Owen Ward (Professional Master of Education programme student, Professor Liz Thomas (Director and Chair, Widening Participation Research Centre, Edge Hill University, England), and Eilish Bergin (Department of Education and Skills). For more information, contact: Dr Elaine Keane and Dr Manuela Heinz (Elaine.keane@nuigalway.ie Manuela.heinz@nuigalway.ie)

Our BA Mathematics and Education Class of 2019 have graduated.  Congratulations to each of you on your degree awarded today, it has been a pleasure working with you.  We wish you well in your future careers.

TEACHERS'  SURVEY! Following the Government's Review of Initial Teacher Education in Ireland in 2012, the School of Education at NUI Galway and St. Angleas Sligo is looking for your views on the development of future graduate courses for teachers and school leaders in all education sectors.   We are asking you to complete this survey so we can find out: 1. What areas you would like to study at graduate level2. What qualifications you are interested in  3. How and where you would like the course to take place - online/blended/face to face   All completed questionnaires will be entered for a draw for a 200 euro voucher in time for Christmas

The School of Education, NUI Galway were delighted to launch a new Erasmus project this week in conjunction with Claregalway Community College and schools and universities from Oslo, Krakow and Murcia.  The project “Big Ideas for Better Schools” #ErasmusBI_BS will focus on diversity democracy and equity in our schools.

NUI Galway’s University Research Ethics Board recently organised a development event for it’s members.  Dr Kevin Davison (NUI Galway Research Ethics Committee Chair) and Gem Mathieu (NUI Galway Research Ethics Coordinator) welcomed Dr Heike Felzmann (School of Humanities) who opened the proceedings and led challenging discussions around key ethical themes including: value of research, scientific validity, fair subject selection, favourable risk-benefit ratio, independent review, informed consent and respect for participants.   Peter Feeney delivered training on GDPR highlighting the extensive set of resources available on the NUI Galway Data Protection website (www.nuigalway.ie/data-protection) which offers excellent advice on a wide range of GDPR issues and a suite of resources to support.

Congratulations to Dr Laura Tagnin and her research supervisors Dr Manuela Heinz, Dr Maire Ní Riordáin and Dr Mary Fleming on Laura's successful defence of her PhD.  Her thesis was titled: 'Science Classroom Discourse and Learning in Secondary Biology Classrooms Implementing a Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) Approach.’   Many thanks to Dr Jennifer Johnson, University of Lincoln and Dr Veronica McCauley who examined Laura's work.

The School of Education would like to wish Nicole Loughlin, a student from the BA Mathematics and Education the very best of luck in the Rose of Tralee.  Nicole completed the four-year teacher education programme in June and is representing County Mayo at the Tralee festival. During her undergraduate degree Nicole made a fantastic contribution to her course and the students she taught while on School Placement.  She also organized and fund raised to build a school in Malawi – read more about her efforts here: https://www.nuigalway.ie/about-us/news-and-events/news-archive/2018/november/nui-galway-student-fundraises-to-build-a-post-primary-school-in-malawi-.html Nicole’s classmates, her lecturers and the School of Education wish her the very best of luck!  Wishing all the Roses's a lovely time and enjoyable experience.

The Galway Branch of the Irish Mathematics Teacher Association (IMTA) and School of Education, NUI Galway hosted a review of the Junior and Leaving Certificate Mathematics examination papers recently.  Feedback from the meeting was gathered, collated at a national level and will be forwarded to the SEC. The IMTA Galway branch meet regularly at the Education Building at NUI Galway – contact Dr. Cornelia Connolly (cornelia.connolly@nuigalway.ie) for further information on membership and meetings. Open to all teachers of mathematics in the region, and free student membership to PME and BME students, the IMTA is a teacher professional network providing a valuable resource to support teachers of mathematics at post primary level.

Dr Cornelia Connolly recently presented at the MOFET Institute.  The MOFET Institute is an NGO founded by the Israeli Ministry of Education and a Centre for Research and Programme Development in Teacher Education. Their conference “The Story of Innovation in Teacher Education” was attended by world leading teacher educators sharing best practice in professional development, policy changes, equity and social justice causes, as well as innovative perspectives arising from the latest research, theory and practice. Dr Connolly presented along with Dr Tami Seifert, Kibbutzim College of Education, Tel Aviv and Dr Antonio Calderon, University of Limerick - their paper was titled “Construction of Knowledge in a Web 2.0 Environment – Teachers and Pre-Service Teachers’ Perceptions.”

Congratulations to Dr Niall McVeigh and his research supervisor, Dr Mary Fleming, on Niall's successful defence of this PhD today. Many thanks to Prof. Alma Harris, Swansea University (external) and Prof. Gerry Mac Ruairc (internal) who examined Niall's work, titled: 'Unpacking Distributed Leadership: Narrowing the gap in practice for post-primary school leaders'. Well done Niall, from all of us here at the School of Education.

Congratulations to Dr Rose Ní Dhubhda and PhD supervisor Dr Brendan Mac Mahon, School of Education, NUI Galway, on the completion of Rose's thesis and successful viva defence. Rose's doctoral research applied design-based research to technology-enhanced learning in Irish language education. Titled 'Students as Creators: The Impact of Digital Innovation on Irish-Language Learning', Rose's doctoral work exemplifies how digital innovation can impact positively on children’s language learning in Irish, in particular through design-based learning and the application of creative and constructionist technology. Further, the TALES design model she developed in her PhD research provides a framework for educational designers and technologists to adopt and adapt similar, impactful innovations meaningfully within their respective contexts of learning.

Diversifying initial teacher education, and the teaching profession, in Ireland and internationally, has been of research and policy significance for some time, and since 2017 has been operationalised in practice (in Ireland) through projects funded by the Higher Education Authority under PATH1[1]. On Thursday, November 14th 2019, the School of Education at NUI Galway will host a Research Symposium on Diversity in Teaching. Professor Anne Scott, Vice President for Diversity and Equality at NUI Galway, will open proceedings, and Professor Liz Thomas, Director and Chair, Widening Participation Research Centre, Edge Hill University, England, will provide the keynote address. The symposium main proceedings will consist of a number of parallel sessions and a panel discussion.  The main aim is to provide a forum for the sharing of research findings from the projects funded under PATH1, and other relevant projects in the national and international contexts.  The symposium is an invitation-based event in order to focus on core messages from learning to date from national and international projects and progressing the field into the future. If you are interested in having your work considered for presentation at the symposium, please send the completed template to Dr. Elaine Keane (elaine.keane@nuigalway.ie) and Dr. Manuela Heinz (manuela.heinz@nuigalway.ie) at the School of Education, NUI Galway by August 30th 2019.  Initial discussions have been held with Routledge, and a proposal for an edited collection, based on the symposium, will be submitted in early 2020.  A central aim of the proposed edited collection is to bring together research findings from a range of relevant projects and studies to investigate the rationale, process, implications and outcomes of diversifying the teaching profession, from a wide range of perspectives, inter alia, students and student teachers, initial teacher education providers, and student support services. If you would like to have your work considered for inclusion in this edited collection, please indicate your interest on the relevant place on the template.  Please note that not all papers accepted for presentation at the symposium will be selected for inclusion in the proposed edited collection.   Abstract Submission Template Name(s)   Affiliation(s)   PATH1 Project (where relevant)   Title of Paper   Abstract 500 words max. to include contextualisation in policy and research literature, methodology, findings and conclusions.   [extend box as necessary]             Tick if interested in edited collection   [1] Programme for Access to Higher Education (PATH) (Strand 1: Equity of Access to Initial Teacher Education).

The Access to Post-Primary Teaching (APT) Project Launch and Schools’ Event took place at NUI Galway on Tuesday, May 21st 2019.  The APT project, funded by the Higher Education Authority under the Programme for Access to Higher Education (PATH), Strand 1 (Equity of Access to Initial Teacher Education), is a three-year joint initiative between NUI Galway and St. Angela’s College, Sligo, and aims to support the progression and retention of those from lower socio-economic groups in initial teacher education (ITE). The NUI Galway aspect of the APT project is led by Dr Elaine Keane and Dr Manuela Heinz (APT Principal Investigators), and Dr Andrea Lynch (APT Post-doctoral Researcher), in the School of Education, in partnership with the Access Centre and the Career Development Centre at NUI Galway.  The project is supported by funding from Galway University Foundation as well as the HEA. Drs Keane and Heinz previously implemented the highly successful Diversity in Initial Teacher Education (DITE) national research project (funded by the Irish Research Council), establishing the first national evidence base in relation to the socio-demographic profile of applicants and entrants to ITE in Ireland. Drs Keane and Heinz published their findings in a range of peer-reviewed journals demonstrating the homogeneity of the ITE population in Ireland and the particular under-representation of those from lower socio-economic and minority ethnic backgrounds and those with disabilities. Dr Keane was subsequently invited to be a member of the Department of Education and Skills Working Group (Diversity in Initial Teacher Education) which led to the establishment of PATH1 funding to diversify ITE. Dr. Heinz has been invited and is currently working on the data working group of the Teacher Supply Data Working Group set up by the Department of Education and Skills. The APT project currently supports 21 participants in the Professional Master of Education (PME) in the School of Education at NUI Galway, and also works with senior cycle school pupils in DEIS schools, through the APT participants’ school placements as student teachers, in relation to higher education progression, and career planning. On Tuesday, May 21st 2019, as part of the celebrations for the 20th Anniversary of Access at NUI Galway, the APT project was formally launched by Professor Gerry MacRuairc, Head of the School of Education.  Over 100 senior cycle pupils from schools across the BMW region,  teachers from these schools, and the APT project participants, participated in the day-long event, which featured presentations and contributions from Professor Liz Thomas (Director and Chair, Widening Participation Research Centre, Edge Hill University, England); Hannagh McGinley (PhD student in the School of Education); APT Project leads Dr. Elaine Keane and Dr Manuela Heinz; Imelda Byrne (Director of Access); Josephine Walsh (Head of Career Development Centre); Dr Olga O’Mahony (Access Centre); Rachel Konisberry (School of Education); and Owen Mac an Bhaird (PME student), as well as small-group workshops facilitated by the Access and Career Development Centres.  The day’s sessions were aimed at supporting school pupils’ higher education and career planning, including in relation to teaching as a career.  Also in attendance were representatives from the Department of Education and Skills (Eilish Bergin and Sarah Kearns) and the Higher Education Authority (Neil McDermott, Senior Manager, Access Policy). Quotes:Dr Elaine Keane:  It was a privilege for us in the School of Education to host students from many schools in Galway and beyond, including from Donegal, at our Access to Post-primary (APT) project event.  Diversifying the teaching profession has long been a core research focus for us here in the School; through the Diversity in Initial Teacher Education (DITE) project, funded by the Irish Research Council, we established a national evidence base regarding the backgrounds and motivations of those applying and entering initial teacher education (ITE). Through the APT project, funded by the Higher Education Authority and Galway University Foundation, we are acting on this evidence base, and working to attract and support those under-represented in the teaching profession into our flagship ITE programme, the Professional Master of Education (PME).  We currently have 21 APT participants on the PME.  The day was wonderfully inspiring and we were delighted by the response of the school pupils. Dr Manuela Heinz:  It was fantastic to see so many second-level students actively participating during lectures and workshops throughout the day and showing an interest in teaching and higher education.  The young people asked many thoughtful questions and made a wonderful contribution to this important day.  We hope that the students have gained a better understanding of the many routes that are available to them with regard to their future career choices.  We would definitely love to see some of them again in the future at NUI Galway and, hopefully, in the School of Education.  Teaching is such an important and wonderfully rewarding job and we hope that people from all backgrounds are encouraged to consider it as a career so that we can, hopefully in the near future, see a teaching body that reflects the rich diversity of the population of Ireland. Dr Andrea Lynch:  The Access to Post-Primary Teaching (APT) Event & Launch was an exciting and inspiring day for all! Numerous Higher Education students and graduates from under-represented groups graciously shared their stories of overcoming educational barriers, demonstrating that with adequate support, hard-work and determination can pay off in the pursuit of dreams and goals.  Additionally, Professor Liz Thomas illustrated the power of Higher Education in changing lives.  It is our hope that the post-primary students who participated in our event won't soon forget the great examples they met today, and that the information shared will have truly life changing consequences. For more information on the APT Project, contact: Dr Elaine Keane and Dr. Manuela Heinz (Elaine.keane@nuigalway.ie Manuela.heinz@nuigalway.ie) or Dr Andrea Lynch (andrea.lynch@nuigalway.ie)

The application process for the Galway Doctoral Scholarship Scheme has opened on our website today. The Scholarships are valued at €16,250 per annum, comprised of fees of €5,250 and a stipend of €11,000. The timelines for the application process are as follow:     Tuesday 21th May 2019 Open for Applications Monday 10th June 2019 Closing Date for Applications. Friday 21st June 2019 Submission of Applications to Schools for Assessment. Monday 8th July 2019 Completion of Assessment Process by Schools. Monday 22nd July 2019 First Round Offers. Details of the application process are available at the following link: http://www.nuigalway.ie/colleges-and-schools/arts-social-sciences-and-celtic-studies/phd-research-degrees/scholarships/index.html  Details in relation to the Active Consent Programme Scholarship are also available on this page and the details of the application process for the following Scholarships will be made available over the next few days: The Galway 2020 Scholarship. The DAH Scholarship.

“Because we can, we should…” “Children are the messages to a world we will never see…” Our School of Education staff research strategy day, was facilitated this year by Professor Tony Gallagher, from the School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work at Queen’s University Belfast.

  The School of Education and UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre, Institute for Lifecourse and Society at NUI Galway have announced a new research collaboration which will enable partnership and collaborative expertise to address key priority areas for young people’s education and well-being, in Ireland and internationally. Speaking of the innovative collaboration, Professor Gerry Mac Ruairc, Head of the School of Education: ‘This new initiative provides greater, enhanced capacity at NUI Galway for shared impactful research and graduate study in the promotion of young people’s education and well-being, in and outside of school.’ Professor Pat Dolan, Director of UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre, Institute for Lifecourse and Society noted the potential of this timely partnership and how bringing together the cognate research areas of both the School of Education and UNESCO Centre at NUI Galway will help to promote and enhance education in formal and non-formal contexts: ‘Our alignment in research will impact significantly on our current and future work, particularly in terms of augmenting our impact with schools, practitioners, families, parents, and our educational partners and stakeholders, including the regulatory context and policymakers’. The new collaboration between the School of Education and UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre will initially explore developments to enhance NUI Galway’s research capacity and impact across a number of identified priority areas, including education for empathy and well-being; inclusion and diversity; STEM education; special educational needs; educational policy; participatory and practitioner research methodologies; and educational design.

  A group of second-level students from 5 schools in Co. Clare visited NUI Galway to deliver an interactive lecture focusing on the topic of Online Safety to our Professional Master of Education (PME) Year 1 student teachers.  The second-level students were supported by Brian McManus, coordinator from Clare Youth Services and the Clare Comhairle na nOg and Irene Guédan, McAfee Online Safety Program coordinator. A massive thanks to all the students and their supporters for providing this important and very insightful lecture for our future teachers.  

The School of Education, NUI Galway hosted its 8th Annual Postgraduate Research Seminar (PGRS) in the Education Building, Nuns’ Island on Wednesday 10th April. It was looking an informative and well supported seminar. Contemporary research in Irish education: Volume 6: Book of abstracts of the 8th Annual Postgraduate Research Seminar: https://aran.library.nuigalway.ie/handle/10379/15109 Where to find us.

The School of Education, NUI Galway hosted a Research Seminar Series event on Design Thinking and Blended Learning Design. Dr Leigh Graves Wolf, Clinical Associate Professor, Arizona State University; Dr Tony Hall, Deputy Head o the School of Education & Dr Cornelia Connolly, Chair of the School of Education Research Committee  Dr Leigh Graves Wolf presented on principles underpinning design thinking and the increasing popularity of design-based methods in educational research and blended learning design. Dr Graves Wolf exemplified blended learning design through a number of innovative programmes she has worked on and is currently leading in the US. Speaker Biography:Leigh Graves Wolf is teacher-scholar and a clinical associate professor in the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University.  Leigh teaches with the educational leadership and innovation eddprogram and is a faculty fellow with the office of scholarship & innovation.  Her work centers around online education, k12 teacher professional development and relationships mediated by and with technology.  She has worked across the educational spectrum from k12 to higher to further and lifelong.  She believes passionately in collaboration and community.  Leigh shares all of her work and ideas publicly on her Blog, Twitter & flickr.

Celebrating the 10th year of the programme and our 4BME final year class on the BA Mathematics and Education initial teacher education programme (CAO Code: GY109).  Initiated in 2008-09, it was the very first progrogramme of its kind in Ireland for students who wanted to become teachers of mathematics and applied mathematics. The fourth year students on the BA Mathematics and Education (BME) programme on Tuesday last (2-4-2019), held their Symposium – a showcase of research and work in the area of mathematical education by the fourth year students. The students were honoured to have past president of NUI Galway, Dr. Iognáid Ó Muircheartaigh deliver this year’s keynote address.  Dr. Ó Mhuircheartaigh, himself a graduate of pure mathematics from UCD and a PhD in statistics from Glasgow University – presented about his career and areas of research, namely descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. Students presented their final year action research projects and reflections on their time over the four years.  Introduced in 2008, the BME graduates qualified second-level teachers of mathematics and applied mathematics, who are also fully qualified mathematicians.  The event brought together students from third and fourth year on the BME, academic staff from the School of Education, School of Mathematics, Applied Mathematics and Statistics, as well as staff from GMIT Letterfrack. This year’s Symposium also celebrated the 10 Year Anniversary for the programme and the students marked the occasion with quotes, photographs and a few words from past students and lecturers.  Now to look forward to the next 10 years of the programme! We were delighted to have our opening keynote from President Emeritus Prof. Iognáid (Iggy) Ó Muircheartaigh  ‌ The BA Mathematics and Education Class of 2019, along with Prof. Gerry Mac Ruairc, President Emeritus Prof. Iognáid (Iggy) Ó Muircheartaigh, Drs Cornelia Connolly, Kirsten Pfeiffer and Tony Hall.

The School of Education, NUI Galway held its annual School-University Day on Friday 29th April as part of the School's commitment to liaising with the practicing teachers within our area

Drs Cornelia Connolly & Tony Hall were invited to present at the inaugural International Society for Design and Development in Education (ISDDE) UK 2019 meeting at the University of Cambridge.   Hosted by Cambridge Mathematics, the event included discussions and presentations from key educational partners in curriculum design and development, mathematics education, and educational publishing and technology. Prof. Geoff Wake, University of Nottingham, provided the keynote address on key contemporary issues in educational design research.  Cornelia and Tony presented the design of NUI Galway's new undergraduate teacher education programme for computer science and maths teachers: the BA Education (Computer Science and Mathematical Studies).  They also met with colleagues of the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, and visited local primary and post-primary schools.  Tony and Cornelia jointly chaired the 14th Annual ISDDE Conference, which was held May 28th-31st in NUI Galway, for the first time in Ireland; the next international conference will be held at the University of Pittsburgh in September 2019.

‌ L-R Prof Gerry Mac Ruairc, Dr Jane Jones, Dr Patrick Farren Dr Jane Jones, Senior Lecturer in Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) Education at Kings College London, recently presented at the School of Education, NUI Galway Research Seminar Series event. Jane has participated in numerous international projects to provide platforms for teachers and school leaders to share their knowledge and practices of learning teaching and assessment on a cross-national basis.  Her research interests are all aspects of languages teaching and learning, assessment, teacher development and comparative education. One of her key messages during the presentation was Jane's ambition to 'move teachers into transformative practice, away from repetitive practice'.  

The guest presenters at CSforALL 2019 The School of Education at NUI Galway recently organised and hosted the inaugural computer science education summit, CSforAll. The Summit was supported by Google and marked the first time CSforAll was hosted outside of the United States, with attendees from across Ireland, Europe and the US. This coincided with the announcement that the School of Education at NUI Galway will commence a new BA Education (Computer Science and Mathematical Studies) undergraduate initial teacher education programme in September 2019. CSforAll is a large-scale global movement to mobilise and promote computer science education among all students and teachers. Initiated and championed by President Barack Obama when he hosted the inaugural CSforAll Summit in the White House. Key stakeholders such as National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, Professional Development Service for Teachers, and the Department of Education attended along with international speakers from Michigan State University, Munich University, industry and James Whelton, the co-founder of Coderdojo who delivered the keynote address. Gaelscoil Riabhach, Loughrea, Co. Galway, Castleblayney College Monaghan, Presentation Secondary School Warrenmount, Dublin, Coláiste Chiaráin Limerick and Scoil Bhríde Mercy Secondary School, Tuam were the selected Showcase Schools at the event. A key message and conversation topic of the day was about the equity in Computer Science – reiterating the message that one can be a great programmer no matter background, gender or race. What is important is increasing baseline Computer Science knowledge amongst all and providing everyone with the opportunity to learn – computer science is about equity, fun, transformation, digital literacy, and so much more. There was discussion also regarding the mental health issues around computing and social media. Dr Cornelia Connolly, event organiser and Lecturer with NUI Galway’s School of Education, said: “As the first CSforAll outside of the US, NUI Galway's event marks an historic development in Computer Science education in Ireland, bringing together the key educational stakeholders and partners in celebrating and exploring the potential of coding and computational thinking in Irish classrooms and schools. At a time when Irish schools are piloting Computer Science as a Senior Cycle subject, we were delighted to host CSforAll and the watershed initiatives taking place around the country and internationally, including the inspirational work of Irish pupils and teachers working creatively with a range of innovative technologies, including micro-controllers, coding applications and software.”    The Summit website, including more photos from the day, are available at https://sites.google.com/view/csforallirelandsummit/home. Press release kindly provided by NUI Galway Marketing and Communications Office.

The School of Education, NUI Galway hosted its eighth Development Education Day on Tuesday, February 19th, 2019.  Funded by Irish Aid through the UBUNTU network this event is embedded firmly in the School's philosophy of equality and justice. The overall aim of the day is to raise awareness among student teachers on concepts such as development, social justice, sustainability and human rights and to foster discussion and debate on how best to integrate such issues into teaching and learning at the secondary school level. This year, as per previous years, students from other Schools within NUIG as well as Transition Year (TY) students and teachers from some local secondary schools were invited to attend the event.   A number of development education experts, representing a range of development and development education organisations, facilitated interactive workshops for over 150 student teachers and members of staff of the School of Education and local post-primary schools. In addition, Peadar King, producer of the RTE series 'What in the World?', provided a thought provoking address on how we, and the media in particular, construct people as different and the consequences of such constructions of ‘other’, in particular the impact that this might have for student teachers in their professional practice.  Click here for the Development Education Day 2019 Schedule.

  Daniela Donghi (PME 2016-2018) was recently awarded the NUI Scholarship in Education and Nicola de Faoite (MGO 2016-2018) shared the NUI Prize in Education with a student from UCC (Rebecca Farr).    The awards are given to the top students on the Professional Master of Education (PME) or An Máistir Gairmiúil san Oideachas (MGO) in the constituent universities.   The  Awards Ceremony was held in the Round Room of the Mansion House, Dublin recently and the Chancellor of the University presented the awards.   Pictured at the Awards Ceremony are Dr Mary Fleming and Daniela Donghi.

Dr Veronica McCauley, Lecturer in Science Education, organised a Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) event in the School of Education, NUI Galway to showcase an abundance of online teaching resources for teachers.  John O’Donoghue (Trinity College Dublin), National Education Coordinators for the RSC led this event. Local science teachers from the Galway branch of the Irish Science Teacher's Association (ISTA) network were invited to join School of Education student science teachers from the Professional Masters of Education (PME) programme.   The Royal Society of Chemistry provide a wealth of teaching resources as well as some practical ideas for teaching various topics.  In this 90 minute workshop teachers learned how to use some of the freely available RSC resources in their teaching, with time to discuss each topic openly. This year there was a discussion around the use of UV beads to measure the rate of reaction at Junior Cycle level.  A simple, clean experiment that is ideal for Junior Cycle students was carried out by attendees as part of some 'hands on' experience to support guided inquiry. This workshop was aimed at everyone from trainee to experienced teachers and was interactive and informal.  Both Junior and Senior Cycle resources were reviewed on the evening and there was a bundle of freebies for each teacher. 

‌ Figure: Presenter Dr Veronica McCauley (Lecturer in Science Education, School of Education, NUI Galway) Dr Veronica McCauley (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Veronica_Mccauley ), lecturer in science education, NUI Galway recently co-presented with her former School of Education doctoral student, Dr. Diogo Martins Gomes (@dgomes1307) who is the Science Communicators' Team Leader at the Cambridge Science Centre in the UK.  Both were invited to present a paper at the inaugural MORSE conference (http://www.rsc.org/events/detail/31852/methods-of-research-in-science-education-morse), which is the first conference that singularly promotes discussion and teaching of methods of research in science education.  The conference was held on 2nd November 2018 at Dublin Institute of Technology. The abstract for the talk is below: Abstract:Decision making in research is critical. Narrowing down the research problem, eliciting specific research questions and identifying a research methodology to draw adequate insight is an ongoing challenge where we continue to question each alternative.  This seminar invites you to consider decision making as a provoked and exploratory research methodology.  Our overarching research aim was to examine and compare primary teachers’ and outreach practitioners’ understanding and   perception of a constructivist science pedagogy, in an effort to understand the potential of a teacher-outreach partnership.  From a qualitative perspective, we took a dialectic pragmatic stance.  Conceptual and pedagogical dichotomies were created from educational theories and their practical application.  These dilemmas were then illustrated through video animation in order to entice the participants to consider each virtual concept within the daily practice of their classroom.  A brief overview will be given of our research context, question, and the methodological design of three conceptual and three pedagogical dichotomies and insight into the dilemmatic method that was enacted with 31 teachers and 30 outreach practitioners.  During the seminar, we will also invite you to try out some data analysis with us, to get a sense of the type of data that we analysed and the fun we had in trying to make sense of it all.    Relevant papers that were discussed during the talk to illustrate the dilemmatic methodology are below: Martins Gomes, D. and V. McCauley (2016) 'Dialectical dividends: fostering hybridity of new pedagogical practices and partnerships in science education and outreach'. International Journal Of Science Education  https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09500693.2016.1234729 McCauley, V., Martins Gomes, D. and Davison, K. (2018) 'Constructivism in the third space: challenging pedagogical perceptions of science outreach and science education'. International Journal of Science Education. Part B: Communication and Public Engagement, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21548455.2017.140944

Figure (From L to R): John Loughlin, National Chair of ISTA and Mr. Rory Geoghegan, Presenter (ISTA) The Irish Science Teachers’ Association, in collaboration with Lennox Laboratory Supplies recently (Wednesday 24th October 2018) supported an ‘Earth and Space' event in the School of Education, NUI Galway. Dr Veronica McCauley (VMcC_ScienceEd) Lecturer in Science Education, organised the event in conjunction with the Galway ISTA branch, and the response from teachers was immense.   Rory Geoghegan, Lecturer in Physics Education and Editor of Science Journal, ISTA presented the workshop.  The workshop aimed to give teachers further insight into the new Earth and Space strand from the New Junior Science Specification.   The workshop covered topics of space, celestial bodies, planetary systems, gravity, space exploration, the scale of the solar system, galaxies, the Big Bang, etc.  A powerpoint resource suite was shared with all teachers, in addition to Excel and GeoGebra resources that were developed by Mr. Geoghegan as simulation resources to enhance an interactive teaching and learning experience.

The School of Education, NUI Galway and the Galway Branch of the Irish Science Teacher’s Association (ISTA) hosted a Q&A Leaving Certificate Exam Review for both Biology and Physics on Tuesday 9th October 2018.  The event was open to all teachers from Galway City, County and beyond.  Each year, Dr. Veronica McCauley (@VMcC_ScienceEd), lecturer in Science Education, NUI Galway, in collaboration with the Galway Branch of the ISTA organises this event for both teachers and student teachers.   The strong attendance was indicative of it’s value and the importance that teachers place on Continuous Professional Development (CPD) and in supporting their students through this pinnacle exam.

Organised by Dr Veronica McCauley, (@VMcC_ScienceEd) lecturer in Science Education, NUI Galway, in conjunction with the Irish Science Teachers Association.   This, the first many events hosted in the School of Education for science teachers for the academic year 2018-19, invited science teachers and educators to come to a seminar designed by practicing teachers in conjunction with the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) and Junior Cycle for Teachers (JCT). This workshop ‘Energy in Action' welcomes local science junior cycle science teachers, and it’s focus is on Energy Efficiency.  It provides teachers with guidance on how to explore the Nature of Science strand with their students; as investigative, problem solving and design skills are incorporated throughout.  This event was open to all science teachers and took place on Thursday 20th September 7-9pm, D102, Education Building, School of Education, NUI Galway. For further information, email galwayista@gmail.com

‌ L-R Professor Gerry Mac Ruairc, Head of the School of Education; Dr Patric Farren, Lecturer in the School of Education and President of NUI Galway, Professor Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh A new book, 'Transforming Language Teaching and Learning’, by Dr Patrick Farren, Lecturer in the School of Education, NUI Galway, has been published by Peter Lang.  The book is timely in light of the recent initiatives in language teaching and learning in Ireland. It was launched by the President of NUI Galway, Professor Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh, on Wednesday 14th November 2018. All are welcome to attend. The Foreword, written by Dr Jane Jones, Head of Modern Foreign Language Teacher Education at King's College London, refers to how the three studies in the book ‘provide deeply satisfying, engaging and challenging pictures of initial teacher education and the exceptionally good educational work being undertaken’. Following an outline of various practitioner research approaches and 'a scholarly consideration of language acquisition and learning theories that provide a framework for the book' (Jones), we are taken on a journey in the context of three studies undertaken by Farren in collaboration with university educators, student-teachers, and post-primary teachers at the National University of Ireland, Galway, King’s College London, and Boston College, MA. The book includes interviews with several leading educators, e.g. Paul Black, a leading, international expert in formative and summative assessment.  The book is available to buy online from the publisher or from Amazon. The book will be of interest to language teachers, student-teachers, researchers, students in any sector of education, education bodies, parents, as well as the general reader with an interest in education. More information here at Peter Lang and here at Amazon 

The School of Education, NUI Galway is hosting a series of Computer Science (CS) workshops for pre-service and in-service teachers.  These workshops will focus on the Senior Cycle CS specification. The first of four workshops commenced on 17th October 2018 6-9pm in our School of Education, Block D building and was very well attended.  The attendees were kept busy with lots of coding activities! Roll on Workshops 2, 3 and 4! For more information contact Dr Cornelia Connolly by email cornelia.connolly@nuigalway.ie 

Dr Mary Fleming, out going Director of the Professional Master of Education (PME), School of Education, NUI Galway, with newly graduated teacher, Mr Jason Kiernan. Jason was one of 132 newly qualified teachers who graduated during the NUI Galway Autumn Conferring ceremonies.

Comhairdeas le mic léinn an Máistir Gairmiúil san Oideachas (MGO) 2018! Go n–éirí go geal libh amuigh ansin.

Our BA Mathematics and Education Class of 2018 students have graduated.  The four years have flown!  It has been a pleasure working with you.  On our own behalf, and that of our colleagues in the School of Mathematics who  jointly run this programme, we  wish you well in your future careers.

Mr Mark Loughnane, School of Education, NUI Galway Professional Master of Education (PME) student 2016-2018, received the inaugural BSTAI John O Connor Award for Excellence in Business Studies Teaching from Margaret O’Donnell, Honorary National President – Business Studies Teachers Association of Ireland on Wednesday 10th October 2018   John O’Connor was a founding member of the Business Studies Teachers Association of Ireland (BSTAI) in 1976.  He served for a time as Chairperson of the Dublin Branch of the BSTAI and was a former National President of the association.  He was a leading textbook author over the last 4 decades.  John had a lifelong record of sharing best practise with Business Teachers and promoting excellence in all aspects of Business Studies Education.   While working as managing director of Folens and running his own publishing company Blackwater Press LTD, John continued his connection to teaching as well as travelling all over the country to give workshops to teachers and revision seminars to Business students.  Very close to John’s heart was the desire to support teachers new to the profession.   John O’Connor sadly passed away in July 2016 and the BSTAI wish to commemorate his memory by commissioning this award to the PME student from each university who has obtained the highest mark in their teaching practice of Business Studies.      Pictured here are Dr Manuela Heinz (Director of the PME),  Mark Loughnane and Margaret O’Donnell (Honorary National President – Business Studies Teachers Association of Ireland)  

Maths Week event! The BA Mathematics and Education students are participating in an event for Maths Week 2018 with IZAK9 .   The workshop will take place October 17th from 12-1.30pm.  School children from the St. Joseph's Patrician (The Bish) Secondary School will be coming along to take part in the workshop also! IZAK9 is a unique maths resource which encourages active learning in mathematics.  The product provides a physical resource which supports children and teachers in implementing new pedagogical approaches, supporting existing practice, and thus helps students and teachers better engage with the teaching and learning of mathematics.

  Mr Shane Flanagan, Team Leader JCT Maths (@JCTMaths) conducted a wonderful workshop at NUI Galway to the Professional Master of Education (PME) mathematics methodology and BA Mathematics and Education (BME) pre-service teachers. Introducing the Junior Cycle Mathematics Specification the workshop was activity based, informative and provided invaluable knowledge to the pre-service teachers for their use on school placement and when they graduate. Dr Cornelia ConnollyJoint Programme Director (Education) BA Mathematics and Education  See also: Web  www.jct.ie   Twitter: @JCforteachers

Dr Cornelia Connolly, School of Education, NUI Galway, recently presented on the design of the Irish Computer Science Specification at Steinhardt Graduate School of Education at New York University.  Hosted by NYU Dolcelab (Lab for the Design of Learning, Collaboration, and Experience) and CREATE (Consortium for Research and Evaluation of Advanced Technologies in Education) the seminar explored the Computer Science specification design and development process and attendees included faculty from NYU, Cornell University and CSforAll.  Dr Connolly also contributed to class on the MA program in International Education facilitated by Prof. Chris Hoadley. 

And a big warm NUI Galway welcome to our new 1BME1 BA Mathematics and Education (BME) students. We wish you the very best for and enjoyable & productive time with us & we look forward to working with you. #choosenuigalway

A big warm NUI Galway welcome to our new 1PME1 Professional Masters in Education (PME) students. We wish you the very best for and enjoyable & productive time with us & we look forward to working with you. #choosenuigalway

The Belgian performance art company CREW (@CREW_EricJoris) visited NUI Galway (@NUIGalway) to co-design an emerging augmented and virtual reality design for the Galway 2020 (@Galway2020) Immersive Classroom project. Project Producers, Dr Veronica McCauley (@VMcC_ScienceEd), Dr Kevin Davison (@kevinGdavison), School of Education (@edtechne), NUI Galway and Artistic Director, Denise McDonagh (@Dinnymac) worked together with CREW on a plan for a number of mini-projects that will be enacted throughout Galway during 2020.

The School of Education, NUI Galway Design Competition was open to post-primary school students in Galway city and county. The theme of the competition was ‘Plastic Free’ and we invited students to design an art-piece that captures “Why making Galway plastic free matters to you”.  The work also highlighted relevant statistics about plastic usage. Winning submissions to the School of Education Design Competition, organised by Dr Eílis Flanagan, were announced on 28th May, at the reception of the International Society for Design and Development in Education conference hosted by NUI Galway. Inspiring creativity, design thinking and environmental awareness the competition invited second-level students across Galway city and county to design an art piece capturing the theme ‘Why making Galway plastic free matters to you’.  The Mayor of the City of Galway, Cllr. Pearce Flannery presented winners with their prizes, which were kindly sponsored by Iceland Ireland Ltd, Galway County Council, Galway City Council and SEAI. Selected prize winners attended the MakerSapce in NUI Galway to learn about the principles of design, facilitated by Paula Walsh.  Bláithín Breathnach from Seamount College, Kinvara claimed the first runner up prize for her 3D artistic representation of sea life and plastic pollution while Sarah McGown from Coláiste Bhaile Chláir was awarded secondrunner up for a creative poster design.  Three design idea prizes were awarded to students form St. Jarlath’s College, Tuam: Tiernan Godwin, Bartosz Sulkowski and Ivan Maslennikova Plaza for ideas including repurposing plastic to create bird houses.  The overall competition first prize was awarded to students from Presentation College, Tuam: Sasha Hogan, Kate Smith and Agata Szajda for their artistic fashioning of waste plastic. The School of Education would like to congratulate all students on their entries and especially to the competition winners for their interesting, engaging and thought-provoking submissions.  Thank you to School of Education students Nuala Egan, Sara McHugh and Nicole Loughlin for competition poster design and dissemination. Link to photos of competition winners For more information contact Dr Eílis Flanagan, eilis.flanagan@nuigalway.ie 

Dr Veronica McCauley and Dr Kevin Davison, School of Education, NUI Galway will present a case study at the 8th National Social Marketing Conference: Co-Creating Change (http://conference.ie/Conferences/index.asp?Conference=554) (#CCCSMC2018), 25th May, that outlines an engaging scenario of where behavioural change meets technology design, be it in game design with Coderdojo or in their latest article, in the design of an marine iBook for the formal secondary school classroom. The article that the book is based on is cited below and will be available on ARAN in pre-print form shortly: Domegan, C.; McHugh, P., McCauley, V., and Davison, K. (2018) 'Co-creating a Sea Change campaign for Ocean Literacy in Europe: A digital interactive tool for environmental behavioural change' In: Social Marketing in Action: Cases from Around the World. New York: Springer. 

The 5th Annual Statistical Summer School will be held at NUI Galway, June 20th – 22nd.  This Summer School is the fifth in a series being organised collaboratively by the Schools of Education at NUI Galway, University College Cork and the University of Limerick.  This Summer School has arisen out of a desire to develop competence in the domains of research methods and design, and data analysis, with a focus on conducting studies to address questions of policy and practice. This year’s Summer School, facilitated by Dr Laura O’ Dwyer (Boston College), will introduce participants to the most frequently used quantitative research designs in educational research, and will familiarize attendees with data analysis procedures commonly used to address substantive issues in education. It will cover the key stages in addressing questions relating to policy and practice, including validity, sampling, statistical hypotheses, major research designs, descriptive and inferential analyses. The Summer School will include demonstrations and hands-on practice, and detailed materials will be provided. For more information please see the attached document. Registration can be completed via the website link available at http://www.conference.ie/Conferences/AddRegistration.asp?Conference=546  Places are limited to 40 participants. Please share this announcement with any colleagues and research students who might be interested in this Summer School.

On Monday, 16th April 2018, Mary Mitchell O’Connor, Minister of State for Higher Education, formally launched the St. Angela’s Strand of the “Access to Post-Primary Teaching (APT) Project” at St Angela’s College, Sligo.  The APT Project is a three-year joint initiative between St Angela’s College and the National University of Ireland Galway, which aims to recruit and support individuals from under-represented socioeconomic groups in their initial teacher education programmes.  This project, which targets students at the school, further education, undergraduate, and post-graduate levels, is spearheaded by Dr Eileen Kelly-Blakeney of St Angela’s College, and Dr Elaine Keane & Dr Manuela Heinz of NUI-Galway. The APT Project at St. Angela’s specifically focuses on recruiting students with a Further Education QQI/FET qualification to their second-level teacher education programmes and is conducted in cooperation with five Further Education providers in the Border-Midlands-Western (BMW) Region: Sligo College of Further Education, Castlebar College of Further Education, Monaghan Institute, Errigal College, and Cavan Institute.  During the next two years, the Project hopes to create additional partnerships with more Further Education providers in the region. Students who transition into the teacher education programme will all study Home Economics, in addition to one elective subject of their choosing, either Irish, Biology, or Religious Education.  Students are also provided with a €1000 equipment bursary on entry to Year One, and a €500 School Placement grant each of their five years of study. Additionally, students receive faculty mentoring, peer support, academic writing, and subject specific guidance over the course of their studies. In attendance at Monday’s launch were the President of St. Angela’s, Dr Anne Taheny, staff and students from the College, local government officials, representatives from each of the five partner Further Education providers, colleagues from NUI-Galway, and associates from the Irish Teaching Council. In her speech, Minister O’Connor noted the significance of direct-entry routes, such as the APT Project, which ultimately aim to increase access to third level studies, while also acknowledging the great achievements made by students in the Further Education sector.  As the minister explained that the APT Project, “will also help support the achievement of national policy objectives to broaden opportunities for graduates from further education to progress on to higher education.”  Additionally, she also remarked on the important role that teachers play in the lives of young people, and she projected that “Teacher training centres, teachers and school leaders will continue to play a pivotal role in helping children to achieve their potential.” Dr Anne Taheny, President of St Angela’s referred to the College’s long standing commitment to equal opportunity and to widening access and participation in Higher Education in association with NUI, Galway.  This is demonstrated through the provision of an Access Foundation Programme, an Access Schools Programme, entry routes for mature students and entry through the HEAR and DARE Schemes. Speaking at the launch, Dr Taheny noted:  ‘This new direct entry route from Further Education into our Initial Teacher Education Programme through the Access to Post-Primary Project is an exciting addition and much welcomed progression route for students in the Further Education Sector.’ This project supports the diversification of the Irish teaching body in Ireland and recognises the positive contributions that teachers from underrepresented groups make to classrooms throughout the country each day.  For more information on the APT Project, or to learn more about St Angela’s initial teacher education programmes, please see the College website at: http://www.stangelas.nuigalway.ie.  Additionally, interested individuals can contact the post-doctoral researcher for the APT Project, Dr Andrea Lynch at 087 112 9868

School of Education, NUI Galway Annual Postgraduate Research Seminar, 5:15pm, Wednesday April 11th in Education building, Nuns Island.  All welcome. Click for information on the location of the venue

The 8th Annual BA Mathematics and Education Final-year Symposium was held Tuesday last at NUI Galway.  The Symposium was organised by students of the NUI Galway concurrent teacher education degree programme, the BA Mathematics and Education (BME).  Introduced in 2008, the BME programme graduates qualified second-level teachers of mathematics and applied mathematics, who are also fully qualified mathematicians. This event is a showcase of research and findings in the area of mathematical education by the fourth year students and we were very fortunate to have Prof. John O’Donoghue deliver this year’s keynote address, “Reflections on Mathematics Education and mathematics teaching based on the personal journey of an accidental teacher”.  Prof. O’Donoghue is Emeritus Associate Professor of Mathematics Education at the University of Limerick and a pioneer of Mathematics Education in Ireland. Having completed his PhD with Professor Avi Bajpai, OBE, University of Loughborough Prof. O’Donoghue has served as the founding Director of the Mathematics Learning Centre and Director of the National Centre for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching and Learning (NCE-MSTL) at UL, as well as previously Head of Mathematics, Thomond College of Education. Three BME students were selected by their classmates to present on the day.  Conor McCarthys presentation was titled “Can I use group-work in the mathematics classroom to improve my students’ critical thinking?” Mark Foy presentation was “How the layout and atmosphere of the classroom with a particular emphasis on group work increases the children’s academic success?”. The third BME student to present was Conor Cuddihy, “How the layout am atmosphere of the classroom with a particular emphasis on group work increases the children’s academic success?”  There were also presentations from students of Education at GMIT Letterfrack and St Angela's College, Sligo – with Gary Weir and Sarah Moloney presenting on their final year projects. The Irish Mathematical Trust provided funding towards hosting the symposium and Dr Aisling McCluskey presented on their Maths Circles initiative. The well attended event brought together students from third and fourth year on the BME, academic staff from NUIG School of Education, School of Mathematics, Applied Mathematics and Statistics, as well as staff from GMIT Letterfrack and St Angela’s College Sligo, Teaching Council and local post-primary Mathematics teachers.  

School of Education, NUI Galway, staff member, Dr Manuela Heinz was invited as a plenary speaker and panel discussant to Ubuntu's Dialogue Day which took place in UCC on 25th March 2018. The Dialogue session focused on how Higher Education responds to issues related to development, e.g. equality, sustainability, migration, climate justice, and the role of initial teacher education in this regard. The Ubuntu Network was established in 2006 to support the integration of Development Education into post-primary Initial Teacher Education (ITE) in Ireland.  It seeks to ensure that education for justice, equality and sustainability are central to the experiences of student teachers and it encourages all educators to recognise and respond to the opportunities within education to transform society for the better.  u-bun-tu is a sub-Saharan philosophy and way of life that emphasises co-operation, compassion, community and concern for the interests of the collective. 

Project aims to promote STEM amongst student teachers The School of Education at NUI Galway, supported by Google Ireland, has announced an innovative project titled “Creative Coding for Maths Makers.”  The new project integrates mathematical and computer programming concepts, with a specific focus on promoting STEM amongst student teachers. BA Mathematics and Education student teachers at NUI Galway will be working with primary and post-primary school children to promote mathematics and computer programming integration.  Both student teachers and school children will develop an understanding and design of innovative mathematical concepts by a coding interface and will then render their virtual models physically in the MakerSpace. Unique, and the only facility of its kind in an Irish university, the MakerSpace in the James Hardiman Library at NUI Galway is a space purposefully designed to facilitate engaged teaching and learning.  It's a space where students can be creative, collaborate, share, develop ideas, innovate, and generally just ‘make stuff’.  The computers available in the MakerSpace have a higher specification than those available in most of the PC suites on campus.  MakerSpace offers a 3D printing service*.  Such exposure and experience is of value to students as it replicates life in a STEM industry. Claire Conneely, Computer Science Education Programme Manager at Google Ireland said: “We are excited to support the Creative Coding for Maths Makers programme at NUI Galway. Embedding Computer Science as a fundamental and rigorous subject throughout the entire school curriculum - including the introduction of Computer Science as a Leaving Certificate subject later this year - will ensure that students have a deeper understanding of how they can use technology to be creative and solve problems.  Equally important is growing the confidence and skillset of the next generation of teachers, so that Computer Science will be accessible and available to all students across Ireland in the coming years.”  Professor Gerry MacRuairc, Professor of Education and Head of School, commented: “this Google funded programme reinforces the philosophy of the School that technology will not replace teachers but it is essential that teachers are introduced to many forms of technology in their teacher education programmes.” In order to be a catalyst for positive change in computer science education, Google has sponsored projects like the NUI Galway ‘Creative Coding for Maths Makers’ program in order to help address a key challenge for computing education in Ireland, in the preparation and up-skilling of teachers to deliver the new Computer Science curricula in primary and post-primary Irish schools. Leading the project is Dr Cornelia Connolly in the School of Education at NUI Galway: “The introduction of coding in schools and the new Computer Science Leaving Certificate present a landmark opportunity for STEM advancement in Ireland; however, there is the challenge now to prepare teachers properly to teach these key STEM areas in an engaging and effective way.  Projects like ‘Creative Coding for Maths Makers’ enable us to start doing this in Galway, in partnership with schools in the city and region.” Author: Marketing and Communications Office, NUI Galway

The Postgraduate Diploma in School Leadership (PDSL) / Dioplóma Gairmiúil i gCeannaireacht Scoile (DGCS) is designed to prepare aspiring leaders with the knowledge, skills, confidence and qualifications for senior school leadership positions. This programme addresses the areas of leadership capacity published by the Department of Education and Skills in 2016. APPLICATION DEADLINE March 30th https://www.ul.ie/cpe/pdsl/ 

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The Mathematics Methodology class, 2nd year BA Mathematics and Education along with the Professional Master of Education students had a workshop facilitated by IZAK9 http://www.izak9.com/ recently.  Franz Schlindwein had an attentive audience and lots of interest! IZAK9 is a unique innovative maths resource for active learning design by children in primary and post-primary schools. What the product provides is a physical resource which supports children and teachers in implementing new pedagogical approaches, supporting existing practice, and thus helps students and teachers better engage with the teaching and learning of mathematics. The importance of experiencing a variety of mathematical methodologies and approaches enabling the teaching of mathematics is crucial for our pre-service teachers.  As Dr Cornelia Connolly explains the students, once again, experienced a variety of math question and tasks to pose in the classroom setting; dealing with math mistakes and understanding student thought process; encouraging communicating and collaboration on mathematical tasks! @AbacusandHelix

The School of Education, NUI Galway invites you to its latest Research Seminar Series event: Exploring Sexuality and Gender Identity in the Irish Education System Speaker: Dr Aoife Neary, School of Education, University of LimerickDate & Time: Wednesday, 7 March 2018 at 5pmVenue: AM214 Siobhán McKenna Theatre, Arts Millennium Building, NUI Galway. Speaker Biography: Dr Aoife Neary joined the School of Education in September 2014 as Lecturer in Sociology of Education.  Aoife was a teacher of Physical Education and English between 2003 and 2011.  She has an MA in Gender, Culture & Society and a PhD in Sociology. She held an Irish Research Council (IRC) Government of Ireland Doctoral Scholar award from 2011 until 2014 and has been an IRC New Foundations Awardee in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016.  She currently has a funded research partnership with the Transgender Equality Network of Ireland.  Drawing on feminist, queer and affect theory, her work explores the politics of gender and sexuality as they are lived, constructed and configured in schools and society. So far, her work is published in the following journals: British Journal of Sociology of Education; Gender and Education; Sexualities; Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education; Irish Educational Studies and Sex Education.  Her recent book entitled LGBT-Q Teachers, Civil Partnership and Same-sex Marriage: The Ambivalences of Legitimacy is published with Routledge.  RSVP by 5 March 2018 to caroline.casey@nuigalway.ie 091 495985

Tuesday, 20 February, 2018: Papers and registrations are now being accepted for the 14th Annual Conference of the International Society for Design and Development in Education (ISDDE), which will be held from 28–31 May at NUI Galway. The conference theme, Culture and Educational Design, highlights the importance of context in principled and participatory, educational design, and the significant influence of culture, the historic, natural and social environs on learning, teaching and assessment. Dr Tony Hall and Dr Cornelia Connolly, School of Education, said: “The School of Education at NUI Galway are delighted to have been invited to host the 14th Annual Conference of the International Society for Design and Development in Education, the first time the conference will be held in Ireland.  ISDDE is one of the preeminent research communities for educational technology and design, and those researching, designing and developing educational resources, learning environments, curricular materials and technologies, particularly in the STEM areas.” Dr Hall added: “The International Society for Design and Development in Education was recently affiliated to the International Commission on Mathematical Instruction.  Following last year’s conference at University of California, Berkeley, we look forward to hosting and welcoming Irish and international colleagues in educational design and technology to Galway and the West.  This year’s conference theme, ‘Culture and Educational Design’ reflects the importance of the broader social, cultural and physical environs in the participatory and principled design of educational innovations and technologies.” The International Society for Design and Development in Education was formed to help educational designers work effectively as a coherent professional design and development community.  The goals of the Society are to improve the design and development process, building a design community and increasing our impact on educational practice. More information available at: https://sites.google.com/view/isdde-2018/home. -Ends- For further information contact Tony Hall at tony.hall@nuigalway.ie or Cornelia Connolly at cornelia.connolly@nuiglaway.ie Confirmed Keynote Speakers for the Conference are as follows: Professor Sarah Moore, University of LimerickDr John Breslin, NUI GalwayProfessor Zalman Usiskin, University of ChicagoDr Michael Hogan, NUI GalwayDr Anna Walshe, National Council for Curriculum and AssessmentProfessor Kaye Stacey, University of Melbourne

Interested in pursuing a PhD in Education?  Galway Doctoral Scholarship Scheme, applications now open! The Expression of Interest Call for fully funded Galway Doctoral Scholarships offered by the College of Arts, Social Sciences, and Celtic Studies at NUI Galway, is now open. http://www.nuigalway.ie/colleges-and-schools/arts-social-sciences-and-celtic-studies/phd-research-degrees/scholarships/ The scheme offers opportunities for suitably qualified individuals to pursue a Structured PhD – candidates wishing to pursue a PhD in Education are encouraged to apply. To help find a potential supervisor and the research interests of our academic staff, please refer to http://www.nuigalway.ie/our-research/people/education/

Alt in Tuairisc scríofa ag foireann an Mháistir Ghairmiúil san Oideachas, léigh anseo é. Agus pléite ar Cormac ag a Cúig ar Raidio na Gaeltachta freisin.  Éist leis anseo.  

Call for Papers14th Annual Conference of the International Society for Design and Development in EducationMay 28th-31st, 2018National University of Ireland, Galway Papers and registrations are now being accepted for ISDDE 2018: 14th Annual Conference of the International Society for Design and Development in Education, which will be held from Monday 28th – Thursday 31st May, 2018, at the National University of Ireland, Galway. The conference theme, Culture and Educational Design, highlights the importance of context in principled and participatory, educational design, and the significant influence of culture, the historic, natural and social environs on learning, teaching and assessment.  Continuing the tradition set by previous conferences, the meeting will be intimate and highly participatory.  Attendees will enjoy plenary talks by leading educational designers, paper and poster presentations, small group work sessions on pressing problems of practice, and many meals and informal conversations over food and drink, all included in the price of registration.  The conference will take place in the beautiful environs of the National University of Ireland, Galway and Galway City. Confirmed Keynote Speakers: Professor Sarah Moore, University of LimerickDr John Breslin, NUI GalwayProfessor Zalman Usiskin, University of ChicagoDr Michael Hogan, NUI GalwayDr Anna Walshe, National Council for Curriculum and AssessmentProfessor Kaye Stacey, University of Melbourne Conference Website: https://sites.google.com/view/isdde-2018/home

Study finds attitudes of those in initial teacher education in Ireland have a tendency to comply with, rather than endorse or reject teaching religion Thursday, 18 January, 2018: The School of Education at NUI Galway has carried out the first ever study in Ireland that explores the religious affiliations and religiosity of applicants and entrants to undergraduate primary Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes in Ireland.  Since 96% of state primary schools in Ireland are denominational, considering religious diversity in teaching is both critically important and a complex undertaking. The study explores the backgrounds, motivations and perspectives on the Irish education system of applicants and entrants to Initial Teacher Education programmes across Ireland.  The paper, published this week in the European Journal of Teacher Education, explores the religious backgrounds, religious practice and attitudes towards teaching religion of applicants and entrants to primary teacher education programmes.  All three authors of the paper, Dr Manuela Heinz, Dr Kevin Davison and Dr Elaine Keane are lecturers at the School of Education, NUI Galway  While there has been much debate about the compatibility of publicly funded denominational schools with growing religious pluralism and secularism in Ireland and internationally, these debates have so far, mostly focused on equity of access to state-run schools and freedom of religion and conscience for children and their families.  The position of teachers in a predominantly denominational primary school system has received much less attention in academic and policy discourse. The study interrupts the silence and invisibility of atheist, non-practicing Catholic and minority faith students and practicing teachers, and highlights the need to critically examine teaching and teacher education policy and practice, including access to Initial Teacher Training, the ITE curricular and pedagogical spaces, school cultures and employment legislation, from a social justice perspective that includes a religious diversity dimension. The data gathered suggests low levels of religious practice and religiosity among ITE applicants, many of whom would prefer to teach religion using a non-confessional approach.  The study raises critical questions regarding the experiences, constitutional rights and professional practice of increasingly secular and/or non-practicing Catholic teacher cohorts in a predominantly Catholic primary education system that has survived the trend towards the progressive ‘unchurching’ of Europe. Lead author of the study, Dr Manuela Heinz from the School of Education at NUI Galway, said: “Our main data collection method is an anonymous voluntary cross-sectional online questionnaire implemented annually with applicants to all state-funded Initial Teacher Education programmes across Ireland.  The diversity in the ITE study addresses the data vacuum with regard to ITE cohorts’ socio-demographic backgrounds in relation to their religious affiliations, religious practice, and attitudes towards religious education in primary schools in Ireland.” Dr Heinz continued, “We noted a high non-response rate (25%) to an open-ended question probing respondents to express their feelings about teaching religion which may indicate that a significant proportion of ITE applicants were reluctant or felt uncomfortable to disclose their personal thoughts regarding the requirement for primary teachers to teach religion in the majority of primary schools in Ireland, even in an anonymous survey. “In addition, we also noted a widespread tendency of complying with, rather than endorsing or rejecting, the teaching of religion with many respondents using language like ‘it’s no problem’, ‘part of the job’, ‘grand’, or ‘doesn’t bother me’ in their responses.  It may be that enculturation into Catholic education and possibly positive experiences and memories of ‘no harm’ have led many to uncritically accept the status quo.  Or, alternatively, it may be that many of those considering and/or entering the teaching profession feel that they have no choice in the matter, that they need to comply and be prepared to take on the role of religion teacher if they want to succeed, even if they are not religious themselves, do not practice or believe.” Dr Heinz added: “We are hoping that this research will trigger more thinking about the characteristics and qualities we are looking for in teachers. Considering that only 58% per cent of our respondents considered themselves to be ‘a religious person’, we need to ask what about the others?  What experiences await them as they pursue careers as primary teachers?  In our study, the great majority of respondents indicated a clear preference towards teaching children about different faiths/world views/religions with some respondents stressing the importance of tolerance, equal treatment and/or of children making up their own minds with regard to religious beliefs.” In light of the findings presented in this study, the authors conclude that the prospect and experience of entering a third level learning and future professional space that is permeated by a religious, predominantly Catholic ethos, will cause conflict between personal beliefs and professional requirements for many potential and actual Initial Teacher Education applicants and entrants.  This situation will most likely result in some highly motivated and suitable individuals who are atheist, non-practicing Catholics or from a minority religious background deciding against a career in teaching. Those who enter Initial Teacher Education training, despite the considerable religious barriers, may experience significant, and likely unforeseen, difficulties throughout their ITE and professional careers due to tensions between their personal and professional lives.  The study suggests that it is time to ask whether it is fair, ethical or moral to put individuals who are committed to the education of our children in this difficult situation.  The DITE study was funded by the Irish Research Council and was led by principal investigators Dr Manuela Heinz and Dr Elaine Keane. To read the full study, click here European Journal of Teacher Education. The Irish Times also published an item on this research: Scant religious practice in trainee primary teachers, study finds http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/study-finds-little-support-for-purely-catholic-religious-instruction-among-trainee-primary-teachers-823479.html#provider_moreover  https://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/scant-religious-practice-in-trainee-primary-teachers-study-finds-1.3360740  https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/education/catholics-make-up-90pc-of-trainee-primary-teachers-36506252.html  http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/study-finds-low-levels-of-religious-practice-among-initial-teacher-education-applicants-465967.html http://connachttribune.ie/nuig-finds-90-per-cent-of-trainee-primary-teachers-are-catholic/ -Ends- For further information about the study contact Dr Manuela Heinz at manuela.heinz@nuigalway.ie  For Press contact Gwen O’Sullivan, Press and Information Executive, NUI Galway at gwen.osullivan@nuigalway.ie or 091 495695.

The School of Education at NUI Galway hosted a regional Focus Group on the revised Applied Mathematics specification to give teachers and stakeholders the opportunity to provide feedback on the revised specification for the Leaving Certificate subject.  The curriculum was recently redesigned by the NCCA (National Council for Curriculum and Assessment) and Ms Rachel Linney, NCCA Education Officer will lead the discussion on the draft specification. Dr Cornelia Connolly, School of Education at NUI Galway said: “It is an exciting time for new subject and curriculum development at Senior Cycle.  This Applied Mathematics focus group provides an opportunity to gather input from stakeholders, in the specification development process.” The specification is now available on the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment website for consultation on: www.ncca.ie Please contact Cornelia Connolly at cornelia.connolly@nuigalway.ie if you require further information on this key regional consultation on the Leaving Certificate Applied Mathematics. The Focus Group was held on 29th January 2018 in the Education Building, Block D (south campus) at NUI Galway. -Ends-

From L to R: Mr James Stephens (Chairman Galway Branch of ISTA); Ms Eleanor Nolan (Teacher Claregalway College, Presenter); Ms Roisín Reid (Teacher Claregalway College, Presenter); Dr Veronica McCauley (Lecturer in Science Education, NUI Galway) From LtoR: The three teachers from Claregalway College who presented and instigated a very worthwhile discussion at the SCii event: Ms Eleanor Nolan; Ms Orla Bergin and Ms Roisín Reid The inaugural SCii (Science Conversations informal & informative) Teacher Event was hosted by the School of Education, NUI Galway. Organised by Dr Veronica McCauley, (@VMcC_ScienceEd) lecturer in Science Education, in conjunction with the Irish Science Teachers Association.  This, the first many events, invited science teachers and educators to come to a seminar designed by practicing teachers who relayed their daily practice tips and techniques in delivering the new Junior Science specification.  This event was open to all science teachers and took place on Tuesday 16th January in AM150 (O'Tnuthail Theatre), Arts Millenium Building, NUI Galway Number 13 on Map It was facilitated by teachers for teachers.  Ms Eleanor Nolan and fellow science teachers at Claregalway College offered to share their wealth of experience in planning and teaching strategies for the new junior cycle science specification with other science teachers in the region.  Within their science department, they have strategically divided up course content under specialism, that is, content and CBA design in ‘Earth & Space’, ‘Physical World’, ‘Biological World’ and ‘Chemical World’; in addition to some great work in the ‘Nature of Science’ which is interdisciplinary.  Hands on strategies were delivered by teachers at the cutting edge.  The format involved a brief presentation by each teacher followed by a chaired Q&A session. For further information, email galwayista@gmail.com

The well attended, fourth International Conference on Mobile Technology in Teacher Education (MiTE) 2018 was successfully held in The Galway Bay Hotel, Galway Ireland, Friday January 19th & Saturday January 20th 2018. Mobile technology has the potential to significantly change practice in classrooms and schools by reshaping how and when learning takes place.  Initial teacher education can play a central role in the integration of this technology within teaching and learning in the classroom. This inovative conference celebrated the possibilities and explored the challenges of integrating mobile technology in ITE and in the broader field of education in order to promote best practice by teachers, students and schools. Check out the wrap video and other related information on the conference home page, to get a flavour of this event.  Roll on 2019! 

The Institute of Physics provide a wealth of online teaching resources.  A two hour lunchtime resource seminar for Physics teachers and teachers of Physics (Junior Science) was organised by Dr Veronica McCauley, Science Education lecturer, School of Education, NUI Galway on Thursday 7th December 2017 in the School of Education, Block D building, NUI Galway. Paul Nugent, Education Officer, Institute of Physics, facilitated the workshop which gave all teacher participants free access to the Virtual Physics Lab http://vplab.ndo.co.uk (an abundant supply of laboratory simulations, over 70 of which can be used for JC Physics and Maths). The event was aimed at everyone from trainee to experienced teacher and was interactive and informal.  VPLab is a very successful piece of software which is officially endorsed by The National Physics Laboratory and The Institute of Physics. Location of School of Education Buildings

The Royal Society of Chemistry (@RoySocChem) hosted an abundance resource sharing seminar with local science teachers from Galway and student teachers from the Professional Master of Education course on Thursday 23rd November 2017. Dr Veronica McCauley (@VMcC_ScienceEd) Lecturer in Science Education, organised the event in the School of Education, NUI Galway with the Galway ISTA branch, and the response from teachers was excellent.   Presenter, Dr John O’Donoghue (@johndhodonoghue) offered a 90 minute seminar where he challenged teachers to find the best resources in the shortest time. There was time to assess the suitability of resources for individual classrooms and a take home resource for teachers to use the next day.  The session was aimed at all teachers from trainee to experienced and was interactive and informal.  Both Junior and Senior cycle resources were reviewed on the evening.

Congratulations to Martin McHugh on his doctoral graduation at the winter award ceremonies in NUI Galway. Martin’s thesis employed a Design-Based Research (DBR) methodology, in which both theory and design are advanced in light of practical findings resultant from authentic classroom contexts, his research explored nascent research areas, including the design, construction and implementation of hooks, a bespoke instructional method/tool grounded in the requirements of all stakeholders in the science classroom.   Martin is the latest School of Education student to be awarded a PhD.  He is pictured with is PhD supervisor, Dr Veronica McCauley, Lecturer in Science Education (V_McC_ScienceEd)

Professor Gerry Mac Ruairc, School of Education, NUI Galway was invited to attend the launch of the Young Philosopher of the Year Award in Áras an Uachtaráin, to mark World Philosophy Day The Schools of Education and Philosophy, NUI Galway are partners in P4C (Philosophy for Children) - a development for schools endorsed by President and Mrs Higgins.  The Young Philosopher of the Year Award will be held in May 2018 and all schools are invited to participate.  Please see www.p4c.ie President Higgins made a compelling speech at this event.  You will find a recording of this speech at the following link:  http://www.president.ie/en/diary/details/president-higgins-hosts-a-reception-to-mark-world-philosophy-day

Staff from the School of Education and the School of Mathematics NUI Galway, recently featured on RTÉ's Brainstorm service to talk about 10 creative ways to teach maths   RTÉ Brainstorm is a new online platform for academics and researchers to publish a broad range of articles. #scienceweek

Galway Atlantaquaria will launch their innovative 'Our Ocean, Our Health Exhibit: Observe, Enjoy and Explore the Digital Ocean’ on Saturday 11th November 2017 at 2pm.If you would like to attend, please RSVP garry@nationalaquarium.ie Galway Atlantaquaria, Ireland’s largest native species aquarium, is excited to host this new exhibit, which will amaze, excite and educate visitors about the diversity of life under the sea!  The visitor experience includes access to the Harmful Algal Blooms iBook, by author NUI Galway Scientist Dr. Robin Raine.  The iBook was co-edited by Dr Veronica McCauley and Dr Kevin Davison of NUI Galway’s School of Education and has been developed as part of NUI Galway’s contribution to an EU-funded European research project Sea Change (@SeaChange_EU).  The project aims to raise European citizens’ awareness of the ocean’s influence on us and our influence on the ocean, or “ocean literacy”. This iBook is designed to infuse the engaging story of Harmful Algal Blooms into teaching across the sciences, and also provoke general discussion about these powerful species amongst the public.  Harmful algal blooms, or HABs, occur when colonies of algae - simple plants that live in the sea and freshwater - grow out of control while producing toxic or harmful effects on fish, shellfish, marine mammals, birds and people. The importance of the ocean, and therefore ocean literacy, cannot be overestimated. The ocean defines and dominates everything about our planet. It is home to most of the life on Earth, regulates our weather and climate, provides most of our oxygen, and feeds much of the human population.

The Irish Science Teachers’ Association, in collaboration with Lennox Laboratory Supplies recently (Wednesday 25th October 2017) supported an ‘Earth and Space' event in the School of Education, NUI Galway. Dr Veronica McCauley (VMcC_ScienceEd) Lecturer in Science Education, organised the event with the Galway ISTA branch, and the response from teachers was immense.  Over 80 teachers secured a place within days of the event being promoted. Rory Geoghegan, Lecturer in Physics Education and Editor of Science Journal presented the workshop.  The workshop aimed to give teachers further insight into the new Earth and Space strand from the New Junior Science Specification.  Teachers were brought through a series of curious questions that targeted astronomical events on a local, global and ‘beyond' scale. The workshop covered topics of space, celestial bodies, planetary systems, gravity, space exploration, the scale of the solar system, galaxies, the Big Bang, etc.  A powerpoint resource suite was shared with all teachers.  This resource collates for teachers, a suite of sound bites, explanatory statements, links to video/audio files, simulations, relevant websites for the astronomy strand.  Although the content in part is more advanced than Junior Science, it’s aim is to present teachers with a contextual experience, allowing them to teach from a broader knowledge point, and of course have the multiplicity of resources to hand in designing their own class materials.

Pictured at the office of the Minister of Education to discuss a collaboration between the Department of Education,  Seychelles, Seychelles Institute of Teacher Education and the School of Education, NUIGalway.  The proposal is to develop a collaborative Masters In Education between the three institutions awarded by NUI Galway. This collaboration builds on the well established links between Shannon College NUIG and Seychelles Tourism Academy (STA)

LGBT applicants view teaching as a vehicle for change according to research conducted by School of Education, NUIGalway staff, Drs Elaine Keane (@thegalwegian ), Manuella Heinz and Kevin Davison (@KevinGDavison ) as part of their DITE Project. Full article in the Irish Examiner

At a recent event, Dr Mary Mc Ateer (@DrMaryMcAteer) from Edge Hill University in the UK and lecturers and graduates from the School of Education, NUI Galway, explored issues of quality in action research and shared their experiences, conducting and supervising practitioner research projects, as part of the newly conceptualised Professional Master in Education/Máistir Gairmiúil san Oideachas. The event attracted teachers and principals as well as professionals conducting action research in other professional areas.

The School of Education, NUI Galway and the Galway Branch of the Irish Science Teacher’s Association (ISTA) hosted a Q&A Leaving Certificate Exam Review for both Biology and Physics on Wednesday 4th October 2017. The event was open to all teachers from Galway City, County and beyond.  Each year, Dr. Veronica McCauley (@VMcC_ScienceEd), lecturer in Science Education, NUI Galway, in collaboration with the Galway Branch of the ISTA organises this event for both teachers and student teachers.  The strong attendance was indicative of it’s value and the importance that teachers place on Continuous Professional Development (CPD) and in supporting their students through this pinnacle exam.   

The new Junior Cycle Science Specification was launched in September 2016, with students due to receive their Junior Cycle Profile of Achievement (JCPA) in 2019.  In line with this new specification, the School of Education, NUI Galway is hosting a CPD event for science teachers, in conjunction with the Galway Branch of the ISTA and the JCT Science team. According to the Junior Cycle Science Specification: "Science in junior cycle aims to develop students’ evidence-based understanding of the natural world and their ability to gather and evaluate evidence: to consolidate and deepen their skills of working scientifically; to make them more self-aware as learners and become competent and confident in their ability to use and apply science in their everyday lives.” (NCCA, 2015 p.5) Commenting on this event, Dr. Veronica McCauley (@VMcC_ScienceEd) Lecturer in Science Education, NUI Galway said “The new Junior Science Specification has the potential to contribute further to the debate of ‘Science with and for society’ with the unifying strand, The Nature of Science, woven throughout .  What is particularly exciting is the introduction of the new Earth and Space contextual strand, especially with Space Week nationally starting today - Oct 4th-10th, 2017”. The "Introduction to Junior Cycle Science” event will be held from 7-9pm on Monday 9th October 2017 in the Education Building, Nuns Island, NUI Galway and will be led by the JCT Science team.  This workshop aims to work with all teachers of Junior Cycle Science, in a collaborative manner with the JCT Team to assist in teaching the new specification.  Junior Cycle for Teachers (JCT) is a dedicated continuing professional development (CPD) support service of the Department of Education and Skills.  Their aim is to support schools in their implementation of the new Framework for Junior Cycle (2015) through the provision of appropriate high quality CPD for school leaders and teachers, and the provision of effective teaching and learning resources. Event: An Introduction to Junior Cycle ScienceDate: Monday, October 9thTime: 7.00 - 9.00 pmLocation: Education Building, Nuns Island, NUI Galway (building next door to St Joseph's 'The Bish' secondary school. Parking will be available in The Bish school carpark for attendees) A maximum number of 30 teachers will be facilitated.  Booking is essential at  https://goo.gl/forms/WiukbTKFv9KpbUne2 Teachers who are successful in getting a place will be sent a confirmation email.  A waiting list will be in operation so early booking is essential

The School of Education at NUI Galway recently hosted a regional Focus Group on the new Senior Cycle Computer Science curriculum. The Department of Education are compiling feedback on the Computer Science draft specification and our Regional Focus Group forms an integral part of the consultation process. Attended by Post Primary principals, teachers, academic staff from NUI Galway and representatives from the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA), the feedback and discussion generated was positive and worthwhile. The expertise in our School in technology enhanced learning, computing, combined with education is unique and the ideas generated last week will be key in defining the Computer Science Leaving Certificate curriculum. Computer Science is due to be a Senior Cycle subject in a number of pilot schools in September 2018.

The School of Education at NUI Galway are hosting a regional Focus Group on the new Computer Science curriculum to give teachers the opportunity to provide feedback on the new Leaving Certificate Computer Science subject that will be introduced, on a phased basis, to schools in September 2018.  The curriculum specification for Leaving Certificate Computer Science is currently being developed by the NCCA - National Council for Curriculum and Assessment. Dr Anna Walshe, NCCA Education Officer who will lead the discussion on the draft specification said:  “The needs and views of learners, teachers and schools are central to developments at senior cycle. Teachers and schools are at the heart of leading and supporting change that is deep and lasting.  The purpose of this consultation is to achieve a closer understanding of the dynamics of change for the learner, for the teacher as a professional and for the school as an organisation.” The draft specification, published by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment is available for consultation until 22nd  September on www.ncca.ie Please contact Cornelia Connolly at cornelia.connolly@nuigalway.ie if you wish to attend and be part of this key regional consultation on the new Computer Science subject for schools.  Teachers who attend will have substitution and travel expenses reimbursed.  The Focus Group will be held on Thursday 14 September, 2017. The session will take place between 2–4pm in Room D202, Education Building, Block D (south campus) at NUI Galway. -Ends-  Keywords: Press. Author: Marketing and Communications Office, NUI Galway

Two participants in the award winning School of Education & James Hardiman initiative, Breaking the SEAL, have been selected to represent Ireland at the 2017 EUSTORY Next Generation Summit in Berlin later this year. Ms. Maggie Larson (Presentation College Headford, Co.Galway) & Ms.Sarah Scott (Colaiste Mhuire, Ballygar, Co.Galway) were selected to receive attendance scholarships from over 200 applicants put forward by history competitions organisations across Europe.  Both of these leaving certificate history students made excellent presentations at our NUI Galway campus event earlier this year supported by friends, family and their history teachers - Mr. James Shovlin (PCH) & Ms Fiona McGuinness (Ballygar). Congratulations to Ms. Larson and Ms. Scott. We wish them every success at the EUSTORY Next Generation Summit 2017. https://www.historycampus.org/summit2017/

Closing date for applications: PAC has now been REOPENED FOR LATE APPLICATIONS until 21st August 2017. The School of Education at NUI Galway invites applications for the Master of Education (MEd) programme.Start Date:  September 2017.Duration:  Two years, part-time.  Classes will take place on Wednesday evenings (5-9pm) with additional sessions during school mid-term breaks and potentially during other holidays.Entry requirements:  Those eligible to apply will have: - A degree at level 8; and - A teaching qualification (or equivalent) In addition, a minimum of two-three years teaching experience, or relevant professional experience in education, will normally be required.Applications:  (which includes a personal statement) are made online via the Postgraduate Applications Centre (PAC), http://www.pac.ie/.  The relevant PAC application code is GYA47.Closing date for applications: PAC has now been REOPENED FOR LATE APPLICATIONS until 21 August 2017.Further information here: Master of Education (MEd) Programme

A new Q-Tales journal article, 'Enhancing children's literacy skills: designing the Q-Tales ecosystem for children's e-book design and publication', features in the latest issue of Literacy: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/lit.12128/full The paper, by Dr Bonnie Thompson Long (@BonnieTLong), Dr Tony Hall, Dr Michael Hogan (@michaelhogannui), NUI Galway, and Nikos Papastamatiou (@papnik1974), Omega Technology Athens, describes the design of the Q-Tales ecosystem for children's e-book design, curation and publication. @Q_TalesEU @EU_H2020 @ResearchatNUIG #literacy

Drs Bonnie Long and Tony Hall attended the international digital storytelling (DST) meeting 2017, "Untold – An Un-conference about Digital Storytelling": https://www.uel.ac.uk/events/2017/07/unconference-digital-storytelling.  Untold 2017 was organised along a novel interactive format, and Bonnie and Tony participated in two demes (thematic groups), Digital Storytelling in Higher Education and Digital Storytelling Practices.  Leading figures in DST chaired and attended the conference, including the editors of the recently published international DST collection by Palgrave Macmillan, Digital Storytelling in Higher Education, in which Bonnie and Tony’s have a chapter on the DST design-based research undertaken in the School of Education, NUI Galway: "From Dewey to Digital: Design-Based Research for Deeper Reflection Through Digital Storytelling" https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-51058-3_5.  This year’s international DST meeting was held at the University of East London.

Drs Bonnie Thompson Long (@BonnieTLong) Centre for Adult Learning and Profesional Development and Tony Hall, School of Education have published their invited article in the Palgrave Macmillian book just published in June 2017 on Digital Storytelling, edited by the leading international scholars in the field. The article entitled, From Dewey to Digital: Design-Based Research for Deeper Reflection Through Digital Storytelling,  describes the School of Education research in desiging educational technology to enhance reflection in teacher education.

School of Education Technology Enhanced Learning Methodologist, Dr. Paul Flynn ( @FlynnDPaul ) has been appointed to the International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS) Education Committee. ISLS  is a professional society dedicated to the interdisciplinary empirical investigation of learning as it exists in real-world settings and to how learning may be facilitated both with and without technology. For more information on this please follow this link: https://www.isls.org

Dr. Paul Flynn will travel to Lisbon this week to represent a joint initiative of the School of Education and James Hardiman Library, Breaking the S.E.A.L. at the annual meeting of EUSTORY. EUSTORY is European network of second level history research project competitions. Dr. Flynn will give a keynote address ahead of Breaking the S.E.A.L being inducted into this European network.

Dr. Paul Flynn, School of Education, NUI Galway,  has been appointed to a National Scoping Group to discuss Supporting Student Success in and through Higher Education. This group will focus on issues relating to non-completion of third level programmes.

Following a tendering process run by the Office of Government Procurement on behalf of the Department of Education and Skills (DES) and the Centre for School Leadership (CSL) a new Post Graduate Diploma in School Leadership (PDSL) for aspiring school leaders will commence in Autumn 2017. The programme will be jointly awarded by University of Limerick (UL), the National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG) (including St Angela’s College, Sligo) and University College Dublin (UCD).   Additional academic support for the programme will be provided by Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) with delivery support from Cork Institute of Technology (CIT) and Association of Teachers Education Centres in Ireland (ATECI). The programme will be a part-time (18 months) blended learning professional diploma, delivered locally in six regional locations throughout the country.  There will be specific provision for teachers in Irish-medium schools in NUI Galway. Fees support for this programme will be provided by the DES/CSL. The course will be open to approximately 200 participants annually.

Breaking the S.E.A.L., a joint intiaitve of the School of Education and the James Hardiman Library, has been nominated for the 2017 Education Awards in the Best Outreach category. We wish Dr. Paul Flynn and Mr. Barry Houlihan the very best on Thursday night when the winners will be announced at a ceremony in the Ballsbridge Hotel, Dublin.

Rang nuacháilithe Mháistir Gairmiúil san Oideachas (MGO) Ollscoil na hÉireann, Gaillimh agus cáilíocht 'Apple Teacher' bainte amach acu leis.Maith sibh! Mháistir Gairmiúil san Oideachas (MGO) Teacher Ed in NUI Galway.  NQT's final day on campus today.  All have also completed #AppleTeacher & are looking for schools!Ádh Mór oraibh!

The School of Education, NUI Galway hosted its Sixth Annual Postgraduate Research Seminar and were delighted with the turnout to this important event. The seminar is part of the School's annual Research Seminar Series, the purpose of which was to showcase research activity in the School and to provide a forum for discussion with our educational community with respect to the research-educational practice nexus.The School of Education at NUI Galway is highly active in educational research and we have a range of funded research projects across our four research clusters: 1. Diversity and Inclusion in Education, 2. Science Technology and Mathematics in Education, 3. Leadership and Professional Development in Education, and 4. Irish and Modern Languages Education.This Postgraduate Research seminar consisted of parallel sessions, during which our PhD students presented on their current educational research. L-R  Maeve Dunne, Devon Goodwin (both PhD students) and David Reilly (PME2) Further information, including the list of presentation topics, is detailed here: Annual Research Seminar Series

School of Education, NUI Galway Research Seminar In his talk on the 18th April, Dr Aman Yadav ( @yadavaman ) discussed what entails computational thinking and presented ideas of embedding computational thinking in primary and secondary classrooms.  In addition, he discussed how teacher education faculty can engage preservice teachers in computational ideas. Aman presented results from a study examining the influence of modules designed to expose preservice teachers computational ideas on their understanding of computational thinking ideas and embedding them in their future classrooms. For more information about Aman's research and teaching, please visit: http://www.amanyadav.org

    The final year students of the BA Mathematics and Education (BME) hosted their Final Year Symposium: Research in Mathematics and Education, on April 11, 2017.   The Keynote speaker was Dr Terry Maguire ( @TerrymagNF ), Director of the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning  in Higher Education and founder of ‘Maths Eyes’.  Dr Maguire gave an inspiring presentation on the value of engaging all learners with Mathematics in a relevant and constructive way that enables deeper understanding of both mathematical concepts and their applications.   The Final Year BME students shared their classroom based practitioner research projects in Mathematics Teaching and Learning  through a poster exhibition and presentations from the group.  Also contributing to the symposium poster exhibit and presentations were students from the B.Sc. Design Technology Education programme in GMIT Letterfrack.   Many thanks to all the 4BME Group and their Module leader Dr Paul Flynn ( @FlynnDPaul ) who organised a very successful and inspirational morning for all educators present: teachers, fellow students and their lecturers from NUI Galway and GMIT.     (L-R) Mary Fleming (Co Director of the BME), PJ Folan (St Joseph's 'The Bish'), Aisling Mc Cluskey (Co Director of the PME), Dr Terry Maguire (keynote speaker), Susan Rodgers, Dermot O Donovan and Pauline Logue (GMIT)   http://mathedsymposium.weebly.com/  

First year BA in Mathematics and Education students at NUI Galway showed their mathematical mettle recently by coordinating and delivering an exciting Junior Mathematics Enrichment (JME) programme at NUI Galway, under the direction of Dr. Aisling McCluskey, School of Mathematics. The programme, part of a nationwide Irish Mathematical Trust initiative, was piloted over an eight-week period in Spring 2017.  Local schools were invited to select Junior cycle pupils (normally 2nd or 3rd year) who have an interest in and enthusiasm for mathematics for the eight-week programme.  The pupils showed lively engagement and impressive problem-solving skills in a series of weekly activities in an environment centred on enjoyment of discovery and investigation amongst like-minded peers. The programme exposed a rich and fertile seam of mathematical talent in junior cycle, supported by a strong network of parents, teachers, students and lecturers. Junior Mathematics Enrichment (JME) event photos

The 4th Annual Statistical Summer School will be held at the University of Limerick, June 21st – 23rd 2017.  This Summer School is the fourth in a series being organised collaboratively by the Schools of Education at NUI Galway, University of Limerick and University College Cork.   This Summer School has arisen out of a desire to develop statistical competence in the domain of survey research, while promoting data awareness and impact on policy and intervention. This year’s Summer School, facilitated by Dr. Laura O’ Dwyer (Boston College), will familiarise people with the strategies, techniques, tactics, and issues in conducting survey research in the social sciences.  It will cover the key stages in the survey research process, including sample design and selection, questionnaire design, pretesting, and data analysis.  The Summer School will include demonstrations and hands-on practice, and detailed materials will be provided. For more information please see the attached document.  Registration can be completed via the website link available at http://epistem.ie/home-2/summer-school-2017/  Places are limited.

The QS 2017 Subject rankings results are now out.  The excellent news for the School of Education (SoE) is that we  retained a ranking of 201-250 this year, coming 2nd in Ireland! This is a great achievement for our School and is confirmation of the continued hard work and dedication of all the SoE staff.

‘Harmful Algal Blooms’ is an Innovative Introduction to Ocean Literacy in Irish Secondary Schools. A marine science eBook entitled Harmful Algal Blooms has been developed as part of NUI Galway’s contribution to an EU-funded European research project Sea Change.  The project aims to raise European citizens’ awareness of the ocean’s influence on us and our influence on the ocean, or “ocean literacy”. The eBook was launched by Professor Colin Brown, Director of the Ryan Institute for Environmental, Marine and Energy Research on Monday, 13th March in the Moore Institute Seminar Room, Hardiman Research Building, National University of Ireland, Galway Dr Christine Domegan, the NUI Galway Principal Investigator for Sea Change, Whitaker Institute, said: “co-creating ocean literacy calls for collaboration, discussion, participation and engagement across multiple stakeholders in Europe; from policy makers, to educators, and from media to mariners, children and grandparents.” Opportunities to increase awareness of the ocean are limited in the junior cycle science curriculum across Europe.  This eBook is designed to infuse the engaging story of Harmful Algal Blooms into teaching across the sciences.  Harmful algal blooms, or HABs, occur when colonies of algae - simple plants that live in the sea and freshwater - grow out of control while producing toxic or harmful effects on fish, shellfish, marine mammals, birds and people.  During the launch, the author, Dr Robin Raine, from Earth and Ocean Sciences, NUI Galway, spoke about his experiences at the heart of the book.  The audience were also introduced to the teaching design used within the book, which aims to ensure the content can be taken up by Science teachers and students to advance a Sea Change in Irish and European ocean literacy.  And there was a great response from both teachers and students after piloting the eBook in Irish, Swedish, and Belgian schools. The eBook was co-edited by Dr Veronica McCauley (@VMcC_ScienceEd) and Dr Kevin Davison (@KevinGDavison) of NUI Galway’s School of Education.  Dr McCauley said: “Teachers are becoming more savvy with technology in the classroom and are finding innovative ways to teach the curriculum so that it encourages personal interest in the sciences.  This is particularly true given the recent Digital Strategy for Schools, 2015-2020 and its promotion of coding and programming.” The importance of the ocean, and therefore ocean literacy, cannot be overestimated.  The ocean defines and dominates everything about our planet.  It is home to most of the life on Earth, regulates our weather and climate, provides most of our oxygen, and feeds much of the human population. Dr Robin Raine, author and lecturer at NUI Galway, says: “This book will introduce students to important features of our ocean as well as harmful algal blooms.  It will act as a resource for teachers to strengthen and promote science through the topic of marine science.” Link to the Harmful Algal Blooms eBook on the iBookstore You will be able to view it using the iBooks app on your Apple computer, or iPad, or iPhone and it is currently available in 51 countries world-wide. For additional information please contact Dr Veronica McCauley, School of Education, NUI Galway on veronica.mccauley@nuigalway.ie. Other marine related resources are available on the project website at www.seachangeproject.eu

The School of Education, NUI Galway, today hosted its February research seminar by Dr Leigh Graves Wolf on "Scrum" Methodology for Innovative Educational Design.  The abstract and links for Dr Graves Wolf's talk are below.  As well as presenting on the NUI Galway campus, colleagues from St Angela's College Sligo, joined the seminar which was hosted online through 'Zoom' video conferencing software.  Head of School, Prof. Gerry Mac Ruairc, introduced Dr Graves Wolf virtually from St Angela's College. Link to slides AbstractOne year ago, Michigan State University (MSU) started a new campus initiative: The Hub for Innovation in Teaching & Learning (“The Hub”).  The Hub’s mission is to “facilitate the passion and inventiveness of students, faculty, staff, and stakeholders both inside and outside of MSU to create, identify, and accelerate new ways to collaborate, learn, research, and deliver instruction.” While the core staff of The Hub is quite small, many on campus are working with and through the Hub. To facilitate this campus change, the Hub leadership team has anchored much of its “getting started” work and processes to sound design theories and processes. One technique which has proven successful in sharing our work openly and strategically is "scrum" - a framework for project development.  In this session, I will share the scrum process along with other lessons learned from our first year as a campus entity. Biography Leigh Graves Wolf  (@gravesle) is teacher-scholar and her work centers around online education, emerging technologies and relationships mediated by and with technology. She has worked across the educational spectrum from K12 to Higher to further and lifelong. She has been a disc jockey, network administrator, teacher, instructional technologist and now professor. She believes passionately in collaboration and community and is currently the Assistant Director of the MSU Hub for Innovation in Learning & Technology (hub.msu.edu), an academic specialist in the Dean’s office in the MSU College of Education, and a fixed-term Associate Professor of Educational Technology at Michigan State University. http://www.leighgraveswolf.com

The RDS Primary Science Fair is a non-competitive forum, showcasing STEM investigations (science, technology, engineering and maths) undertaken by primary school classes across Ireland.  The investigations focus on core skill development and encourage children’s innate curiosity to explore the science behind the everyday.  The RDS Primary Science Fair is taking place in Dublin, Limerick and Belfast this year with over 7,500 children participating across these venues. Dr. Veronica McCauley, ( @VMcC_ScienceEd ) lecturer in Science Education, NUI Galway was invited as a Judge at the Limerick exhibition and showcase which took place at Mary Immaculate College, Limerick from January 19-21, 2017.  While the Fair is a non-competitive exhibition, the role of a Judge is to discuss, listen to and provide feedback to the children and their teacher on their project investigation.  The standard of project entrants was excellent, revealing an encouraging insight into young scientists of the future, whether they progress directly within the science field, or benefit from their growing scientific literacy in order to appreciate and make decisions about their own health, and/or extract key information from the media, and/or make informed science policy decisions that may come their way in the future.  At the end of the day each project is given feedback by a Judge and awarded a class trophy and certificates for each student. The Judging Panel that Dr. McCauley worked with were led by the RDS Science and Technology Programme Manager, Karen Sheeran and consisted of a multiplicity of strengths across the sector: Dr Maeve Liston, Director of Enterprise & Community Engagement, Mary Immaculate College; Michael Browne, Lecturer in Science Education, Mary Immaculate College; Dan Fitzgibbon, Paediatric Occupational Therapist, Health Service Executive; Karl Lynch, Teacher, Killeen NS, Galway; Dr. Veronica McCauley, Lecturer in Science Education, NUI Galway; Dr. Carmel O’Doherty, Director, Limerick Education Centre; Dr. Anne O’Dwyer, Lecturer in Science Education, Mary Immaculate College, and Irene Walsh, Primary Education Advisor, Kilkenny.

"Scrum"Methodology for Innovative Educational Design by Dr Leigh Graves Wolf, Michigan State University. School of Education, NUI Galway, D Block Building, Main CampusMonday, February 6th at 1pm, Room D102Light refreshments will be served; Further information/RSVP to: tony.hall@nuigalway.ie  AbstractOne year ago, Michigan State University (MSU) started a new campus initiative: The Hub for Innovation in Teaching & Learning (“The Hub”).  The Hub’s mission is to “facilitate the passion and inventiveness of students, faculty, staff, and stakeholders both inside and outside of MSU to create, identify, and accelerate new ways to collaborate, learn, research, and deliver instruction.”  While the core staff of The Hub is quite small, many on campus are working with and through the Hub.  To facilitate this campus change, the Hub leadership team has anchored much of its “getting started” work and processes to sound design theories and processes. One technique which has proven successful in sharing our work openly and strategically is "scrum" - a framework for project development.   In this session, I will share the scrum process along with other lessons learned from our first year as a campus entity. Biography Leigh Graves Wolf (@gravesle)  is teacher-scholar and her work centers around online education, emerging technologies and relationships mediated by and with technology.  She has worked across the educational spectrum from K12 to Higher to further and lifelong.  She has been a disc jockey, network administrator, teacher, instructional technologist and now professor.  She believes passionately in collaboration and community and is currently the Assistant Director of the MSU Hub for Innovation in Learning & Technology (hub.msu.edu), an academic specialist in the Dean’s office in the MSU College of Education, and a fixed-term Associate Professor of Educational Technology at Michigan State University. http://www.leighgraveswolf.com

Congratulations to the third cohort PDMT/DGMM mathematics teachers who graduated on Saturday 21st January with the Professional Diploma in Mathematics for Teaching, in the University of Limerick. The Professional Diploma in Mathematics for Teaching/Dioplóma Gairmiúil sa Mhatamaitic don Mhúinteoireacht (PDMT/DGMM) was introduced jointly in 2012 by a consortium of higher education institutions.  Jointly designed and accredited by UL and NUIG, this two-year, part-time, blended and bilingual postgraduate programme is wholly funded by the Department of Education and Skills (DES) as the national initiative to upskill 'out-of-field' mathematics teachers in Ireland. Link:  http://www.ul.ie/graduateschool/course/professional-diploma-mathematics-teaching-level-8 

Congratulations to Dr Niall Mac Uidhilin who has successfully defended his PhD thesis, entitled: "Ag Spreagadh Gasúir Ghaeltachta chun Ceangal a dhéanamh le hAcmhainní Teanga Saibhre Digiteacha agus ag Cruthú Deiseanna Idirghníomhaíochta idir na Glúnta a thrasnaíonn teorainneacha Baile-Scoile-Pobail (Encouraging Gaeltacht Children’s Engagement with Rich Digital Language Resources and Creating Opportunities for Intergenerational Interaction across Home-School-Community Boundaries)". Niall’s research examined the trajectory of a pedagogic intervention that was designed to support the language development of native-speaking children of Irish through their sustained engagement with rich language resources from the RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta archive and with resources brought in from home.  Design-based research, which is an interventionist, iterative approach for designing practical solutions to complex educational problems was a suitable approach to take in the context of the precarious nature of Irish as a community language in the Gaeltacht.  The theories guiding the design of the intervention included socio-cultural theory, new literacies studies, multimodality and a number of theories that link school-based and out-of-school literacy practices.  These include funds of knowledge, knowledge producing schools, artefactual literacies and identity texts.

Save the Date!  School of Education, NUI Galway Seminar Invitation 'The Integrated Curriculum: Teaching for Transfer in Bilingual Learning' Speaker:  Emeritus Professor Jim Cummins, Department of Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto, Canada Speaker Biography: Dr. James Cummins is a noted world leader in second language learning and literacy development research. He holds a Canada Research Chair and has been a recipient of the International Reading Association's Albert J. Harris award.  He also received an honorary doctorate in Humane Letters from the Bank Street College of Education in New York City. Dr. Cummins has co-authored several books on literacies in education, and has seen his work translated into Japanese and Spanish.  His work has had a significant influence on policy, curriculum development and practice in the area of bilingual education both nationally and internationally including the recently launched Primary Language Curriculum /Curaclam Teanga na Bunscoile. Date: Monday, 5th December 2016Time: 5 pmVenue: School of Education, Education Building, Nuns Island, NUI Galway RSVP: by 1 December 2016 to caroline.casey@nuigalway.ie ; 091 49 5985 / 2195

On a cold, breezy, bright day in October, staff from the School of Education, NUI Galway brought the 2PME  Geography methodology student teachers on a field trip. Mr Ambrose Conboy led the trip and the aim was to show student teachers how to plan, prepare and carry out the Geographical Investigation section of the Senior Cycle Geography syllabus. After an indoor workshop in the Education building, the group set out in convoy to the beautiful Silver Strand Beach, Co Galway.  Using equipment borrowed from the Discipline of Geography, the student teachers examined features of Erosion and Deposition; measured Long Shore Drift and Wave frequency and they also measured the height of the cliff.

Free online resource includes a series of science videos and support material for primary school teachers. As part of the Science and Technology Festival, which took place at the weekend, Galway’s future young scientists and science enthusiasts were drawn together in explosive, sticky and steamy investigations at the Kitchen Chemistry Workshops held during NUI Galway’s Science Festival Exhibition.  This event marked the launch of a series of Kitchen Chemistry videos, which entice teachers and the public to engage in science, using materials from their own kitchen larders. Kitchen Chemistry is one of the most popular events year on year during the Final Day Exhibition, and this year saw the launch of a free online resource set.  The set includes a series of free science videos and associated support materials for teachers to use with primary children of all ages in the science classroom.  In 2010, Kitchen Chemistry began as an outreach venture in NUI Galway’s School of Chemistry when a team of postgraduate chemistry students designed a series of simple experiments and developed them into a science outreach roadshow for primary schools.  Experiments were designed using simple household materials.  Two years later, one of the founders, a then doctoral student, Dr Nicole Walshe worked with Dr Veronica McCauley in the School of Education to examine opportunities of translating these sporadic outreach visits into free online resources that could be shared nationally and beyond. The development of the Kitchen Chemistry videos and resource materials is a result of this joint venture between the School of Education and the School of Chemistry at NUI Galway. Dr Veronica McCauley, Science Education Lecturer at NUI Galway and staff leader in this resource design and development project, said: “In line with one of the core aims of the primary science curriculum, ‘to reinforce and stimulate curiosity and imagination through engagement in science’; these videos and support materials offer teachers and students opportunities to explore science beyond the classroom.  They help to realise its everyday application with products found in our kitchens.  As you can imagine, when you look at the videos, this was a fun and messy project to work on, and I hope that this ignites further exploration in science!” The set of videos were designed by doctoral students from the College of Chemistry and student science teachers from the School of Education.  Kitchen Chemistry resources offer primary teachers a collection of videos and classroom support material that capture novel and engaging aspects of chemistry-based science topics.  The collection is available at www.sciencehooks.scoilnet.ie and is also available trí Ghaeilge. Dr Rachel Quinlan, Vice Dean for the promotion of STEM, College of Science at NUI Galway, said: “Explore funding enables student-staff collaboration on research and resource development, often with benefits that go far beyond the university as in this case.  Students brought their scientific expertise to the development, design and recording of these simple and creative science experiments, and now this inquiry can be ignited in schools and homes throughout the country, in addition to those classrooms already participating with NUI Galway Science students in the Kitchen Chemistry programme.” -Ends- For further information contact Dr Veronica McCauley, School of Education, NUI Galway veronica.mccauley@nuigalway.ie

Congratulations to Dr Carol Baumann, School of Education, recently conferred with her PhD in Education at the NUI Galway November graduation ceremony. Carol’s PhD, titled: “Dominant discourse and prevailing practice: positioning financial education within education”, centred on a foundational, philosophical consideration and analysis of the idea of financial education.  Employing ideology critique methodology, the research examined this underdeveloped area in the Irish educational context, seeking to inform the conceptualisation and design of financial education, one that foregrounds the needs of the individual citizen.  Carol’s research was supervised by Dr Tony Hall, School of Education. Link to thesis on NUI Galway ARAN

On Saturday, 19th November 2016, Professor Gerry Mac Ruairc, Head of the School of Education, NUI Galway and Dr. Manuela Heinz, Director of Teaching Practice, participated in a Shared Learning event focusing on school placements for student teachers, together with colleagues from Salerno Secondary school (http://www.salerno.ie/).

Information on PhD Fellowship in School Leadership, School of Education, NUI Galway As part of its strategic development and in order to build capacity in key areas in Irish Education, the School of Education NUI Galway is offering two dedicated topic-area PhD fellowships in the area of School Leadership (at primary and/or post-primary level) open to both full-time and part-time students.  The overall aim of this initiative is to attract applicants of the highest academic standards to participate in and expand the work of the school in the area of school leadership. Applicants must have at least a first or upper second-class honours primary degree and/or master’s degree and have significant professional experience in the field of education. Click on the link above for full information on how to apply

Government launches policy on Gaeltacht Education 2017-2022 the Taoiseach, the Taoiseach, The Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, together with the Minister for Education and Skills, Richard Bruton and Minister of State for Gaeltacht Affairs, Sean Kyne launched the Department of Education and Skills’ Policy on Gaeltacht Education 2017-2022. The launch was held in Scoil Náisiúnta Mhic Dara, An Cheathrú Rua (Carraroe), Co Galway. School of Education staff from the Máistir Gairmiúil san Oideachas (MGO) programme provided valuable information and input in to the creation of the policy document. Enda Kenny, together with the Minister for Education and Skills, Richard Bruton and Minister of State for Gaeltacht Affairs, Sean Kyne launched the Department of Education and Skills’ Policy on Gaeltacht Education 2017-2022. The launch was held in Scoil Náisiúnta Mhic Dara, An Cheathrú Rua (Carraroe), Co Galway. - See more at: http://www.education.ie/en/Press-Events/Press-Releases/2016-Press-Releases/PR2016-10-28.html#sthash.pjJjPwwp.dpuf Enda Kenny, together with the Minister for Education and Skills, Richard Bruton and Minister of State for Gaeltacht Affairs, Sean Kyne launched the Department of Education and Skills’ Policy on Gaeltacht Education 2017-2022. The launch was held in Scoil Náisiúnta Mhic Dara, An Cheathrú Rua (Carraroe), Co Galway. - See more at: http://www.education.ie/en/Press-Events/Press-Releases/2016-Press-Releases/PR2016-10-28.html#sthash.pjJjPwwp.dpuf http://www.education.ie/en/Press-Events/Press-Releases/2016-Press-Releases/PR2016-10-28.html http://tuairisc.ie/gailearai-la-mor-ar-an-gceathru-rua-agus-polasai-oideachais-a-sheoladh/   Normal 0 false false false EN-IE X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;} Government Launches Policy on Gaeltacht Education 2017-2022 - See more at: http://www.education.ie/en/Press-Events/Press-Releases/2016-Press-Releases/PR2016-10-28.html#sthash.pjJjPwwp.dpuf

Nua-Theicneolaíocht sa Rang Scoile: Labhair Seán Ó Grádaigh (Oideachas) le Cormac ag a Cúig ar RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta faoi úsáid na nua-theicneolaíocht san oideachas.

Congratulations to School of Education, NUI Galway staff member and PhD student, Paul Flynn ( @FlynnDPaul ) on the successful defence of his PhD, using design-based research to design community of practice within initial teacher education. Paul’s PhD was based on his teaching within NUI Galway’s BA Mathematics and Education programme.

Dr Manuela Heinz, Director of Teaching Practice and Ms Hannagh McGinley, Ph.D Student from the School of Education, NUI Galway, were invited to contribute to a panel discussion on the topic “Diversity in Education”. The panel discussed recent developments and challenges affecting students, teachers and schools as well as equity issues and barriers for individuals from underrepresented and disadvantaged groups who would like to enter and/or have already joined the teaching profession. Manuela shared findings from the DITE (Diversity in Initial Teacher Education) national research project. Féilte 2016 Photo Gallery

Staff and Researchers from the School of Education, NUIGalway contributed to the recent Teaching Council, FÉILTE 2016 event in RDS, Dublin on Saturday 1st Oct.   The Researchmeet follows the standard Teachmeet format, with each presenter providing a 5-minute nano presentation on their research.  Subsequent to the presentations, presenters then moved to their display stands where they were available to engage with the FÉILTE audience further about their research. Sorcha O'Toole presented on her research so far, as part of her PhD programme within Researchmeet on Enabling a professional identity in FE teachers and  the emerging importance of dialogue in developing practice. Eilis Flanagan partook in the Researchmeet at this year’s FÉILTE.  She presented on her completed four-year doctoral study, which explored the design of technology-enhanced learning in English education.  Her presentation concentrated on the theoretical foundations and the iterative implementation of the Digital Ensemble approach to English teaching and assessment.   This approach integrates mobile technologies with collaborative, drama-based strategies to mobilise and augment embodied approaches to engaging with literature.   @EilisFlanagan Féilte 2016 Photo Gallery

1st Year PME ICT Methodology students, Paul Mc Keever and Robert Butler designed and programmed computer programmes in Scratch as part of their ICT Methodology course. ICT in Irish education is undergoing significant change with new curriculum developments, including short courses for coding and digital media design in the new Junior Cycle.   Scratch is a free, highly user-friendly programming environment designed by the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT, which enables creative technology design and programming: http://scratch.mit.edu

Dr. Tony Hall, Lecturer in Educational Technology, School of Education, NUI Galway has been made a Fellow of the International Society for Design and Development in Education (ISDDE). An international professional society for educational designers and design-based researchers, ISDDE was established to help develop, promote and advance systematic, principled design of educational environments, innovations, solutions and technologies. 'The Fellows are designers and project leaders with outstanding records, together with some representatives from government agencies and foundations that fund such work.' www.isdde.org

Dr Tony Hall, Lecturer in Educational Technology with NUI Galway, has been elected a Fellow of the International Society for Design and Development in Education (ISDDE). Dr Hall was welcomed to the society at its recent annual conference in Utrecht in The Netherlands and joins 150 other active educational designers and technologists who are connected as Fellows of the society. Chair of ISDDE, Professor Susan McKenney said: “Becoming a Fellow of ISDDE is both recognition of Tony's work as an educational designer as well as entry into an international community of professionals striving to promote and support excellence in educational design.”  Dr Tony Hall said: “I am honoured to be a Fellow of ISDDE and look forward to further building contact and collaboration with the colleagues and design researchers from all over the world that I met in Utrecht.” Dr Hall is a lecturer with NUI Galway’s School of Education. His leadership in developing Design-Based Research at NUI Galway and role in collaboratively designing NUI Galway’s Bachelor of Arts Mathematics and Education, the national Professional Diploma in Mathematics for Teaching, and EU H2020 Q-Tales Project contributed to his election as Fellow of ISDDE. The ISDDE was founded to bring together outstanding education course designers and developers from around the globe. The society aims to promote excellence in educational products and materials, particularly for science, mathematics, and technology by creating a professional community that shares knowledge, research, approaches, and critiques. ISDDE advances these goals through annual conferences, a peer-reviewed e-journal, Educational Designer and annual prizes for excellence in educational design. For more information about ISDDE and its awards, visit www.isdde.org.

Bronnadh an Apple Distinguished Programme ar an Máistir Gairmiúil san Oideachas mí naFeabhra 2015 agus ba é an chéad chlár tríú leibhéal lasmuigh de Mheiriceá a ghnóthaigh angradam seo.Bronnadh an gradam den dara huair ar an Máistir Gairmiúil san Oideachas do na blianta2016-2018 ar na mallaibh.Leis an ngradam seo, tá an Máistir Gairmiúil san Oideachas aitheanta an athuair mar chlár le barrfeabhas san nuálaíocht, sa cheannródaíocht agus mar eiseamláir oideachais maidir le húsáid nateicneolaíochta san oideachas.Ghlac Ceann nua-cheaptha na Scoile, an tOllamh Gerry Mac Ruairc, in éineacht le stiúrthóir anchláir, an Dr Brendan Mac Mahon leis an ngradam, thar ceann na foirne MGO, ó Éanna ÓBrádaigh, Bainisteoir Forbairt Gnó san Oideachas, Apple. The Máistir Gairmiúil san Oideachas (MGO) programme, offered by the School of Education, NUIGalway, was again recently awarded the prestigious Apple Distinguished Programme forinnovation, leadership and educational excellence 2016-2018. This award identifies centres ofexcellence in the use of technology in education.Gerry MacRuairc, the School of Education’s newly appointed Professor of Education and Dr.Brendan Mac Mahon (MGO Programme Director) accepted the award on behalf of the MGOprogramme team, from Éanna Ó Brádaigh (Apple).In February 2015 the Máistir Gairmiúil san Oideachas (MGO) was the first third level programmeoutside of the USA to be awarded the Apple Distinguished Programme award.

Dr Michael Hogan, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, School of Psychology and Dr Tony Hall, Lecturer in Educational Technology, School of Education recently facilitated a joint seminar on Collective Intelligence and Design-Based Research at the Graduate School of Education, University of Exeter. Hosted by Professor Rupert Wegerif at the Centre for Teaching and Thinking Dialogue, the seminar examined how CI and DBR methodologies can be used in the collaborative conceptualisation and design of educational innovations, solutions and technologies. Over the past few years, Michael has worked to extend the pragmatic systems science and collective intelligence methods developed by John Warfield.  In his talk, Michael described Warfield’s method, outlined a variety of recent basic and applied social science applications, and discussed how collective intelligence can be used in a classroom setting.  Tony's talk examined the emergence, potential and limitations of design-based research (DBR) as a solution-oriented, change-driven research methodology across different educational contexts and settings, elective and formal.

Drs Eílis Flanagan ( @EilisFlanagan )and Tony Hall, School of Education, NUI Galway presented on the digital ensemble innovation with local Galway schools and the related ENaCT educational design framework at this year’s National Association for the Teaching of English (NATE) Conference 2016, Stratford Upon Avon. Digital ensemble is a technology-enhanced approach to English teaching and assessment, exploring the combination of ensemble: drama and performative learning, and mobile and portable technology, e.g. iPad. A key outcome of the research has been the development of a Junior Cycle Short Course, titled ENaCT-It, which outlines a syllabus for using mobile ICT and drama to enhance engagement with English literature. The research will feature as a paper, “Digital Ensemble: The ENaCT design-based research framework for technology-enhanced embodied assessment in English education”, in a forthcoming special issue of the NATE journal, English in Education, appearing in spring 2017, on the topic of learning and assessment, edited by Dr Ann Harris, University of Huddersfield.

DBR & Collective Intelligence Seminar, Graduate School of Education, University of Exeter.  1st September 2016 at 1pm Tony Hall is Lecturer in Educational Technology and a design-based researcher in the School of Education, National University of Ireland, Galway.  In his talk, Tony will explore the potential and limitations of design-based research (DBR) as a solution-driven, change-oriented research methodology in different educational contexts and settings, elective and formal, including museums, schools and higher education.  Tony was formerly a secondary school teacher of physical education, English and ICT, and a school ICT coordinator.  He jointly leads the H2020 Q-Tales Project to design and develop educational eBooks with Drs Michael Hogan and John Breslin at the NUI Galway.  Tony is also the Co-PI at NUI Galway for the REX Project, funded by the National Forum, to design and develop an online portal to support the integration of educational academic research and teacher professional practice.  Further information: http://www.nuigalway.ie/our-research/people/education/tonyhall/. Michael Hogan (@michaelhogannui) is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the National University of Ireland, Galway.  Over the past few years, Michael has worked to extend the pragmatic systems science and collective intelligence methods developed by John Warfield.  This work includes basic and applied collective intelligence research and the creation of a new approach to systems science education.  Michael currently works on a variety of EU projects that use collective intelligence, including projects focused on marine ecosystem sustainability, open data transparency, and e-book design for children.  In his talk, Michael will describe Warfield’s method, outline a variety of recent basic and applied social science applications, and discuss how collective intelligence can be used in a classroom setting.

The Awards Ceremony for the exciting Sea Change Coder Dojo Challenge took place recently in NUI Galway.  It was the cullmination of a very busy year and also represented the final event for the Galway Coderdojo this school year. The Sea Change game design challenge was launched on February 27th and invited entrants from Galway (Ireland) and Lund (Sweden) CoderDojo members aged 7-18yrs.  The challenge was organised by NUI Galway as part of their contribution to a European project called “Sea Change” which aims to establish a fundamental ‘Sea Change’ in the way European citizens view their relationship with the sea. “The challenge is to use the fun and popularity of designing and playing tech games to raise awareness of Marine issues like the need to protect cold-water coral reefs, how we can begin to address the scourge of micro-plastics, and how we can maintain healthy oceans and seas, for ourselves, for the animals that live in them, and ultimately for the planet” said Dr Anthony Grehan, Earth and Ocean Sciences, NUI Galway and co-organiser of the event. Single and team entrants were encouraged to use their CoderDojos and mentors to develop their games over the three months. “There was a surge of interest with 32 entrants from Galway alone, revealing a strong and enthusiastic coding community, which is particularly relevant from an informal learning perspective, considering the recent Digital Strategy for Schools, 2015-2020 and its promotion of coding and programming at both primary and secondary level” said Dr Veronica McCauley from the School of Education at NUI Galway and co-organiser of the event. The game design was reviewed by a panel of experts: Alan Duggan (Tribalcity.com), Gavin Duffy (RealSim Ltd.) and Triona Mac Giolla Rí (Coderdojo Mentor) and judged on ‘best concept’ and ‘ease of use’.   “The aesthetic and technical merit of the project submissions has been highly commended by the judges” said Brendan Smith, Education Outreach Officer at INSIGHT, NUI Galway and Co-Founder of Coderdojo Galway.  “And as such, we are delighted to hear that one of the winning games will be included within a soon to be published iBook about cold water corals that will be presented as a teaching resource to secondary schools”.  Two awards were presented to the Irish finalists: Junior Award: €300 and Senior Award: €500 and a certificate of participation was presented to each entrant. The organisers wish to thank Councillor John Walsh, Deputy Mayor of Galway City, who took time out of his busy schedule to attend the opening procedings. Other marine related resources are available (newsletters, poster, fact sheet, ocean literacy booklet, videos) on the project website: www.seachangeproject.eu.

Dr Tony Hall, School of Education recently presented on NUI Galway's approach to design-based research at the CREATE: Consortium for Research and Evaluation of Advanced Technologies in Education at New York University (@NYU_CREATE).  In particular, the seminar explored the potential of narrative and digital storytelling in the conceptualisation, design and evaluation of educational innovations and technologies in different learning contexts, elective and formal.

Valery de Smidt (@CREW_EricJoris) from CREW in Belgium (www.crewonline.org) presented a workshop on Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) at the School of Education, NUI Galway on Wednesday, 8 June, 2016. Dr. Veronica McCauley (@VMcC_ScienceEd) and Dr. Kevin Davison (@KevinGDavison) from the School of Education (SoE) are a leading a project on the Immersive Classroom as a part of the Galway 2020 International Capital of Culture bid. CREW are an internationally recognised company that work in the area of VR/Immersive theatre/education and spectacle.  They were shortlisted for the Ars Electronica 2016 prize.  CREW are a partner in the Immersive Classroom Project along with local digital artist Denise McDonagh, Coder Dojo facilitators, and doctoral students from the School of Education. Also in attendance were, Marilyn Gaughan (@redgaughan and @galway2020) from the Galway2020 project; Michael McNamara (@ML_McN) and Martin McHugh, SoE Doctoral students; Karl Sweeney (@karljsweeney) from Galway Coder DoJo and Denise McDonagh (@Dinnymac)

D'éirigh le hAoife Ní Bhroin, mac léinn ar an Máistir Gairmiúil san Oideachas, Scoil an Oideachais, áit a fháil ar an ngearrliosta do 'Foghlaimeoir Teanga na Bliana 2016.'  Agus a cuid oideachais ar fad faighte ag Aoife trí Bhéarla go dtí seo, roghnaigh sí an clár MGO a dhéanamh trí Ghaeilge mar gheall ar an suim agus an dúil atá aici sa teanga. Tá éacht déanta aici i gcaitheamh na bliana maidir le dul chun cinn agus forbairt sa Ghaeilge.  Maith thú, a Aoife! Aoife Ní Bhroin, student on Máistir Gairmiúil san Oideachas, was shortlisted for Language Learner of the Year 2016. Having received all her education through English, Aoife chose to undertake her Initial Teacher Education course through Irish, and has made huge progress in the language throughout the year.  Well done, Aoife! Léargas Language Label http://www.leargas.ie/programmes/languages/european-language-label/about/

Sea Change is a European Horizon 2020 project aiming to establish a fundamental “Sea Change” in the way European citizens view their relationship with the sea, by empowering them, as Ocean Literate citizens, to take direct and sustainable action towards a healthy ocean, healthy communities and ultimately a healthy planet.  One aspect of the project involves hosting education conversations across eight European countries to identify the barriers to teaching 12-19 year olds about the ocean. Collective Intelligence (CI), a systems-thinking methodology, is playing a pivotal role in collecting and visualising the barriers impeding ocean literate societies whilst assisting in the design of solutions and options for the successful integration of oceans into education and outreach curricula.  On Thursday 19th May,  Dr. Christine Domegan, Dr. Patricia McHugh (Marketing Discipline, J.E. Cairnes School of Business & Economics, NUI Galway) and Dr Veronica McCauley, Dr. Kevin Davison, School of Education, NUI Galway, co-facilitated Ireland’s contribution to the Ocean Literacy campaign by gathering together key marine stakeholders from across Ireland to discuss and debate the challenges and solutions towards more ocean literature citizens in Ireland.  The primary target group for this research is children from second level education.

Sinéad Ní Ghuidir, Lecturer, Máistir Gairmiúil san Oideachas (MGO), School of Education, NUI Galway, is collaborating with Deirdre Ní Loingsigh in the University of Limerick on a project to set up a working group interested in collating examples of classroom practice and language teaching in the Irish classroom. Prof Do Coyle, the external examiner for the Professional Masters in Education (PME) will be in Galway at the beginning of June and has agreed to give a short talk on her own experience of similar projects. The session will be followed by a general meeting of interested parties in order to set up a research project specifically focussed on the Irish language classroom. The talk will take place on Thursday 2 June at 2.00pm.  Venue TBC. For further enquiries, please contact Sinéad Ní Ghuidir via email

To mark International Museum Day, the Irish Reasearch Council (#LoveIrishResearch) asked two researchers to talk about the importance of museums as sites for educating the public on our shared heritage, contemporary culture, and our future. One of the researchers, Sally McHugh ( @thefordofthekings ) Postgraduate Scholar in the School of Education at NUI Galway, wrote about working on her project, “Innovation in Heritage Education: Towards a Synthesis of Formal and Informal Learning.” Sally's project is supervised by Dr Tony Hall, Lecturer in Educational Techology, School of Education, NUI Galway.

Dr Veronica McCauley, Science Educator, School of Education, NUI Galway, attended the Irish Association of Science Education Lecturers (IASEL) national gathering in Trinity College Dublin on Tuesday 17th May.  The gathering welcomed Science Education Lecturer representation from across the country. The inaugural meeting of IASEL was held on 15th May 2000, and since then it has provided an opportunity for science educators to network, share best practice, and contribute to science education policy development.  This recent meeting invited presentations on best practice and evaluation strategies in science education from seven universities in relation to initial teacher education on their respective concurrent and consecutive programmes.  Picture from left to right:Dr. James Lovatt (Dublin City University), Dr. Veronica McCauley (NUI Galway), Dr. Odilla Finlayson (Dublin City University), Dr. Alison Graham (University College Dublin), Dr. Declan Kennedy (University College Cork), Dr Majella Dempsey (NUI Maynooth), Mr. Rory Geoghegan (University College Cork), Dr. Colette Murphy (Trinity College Dublin), Dr. Peter Childs (University of Limerick) and Ms. Mary Mullaghy (Trinity College Dublin)

The third year students from the BA Maths and Education Programme at NUI, Galway organised a two day maths camp for transition year students from Coláiste Iognáid (Twitter: @Jes_school1) on the NUIG campus, on the 12th and 13th of May. The camp was called 'Maths is Murder' and involved students being presented with a CSI-type murder mystery which they solved using their maths skills, allowing them to gain experience with all strands of Leaving Certificate curriculum.  On the first day of the Maths is Murder event, the scene was a Crimecall type scenario; our NUIG Community Guard Hugh Rogers came in and outlined to the students what the Maths is Murder camp would entail. The activities included cryptography, using technology and still CCTV images to estimate heights, shoe sizes etc.  Students were provided with a map of the campus and used this to estimate the distances between the crime scenes.  The student investigators used the clues at the crime scene to pinpoint the shooter’s exact location and then inspect this area.  The final activity was a moot court scenario in which the students argued their points in order to prove their suspect guilty “beyond all reasonable doubt”! This project forms part of one of thethird year modules and has the purpose of building links between the University and the community.  We would like to thank Eir and the Students Union shop for providing some sponsorship of this Summer Camp.

'Breaking the SEAL - Schools, Archives, Learning' was conceived and completed by Paul Flynn (@FlynnDPaul) Galway Doctoral Research Scholar in the School of Education, NUI Galway and Library Archivist, Barry Houlihan (@stagedreaction).  This innovative project, funded by the SU EXPLORE Initiative, aimed to connect Leaving Certificate History students to the resources of the James Hardiman Library at NUIG and in doing so begin to establish the 21st Century Skills they will require at third level and beyond.  These skills include: Finding Primary & Secondary Sources Interpreting Primary & Secondary Sources Academic Writing Digital Skills Leaving Certificate History students are required to complete a research project that is worth 20% of their final mark in that subject feeding into their final CAO tally for entry to third level education.  Opening up the library archives to these students would provide them with an opportunity to research topics where materials are easily accessible and locally relevant. Twenty four students from Presentation College Headford (PCH) in County Galway visited NUI Galway for a day with their History teacher Mr. James Shovlin and were given a tour of the library archives and four targeted workshops.  Each workshop was focused on a particular 21st Century Skill.  A second set of workshops were held at PCH, where students created and refined content for their research poster presentation in Hardiman Research Building on campus at NUI Galway on 13th May 2016. This research poster exhibition allowed students to exhibit and present their work to the staff and students at NUIG as well as family and friends who attended.  The participating students were presented with certificates of completion by Dr. Mary Fleming, Head of the School of Education, and received their Digital Badge of Completion. For more information on this project and future schools participation contact: p.flynn10@nuigalway.ie

Dr Tony Hall, Lecturer in Educational Technology, School of Education, NUI Galway, recently facilitated a design-based research (DBR) seminar at Stanford University, entitled: 'From Dewey to the Digital: Design-Based Research in Educational Contexts'. The discussion centred on key topics in design-based research and the learning sciences, with participants examining how to design bespoke solutions to meet the local requirements of diverse learning settings, but as design-based researchers, aiming to contribute also to the broader knowledge base of principled, systematic design in the learning sciences.  Tony illustrated his talk throughout by reference to NUI Galway's specific approach to design-based research.

Scoil an Oideachais, Ollscoil na hÉireann, Gaillimh, Máistir Gairmiúil san Oideachas (MGO) 2016 ag an Teachers Ball ag ceiliúradh chríoch an chláir.

Staff from the School of Education, NUI Galway, guest edited a 'Special issue International Journal of Mobile and Blended Learning (IJMBL) Journal, Mobile Learning in Teacher Education.  The staff were Dr Tony Hall, Seán Ó Grádaigh ( Twitter: @SeanOGraTek ) and Sinéad Ní Ghuidhir ( Twitter: @ Snighuidhir ) The International Journal of Mobile and Blended Learning (IJMBL) provides a forum for researchers in this field to share their knowledge and experience of combining e-learning and m-learning with other educational resources.  Providing researchers, practitioners, and academicians with insight into a wide range of topics such as knowledge sharing, mobile games for learning, collaborative learning, and e-learning, this journal contains useful articles for those seeking to learn, analyse, improve, and apply technologies in mobile and blended learning.  The journal spans theoretical, technical, and pedagogical issues in mobile and blended learning.  These embrace comprehensive or critical reviews of the current literature, relevant technologies and applications, and important contextual issues such as privacy, security, adaptivity, and resource constraints. Inspired by the first two MiTE Conferences, 2015 and 2016, founded by Seán Ó Grádaigh, School of Education, the IJMBL special issue features international research on mobile learning in teacher education from the UK, US, Poland, Israel, Portugal and Ireland.

The good news!   QS World University Rankings by Subject 2016, shows that NUI Galway gained an international ranking in Education (Ranked 201-250, 4th in the country) this year.  Other subject successes included Geography (Ranked 151-200, 4th in the country) whilst maintaining last year’s rankings in English (ranked 151-200, 3rd in the country).

The School of Education, NUI Galway recently launched an iBook 'The Story of 1916' by staff member Seán O'Grádaigh (@SeanOGraTek). It was launched by Dr Jim Browne, President of NUI Galway and the Ireland 2016 team (@ireland2016) with pupils and staff of Scoil Chroí Íosa, Newcastle Road, Galway. This multi-touch book tells the story of the 1916 Rising in Dublin.  It is packed with videos, interactivity and multimedia to engage readers with an authentic learning experience, which brings this period of Irish history to life.  It was built as part of Ireland’s Centenary Programme. The iBook is FREE and is available for download from the iTunes Store, with iBooks on your Mac or iOS device.  Multi-touch books can be read with iBooks on your Mac or iOS device. Books with interactive features may work best on an iOS device. iBooks on your Mac requires OS X 10.9 or later

School of Education, NUI Galway, Hardiman & IRC Scholar, Ms Sally McHugh (@fordofthekings) attended the recent MuseumNext 2016 Conference in Dublin.  The conferemce theme this year was on the future of museums. Sally has been interested in the move towards creative practices in European museums and the move away from traditional scholarship.  This new movement is towards themes on social justice, diversity, inclusivity and to emotional experiences.  For example, the Chester Beatty library in Dublin is conducting research on the 'Creative Museum'. The provisional title for Sally's research is: 'Innovation in heritage education: towards a synthesis of formal and informal learning.  Her supervisor is Dr Tony Hall.

The Research Expertise Exchange (REX) Project Team held their most recent technology design meeting in the School of Education, NUI Galway.  Funded by the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, REX aims to design and develop an online portal to support the integration of educational academic research and teacher professional practice. REX is collaborative educational technology research and development project between Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, University of Limerick and National University of Ireland, Galway.  With the increasing emphasis on teacher research within initial teacher education and across the continuum of teacher professional practice, REX will provide an online, blended resource to support teacher research in classrooms and schools.

The School of Education, NUI Galway, Postgraduate Research Seminar took place on Wednesday, 6 April 2016.  This seminar is part of the School's annual Research Seminar Series, the purpose of which is to highlight research activity in the School and to provide a forum for discussion. The seminar consisted of a number of parallel sessions, during which research students from the School of Education, NUI Galway presented on their current or recent educational research – in areas such as leadership of learning, literacy and numeracy, technology in education, special educational needs, intercultural education and science education. It was very well attended with great questions asked from the enthusiastic audience who were delighted to hear about the array of research being undertaken. Our Contemporary Research in Irish Education, Volume 3 - Book of Abstracts is available to download.  It was compiled by Dr. Veronica McCauley, lecturer in science education and it gives information on all the research projects presented at this event.

Dr Tony Hall, Lecturer in Educational Technology, School of Education and Visiting Scholar in the Faculty of Education, University of Hull recently delivered a seminar on design-based research (DBR), and its potential in the conceptualisation, deployment and evaluation of technology-enhanced learning. Tony's talk positioned design-based research as a contemporary research methodology in education, and exemplified DBR in practice.  His visit has focused on further developing research collaborations between the School of Education, NUI Galway and the Faculty of Education, University of Hull, particularly in the design of mobile learning in education.

Dr. Tony Hall, Lecturer in Educational Technology, School of Education, NUI Galway has been made a Fellow of the International Society for Design and Development in Education (ISDDE). An international professional society for educational designers and design-based researchers, ISDDE was established to help develop, promote and advance systematic, principled design of educational environments, innovations, solutions and technologies. 'The Fellows are designers and project leaders with outstanding records, together with some representatives from government agencies and foundations that fund such work.' www.isdde.org

The Educational Studies Association of Ireland (ESAI) Conference 2016 was hosted by the School of Education, NUI Galway and held in Galway at the weekend, opening on Thursday evening in the Aula Maxima on campus before moving to the Radisson Blu Hotel in the city for Friday's and Saturday's parallel sessions, meetings and symposia. First hosted by UCG in 1976, the theme of ESA1 2016 was 'Education as a Public Good'.  The School of Education contributions encompassed both conference papers and symposia:  Spotlights on the diversity gap: An examination of the socio-demographic backgrounds of applicants and entrants to primary teacher education programmes in Ireland.Dr Manuela Heinz, Dr Elaine Keane. Collaborative school-university partnerships – how cooperating teachers, principals, student teachers and university tutors see it.Dr Manuela Heinz, Dr Mary Fleming, Dr Bonnie Thompson Long Standardised Assessment: Sacrificing the Individual for the Success of the Majority.Michael Mc Namara Innovative Approaches to Researching, Promoting, and Teaching Ocean Literacies in Ireland and Europe.Dr Veronica McCauley, Dr Kevin Davison, Dr Patricia McHugh Washout or Watershed? Evaluating NQTs' use of mobile technology for teaching and learning during their early years of teaching.Seán Ó Grádaigh, Sinéad Ní Ghuidhir, Dr Brendan Mac Mahon Knowledge Development within a Professional Development Programme for Out-of-Field Mathematics Teachers.Dr Máire Ní Ríordáin, Dr Catherine Paolucci, Dr Laura O’ Dwyer Bringing research and data into teacher professional development.Annelie Eberhardt, Dr. Manuela Heinz Impact of Learning one Foreign Language on Teaching another Foreign Language.Dr. Patrick Farren Symposium: The Naturalistic Context of Design-Based Research (DBR).Paul Flynn, Martin McHugh, Dr. Eílis Flanagan, Dr. Tony Hall, Dr. Veronica McCauley The full conference programme and book of abstracts can be downloaded here.

The School of Education, NUI Galway will host the next meeting of the Network for Educational Action Research in Ireland (NEARI).   You can see some of their ideas at  http://eari.ie  and http://eariblog.edublogs.org. NEARI are an independent, non-profit organisation and its members are a cross sectoral group of teachers and educators.  This network is for everyone interested in any aspect of action research / reflective practice.   This event will be an opportunity to meet up and network with other action researchers. The theme for this meeting is Sharing Action Research with Others. Location: Education building, Nuns' Island, National University of GalwayDate: 23rd AprilTime: 10.30 to 14.30 Following the success of the ‘Round Robin’ presentations at previous meets, NEARI invite anyone who wishes to do so, to give a short talk or presentation (possibly 5 mins).  This could be about on your action research or on the theme of the day, or you may wish to share a reading from the literature that inspired you.  Please let Pip Ferguson know (pip.ferguson@dcu.ie), as the schedule can be tweaked accordingly. Email Pip Ferguson on pip.ferguson@dcu.ie by 5pm on 8th April to reserve a seat. (Places limited).

Dr Tony Hall, Lecturer in Educational Technology, School of Education, NUI Galway,  recently spoke about design-based research (DBR) at the University of Twente, Netherlands. Hosted by Professor Susan McKenney, leading educational design researcher, Department of Education, Twente University, Tony presented on the design-based research being undertaken at NUI Galway's School of Education (SoE), and how researchers in the SoE are working on the principled, systematic design of learning innovations and technologies across a diverse array of educational contexts and settings, formal and informal. Entitled 'From Dewey to the Digital', Tony's talk traced DBR's emergence as intelligent experimentation, and its potential in developing bespoke technology-enhanced learning solutions in context. Tony presented to a wide audience in Enschede, including educational design researchers, teacher educators, educational technologists and STEM designers.

Farewell and good luck to the BA Mathematics and Education (BME) Class of 2016, from all in the School of Education, NUI Galway. This group of student teachers finished with a flourish after four years of study by organising and contributing to the 'Mathematics and Education, 5th Annual Research Symposium'. Keynote speakers included Prof. Ailish Hannigan, Associate Professor of Biomedical Statistics at the Graduate Entry Medical School, University of Limerick and Dr Anne Brosnan, National Coordinator of the Project Maths Development Team (PMDT).

Good news! Education, NUI Galway was one of the 11 subjects ranked in the QS subject rankings released this week. See these links for details: QS Top Universities NUI Galway Press Release

Paul Flynn, School of Education PhD Candidate and Galway Doctoral Research Scholar has been invited to attend the International Conference of the Learning Sciences 2016 in Singapore 20-24 June.  The theme of the conference is 'Transforming Learning, Empowering Learners’.  Paul has been selected to participate in a Doctoral Consortium at ICLS 2016.  This is an elite grouping of only 12 PhD candidates from around the globe to discuss issues surrounding the Learning Sciences and Design-Based Research.  For more details email p.flynn10@nuigalway.ie You can also follow Paul on Twitter @FlynnDPaul

The 3rd Annual Statistical Summer School will be held at the School of Education, NUI Galway, June 22nd-24th 2016.  This Summer School is the third in a series being organised collaboratively by the School of Education, NUI, Galway and the Department of Education and Professional Studies, UL.  This event has arisen out of a desire to develop statistical competence in the domain of educational research, while promoting data awareness and impact on policy and intervention. This year’s Summer School, facilitated by Dr. Laura O’ Dwyer (Boston College), will focus on strategies, techniques, tactics, and issues in the development of surveys as measurement instruments.  It will emphasize the theoretical, measurement and practical considerations (including reliability and validity, etc.) in the development of measurement instruments.  The Summer School will include demonstrations and hands-on practice in survey development and data analysis and detailed materials will be provided. For more information please see the attached document. In order to register for this Summer School please email maire.niriordain@nuigalway.ie  or via the website link available at http://bit.ly/1mUG5le Places are limited to 25 participants.

Dr Tony Hall, Educational Technology Lecturer, School of Education, NUI Galway visits Omega Technology (http://www.omegatechnology.gr ) in Athens. The focus of the work over the past week has been to take the Q-Tales pedagogical design framework and related design schema, developed at NUI Galway by Drs Michael Hogan, Bonnie Long, John Breslin and Tony Hall, and using a gamified design approach, create prototype literacy mini-games for the Q-Tales educational ebook platform. The primary development environment for the technology is C# in Unity 3D, led by Theodoros Doukoulos.

The Sea Change game design challenge is open to Galway (Ireland) and Lund (Sweden) CoderDojo members aged 10-18. The challenge is being organised by NUI Galway as part of their contribution to a European project called “Sea Change” which aims to establish a fundamental “Sea Change” in the way European citizens view their relationship with the sea.  The challenge is to use the fun and popularity of designing and playing tech games to raise awareness of Marine issues like the need to protect cold-water coral reefs, how we can begin to address the scourge of micro-plastics, and how we can maintain healthy oceans and seas, for ourselves, for the animals that live in them, and ultimately for the planet. You and your team can use your CoderDojos and mentors to develop your games. The game design will be reviewed by a panel of experts and judged on ‘best concept’ and ‘ease of use’.  The winning game will be included in an iBook about cold water corals that will be presented as a teaching resource to secondary schools and the name of the winning team will be inscribed on a special Sea Change Coder Dojo Challenge plaque.  There will also be cash prizes for the top 2 teams in each country: first prize: 500€; second prize: 250€. At the launch, two scientists will talked about their work on corals, and plastics in our ocean, to provide ideas for game development.  Other resources are available (newsletters, poster, fact sheet, ocean literacy booklet, videos) on the project website: www.seachangeproject.eu. Dr Veronica McCauley from the School of Education, NUI Galway and Dr Anthony Grehan, Earth and Ocean Sciences, School of Natural Science, gave an interview about the launch on the Keith Finnegan Show.  It's available on their podcast:  http://galwaybayfm.ie/the-keith-finnegan-show-thursday-february-25th/ from 01:01:57. Competition Time-Table Registration by: 26 March, 2016 Submission by: 14 May, 2016 Winners announced: 11 June, 2016

The Irish Conference on Game Based Learning (iGBL), formerly the Irish Symposium on Game-Based Learning, now in its sixth year, will be hosted by Trinity College Dublin on 1st and 2nd September 2016. This conference provides a forum for all stakeholders interested in exchanging ideas, projects, and best practices on the use of games and game-based approaches to support motivation, learning, and change. Researchers will be able to present and share their latest findings. Students will have an opportunity to present their research or showcase their games, and meet specialists in this field  to obtain constructive feedback. Instructors will have the opportunity to discover new game-based teaching approaches and share new game-based skills that they can integrate in their teaching. Companies will be able to showcase their products and explain how these can be used in the context of learning and motivation. Prospective presenters can now submit their abstract through the online submission system.We welcome abstracts from a wide range of stakeholders, including researchers, instructors, or students, who will have the opportunity to conduct workshops, present research results, or provide insights on how they managed to design or use games for educational or motivational purposes. Important Dates 8th March 2016: Abstract submission deadline. 8th April 2016: Notification of acceptance. 8th April 2016: Successful research-based presentations are invited to submit a paper to be included in the conference proceedings. 19th April 2016: Early-bird registration deadline. 3rd May 2016: Registration deadline. 31st May 2016: Final submission of presentations and research papers.For more information on iGBL2016, please email us at: igblcon...@gmail.com or visit the official website .

Congratulations to Dr Mary Higgins who was conferred with her PhD in Education (Learning Sciences) at the Spring Conferring on Wednesday 24th February.   Dr Higgins’ thesis, entitled: “Applied Learning: A Design Model for Further Education in the 21st Century”, developed a bespoke design-based research model, AACES, to support applied and technology-enhanced learning in adult, continuing and further education.  Dr Higgins’ research was supervised by Dr Tony Hall, Lecturer in Educational Technology, School of Education, NUI Galway.

Mr Brendan Smith, Co-Founder of CoderDojo Galway City, recently provided members of the Galway Branch of the Irish Science Teacher's Association (ISTA) with a 2-hour workshop on using Scratch software in an educational context. This CoderDojo event was organised by Dr Veronica McCauley, Science Educator in the School of Education, NUI Galway.  It gave science teachers the opportunity to try out the 'Scratch' coding software in a supportive and fun learning environment.

School of Education, NUI Galway, PHD Candidate and Galway Doctoral Research Scholar has been invited to attend the European Educational Research Association (EERA) - 7th Histories of Education Summer School at the University of Groningen, Netherlands in June 2016. This is a highly prized conference with only 30 PhD Candidates from across the EU invited to attend. Engaged in design-based research, Paul is exploring the history of education for community formation in undergraduate initial teacher education. For more details contact p.flynn10@nuigalway.ie

School of Education, NUI Galway, 'Physics Hooks' launched on YouTube The Physics Video Hooks project, spearheaded by Dr Veronica McCauley, Lecturer in Science Education and designed by Martin McHugh, Doctoral Candidate in Science Education and John Byrne, a Science and Physics teacher in St. Paul’s Secondary School, Oughterard, has been officially launched on YouTube. The Hooks Series offers science educators a collection of videos that capture novel and engaging aspects of Physics. They are short, smart video clips that can be used to draw learners in and engage them in scientific inquiry and discovery. They are based on Junior Science topics, but they can be extended to Senior Cycle also. Previously, the hooks were only available through Apple iBooks and www.sciencehooks.scoilnet.ie. The new YouTube platform allows School of Education designed resources to reach a wider audience of students and educators. The videos are available for free at: http://tinyurl.com/physicshooks For more content, be sure to subscribe to PhysicsHooks!

The second cohort of Professional Diploma in Mathematics for Teaching (PDMT) / Dioplóma Gairmiúil sa Mhatamaitic don Mhúinteoireacht (DGMM) (240 teachers) were conferred in the University of Limerick last Saturday bringing the number of graduates of the programme to over 525 (i.e. both Cohorts 1 and 2).As for the first PDMT / DGMM conferring in January 2015, we were delighted that the Minister for Education and Skills, Jan O'Sullivan, TD, attended and spoke at the ceremony. We continue to work with Cohorts 3 and 4. Coordinated by EPI*STEM, UL, the PDMT / DGMM is jointly accredited by UL - NUIG under their strategic alliance and delivered nationwide through a consortium of Higher Education institutions. Click on the link to the UL news item re PDMT / DGMM conferring last Saturday: http://www.ul.ie/news-centre/news/secondary-teachers-advance-their-abilities-in-mathematics-at-ul/

Picture (L-R): Dr. Brendan Mac Mahon,  Professor Eero Ropo, School of Education, University of Tampere, Finland (external examiner), Ellen McCabe, Professor Rod Stoneman, Dr. Tony Hall. Congratulations to Ms Ellen McCabe, Huston School of Film and Digital Media and PhD student, Structured PhD Digital Arts and Humanities (DAH), College of Arts, Social Sciences and Celtic Studies, who has successfully defended her thesis, entitled: 'Living the Stories We Create: An Educational Response to Narrative in the Digital Age.' Using Shakespeare's Macbeth as a case-study, Ellen's thesis explored the implications of digital media for learning within the Irish Leaving Certificate English Curriculum, and the potential of new media to support the realignment of formal learning contexts to contemporary perceptions and expectations of narrative. The research was jointly supervised by Professor Rod Stoneman and Dr. Seán Crosson, Huston School of Film and Digital Media, and Dr. Tony Hall, School of Education.  Dr. Brendan Mac Mahon, School of Education, acted as internal examiner.

The School of Education, NUI Galway will host the Second International Conference on Mobile Technology in Teacher Education (MiTE 2016) on 15th and 16th January in the Ardilaun Hotel, Galway. On Friday, 15th January, the conference will provide an academic platform for emerging research, and on Saturday, 16th January, the focus will be on the practitioner application of mobile technology in the classroom, in the form of hands-on workshops and showcases on mobile apps for teaching, learning and assessment. NUI Galway’s School of Education is aware of the potential that mobile technology has for improving the teaching and learning experiences of pupils in the classroom.  This two-day conference will celebrate the possibilities and explore the challenges of integrating mobile technology in teacher education and in the broader field of education in order to promote best practice by teachers, students and schools.  Contributors include experts in the field of mobile technology, including representatives from mainland Europe, the US, Nordic countries and Asia. Seán Ó Grádaigh, NUI Galway’s School of Education, and Co-Chair of the MiTE 2016 Conference, said: “Mobile Technology has the ability to change how we Teach, Learn and Assess.  Students can now learn when, where and how suits them best and Teacher Education can play a central role in the integration of this technology in the classroom.” Keynote Speaker Stephen Heppell is a Professor at Bournemouth University, Chair in New Media Environments, Emeritus Professor Anglia Ruskin University, and Visiting Professor of the University of Wales, Newport.  Professor Heppell is best known for his work at Ultralab, part of Anglia Polytechnic University.  There, he worked on education projects such as ‘Learning in the New Millennium’, ‘Schools OnLine’, development of ‘Think.com’ and ‘Talking Heads’.  In 2003, he left UltraLab and is now CEO of the education consultancy firm, Heppell.net, a global and flourishing policy and learning consultancy, which now has an enviable portfolio of international projects all around the world. Dr Mary Fleming, Head of School of Education at NUI Galway, said: “My colleagues and I are delighted to be involved in this conference again this year.  Mobile Technology is a significant and growing area of educational research and we welcome this opportunity to build on the School of Education’s engagement with new teaching and learning practices and approaches in the classroom.” MiTE 2016 is open to parents, teachers and students who are interested in seeing and hearing how mobile technologies, for example, smartphones/tablets, can contribute positively to the learning processes within our classrooms today.  To find out more see http://www.gratek.ie/mite2016/index.php

Dr Tony Hall of the School of Education, NUI Galway, was invited to deliver the opening keynote lecture at the #dariahTeach Open Humanities Workshop in Belgrade, which brought together 20 participants from 9 different countries (Germany, Ireland, UK, Greece, Denmark, France, Serbia, Switzerland, Holland) to explore key issues in developing interactive, multimodal, localizable, open-access and open-source teaching materials. #dariahTeach is a European strategic partnership aimed at fostering innovative teaching and learning practices among members of the DARIAH (Digital Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities) network. This Strategic Partnership is under the lead of Maynooth University, Ireland, with six other participating institutions:  Aarhus University, Denmark; Athena Research and Innovation Center in Information Communication & Knowledge Technologies (Greece); Austrian Academy of Sciences; Belgrade Center for Digital Humanities, (Serbia); Erasmus University Rotterdam (The Netherlands); and the University of Lausanne (Switzerland). Tony’s talk on design-based research explored concepts and principles for the design, development and deployment of models of technology-enhanced in educational contexts. The keynote lecture and presentation is available to view at: http://dariah.rs/en/dariahteach-open-humanities-workshop/

Mr Keith Rowe, a graduate teacher of the School of Education, NUI Galway and ICT and Maths teacher, St Aloysius College, Athlone, presented on teaching the Irish Computer Society (ICS) Curriculum in schools. The presentation to the ICT methodology of the PME, School of Education covered key aspects of the ICS Curriculum, including digital media design and literacy, digital storytelling, programming and coding, and design with micro controller-based kits for cross-curricular, constructionist learning in schools.

The School of Education, NUI Galway held a Research Seminar Series (RSS) event, 'Rethinking Instructional Approaches in Second Language Immersion Programmes: Emerging Themes and Controversies' given by guest speaker, Professor Jim Cummins on Thursday, 10 December 2015. Emeritus Professor Jim Cummins, Department of Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto, Canada, is a noted world leader in second language learning and literacy development research.  He holds a Canada Research Chair and has been a recipient of the International Reading Association's Albert J. Harris award. He also received an honorary doctorate in Humane Letters from the Bank Street College of Education in New York City. He has led or been involved in many research projects,including, in recent years, a large-scale SSHRC-funded project entitled "From Literacy to Multiliteracies: Designing Learning Environments for Knowledge Generation within the New Economy”, a project to validatethe Ontario Ministry of Education's Steps to English Proficiency assessment tool, and a research review on English Language Learners' academic trajectories. Dr. Cummins has co-authored several books on literacies in education, and has seen his work translated into Japanese and Spanish.

The School of Education, NUI Galway held a Research Seminar Series event 'Rethinking Instructional Approaches in Second Language Immersion Programmes: Emerging Themes and Controversies'  given by guest speaker, Emeritus Professor Jim Cummins, Department of Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto, Canada, on Thursday, 10 December 2015Dr. James Cummins is a noted world leader in second language learning and literacy development research.  He holds a Canada Research Chair and has been a recipient of the International Reading Association's Albert J. Harris award. He also received an honorary doctorate in Humane Letters from the Bank Street College of Education in New York City. He has led or been involved in many research projects, including, in recent years, a large-scale SSHRC-funded project entitled "From Literacy to Multiliteracies: Designing Learning Environments for Knowledge Generation within the New Economy”, a project to validatethe Ontario Ministry of Education's Steps to English Proficiency assessment tool, and a research review on English Language Learners' academic trajectories. Dr. Cummins has co-authored several books on literacies in education, and has seen his work translated into Japanese and Spanish.

Drs Bonnie Long and Tony Hall, School of Education, NUI Galway, latest publication on the R-NEST design model for digital storytelling in teacher education features in a special issue of the Australasian Journal of Educational Technology on educational design research, edited by Theodore J. Kopcha, University of Georgia; Matthew M. Schmidt, University of Hawaii and Susan McKenney, University of Twente, Netherlands. Download paper at: http://ajet.org.au/index.php/AJET/article/download/2535/1311

Pictured at the recent Winter Conferring in NUI Galway, L-R: Dr Veronica McCauley, Dr Diogo Gomes, Dr Eilís Flanagan, Dr Tony Hall, School of Education. Congratulations to Dr Eilís Flanagan and Dr Diogo Gomes who were both awarded their PhDs in Education at the Winter Conferring on Wednesday 25th November.  Dr Gomes’ thesis, entitled: “Dialectical dividends: Fostering hybridity of new pedagogical practices and partnership in science education and outreach”, was supervised by Dr Veronica McCauley, Lecturer in Science Education, School of Education, NUI Galway.  Dr Tony Hall, Lecturer in Educational Technology, School of Education, supervised Dr Flanagan’s thesis, entitled: "Digital ensemble: Exploring the design of technology-enhanced learning to mobilise and augment post-primary students’ engagement with English literature."

Dr. Veronica McCauley, Lecturer in Science Education, organised a Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) event in the School of Education, NUI Galway to showcase an abundance of online teaching resources for teachers.  Local science teachers from the Galway branch of the Irish Science Teacher's Association (ISTA) network and their Chairperson, Dee King, attended.  Also in attendance were student science teachers from the Professional Masters of Education (PME) programme. Dr. Stephanie Nelson (Queens University Belfast) and John O’Donoghue (Trinity College Dublin), National Education Coordinators for the RSC facilitated this event. The Royal Society of Chemistry provided a wealth of online teaching resources.  The 90 minute workshop provided an oportunity for science teachers to learn how to find the best resourcesin the shortest time.  Time was provided to assess the suitability of these resources, and everyone found something they could use in class the next day.  The newest developments were also showcased.  This workshop was aimed at everyone from trainee to experienced teachers, and was interactive and informal.  Both Junior and Senior Cycle resources were reviewed on the evening and a bundle of freebies were provided to each teacher.

Dr Veronica McCauley, Science Teaching Lecturer in the School of Education, NUI Galway demonstrates to Professional Masters of Education (PME) Year 2 pre-qualified teachers, how to create non-newtonian fluid, AKA scientific slime!

3rd International Irish Narrative Inquiry Conference, March 10th and 11th 2016 Call for Abstracts In this conference we seek to explore the doing of narrative inquiry in its many forms and to take seriously the time, place and significance of its doing.

Mr Seán Ó Grádaigh, Lecturer on the Máistir Gairmiúil san Oideachas (MGO) Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programme in the School of Education, NUI Galway, will be presenting at 'uLead 2016 - the Summit of Educational Leadership!' Seán is the Co-ordinator of Mobile Technologies in ITE and his vision is to integrate iPads in all aspects of the MGO programme.

Ms Sinéad Ní Ghuidhir, Lecturer on the Máistir Gairmiúil san Oideachas programme, becomes the second member of the School of Education, NUI Galway, to become an Apple Distinguished Educator (ADE), 2015.  Sinéad recently attended the Apple Distinguished Educator Institute in The Netherlands.

We are delighted to announce that Seán Ó Grádaigh, Léachtóir on the Máistir Gairmiúil san Oideachas (MGO) programme in the School of Education, NUI Galway, has been featured by Apple Inc. His story is now live in the 'Teaching with iPad' section on Apple’s Education site. It’s a great honour to have an Irish educator showcased on Apple’s site, providing a compelling story of content creation using tools such as iBook Author. The Icing on the cake is that the sample resources and content showcased are in Irish. Take a spin over and view the story and enjoy some beautiful images of Galway Bay here. Well done to Seán and all our MGO team! 

Dr Elaine Keane was invited by Professor Norman Denzin (Distinguished Professor of Communications, College of Communications Scholar, and Research Professor of Communications, Sociology, and Humanities, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA) to provide a workshop on Prof. Kathy Charmaz’s constructivist grounded theory at the 11th International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in May 2015. While there, she also ran a symposium on ‘Coding for Interpretation and Performance’ with Professor Johnny Saldana (Professor Emeritus Arizona State University, and author of multiple qualitative textbooks), Professor Paul Mihas (Director of Education and Qualitative Analysis at the Odum Institute for Research in Social Science at the University of North Carolina), and Dr Charles Vanover (University of South Florida St. Petersburg College of Education). Elaine is currently working with Professor Kathy Charmaz (originator of constructivist grounded theory) and Professor Robert Thornberg (Linkoping University, Sweden) as co-author on a chapter on grounded theory for the 5th edition of the Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research (2016).

Collaborative research paper presented at American educational research association conference in chicago Dr Brendan Mac Mahon of the School of Education, NUI Galway co-presented a paper entitled 'Multilingualism: Challenges and Opportunities in the Irish Post-Primary Education Sector' along with colleagues Dr Melanie Ní Dhuinn and Dr Ann Devitt, School of Education, TCD at the recent American Educational Research Association (AERA) 2015 conference in Chicago. The paper was selected as part of the Educational Studies Association of Ireland (ESAI) Symposium at the AERA conference.

Happy 10th birthday to NUI Galway's BA Mathematics and Education programme!