Browsing IREd Institute for Research in Education - to April 2016 by Title
Now showing items 1-20 of 150
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Access to the curriculum for pupils with a variety of special educational needs in mainstream classes : an exploraton of the experiences of young pupils in primary schoolThe study focused on the five key research questions laid out in the tender document: 1. How is the curriculum being implemented and differentiated in mainstream primary school classes (from junior infants to second class) which include pupils with a variety of SEN? 2. How are pupils with SEN and their parents experiencing the curriculum in these settings? 3. What factors contribute to a positive experience of the curriculum and learning outcomes for pupils with SEN in these settings? 2 Access to the curriculum for pupils with a variety of special educational needs in mainstream classes 4. What are the challenges involved for teachers in implementing and differentiating the curriculum in these mainstream primary school classes? 5. What are the challenges for pupils with SEN in gaining access to the curriculum in these settings?
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Adapting to the digital age: a narrative approachThe article adopts a narrative inquiry approach to foreground informal learning and exposes a collection of stories from tutors about how they adapted comfortably to the digital age. We were concerned that despite substantial evidence that bringing about changes in pedagogic practices can be difficult, there is a gap in convincing approaches to help in this respect. In this context, this project takes a “bottom-up” approach and synthesises several life-stories into a single persuasive narrative to support the process of adapting to digital change. The project foregrounds the small, every-day motivating moments, cultural features and environmental factors in people's diverse lives which may have contributed to their positive dispositions towards change in relation to technology enhanced learning. We expect that such narrative approaches could serve to support colleagues in other institutions to warm up to ever-changing technological advances.
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Addressing the challenges and barriers to inclusion in Irish schools : report to Research and Development Committee of the Department of Education and SkillsThe study addresses the question of how Irish schools seek to overcome the challenges and barriers to inclusion. This necessitated sub questions in relation to identifying the challenges and barriers for the three groups of learners who are the focus of the study and then identifying how schools seek to overcome or mitigate their effects. To address these questions a case study research design was used incorporating multiple methods of data collection across six schools (three primary and three post-primary). Key informants in the Irish education system were relied upon in the selection of schools for the case studies to ensure that the selected schools were endeavouring to operate as inclusively as possible.
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A case study examination of the BBC News School Report project in Initial Teacher Education across three sites for the Training and Development Agency for SchoolsExecutive summary - This is the third year in which ITTE have reported on ITT trainee involvement in the BBC News School Report project (BBC NSRP) and on its impact on their training. - The previous two reports have been an evaluation based on data collected at TDA-hosted meetings. This report takes a case study approach with questionnaire interviews conducted in schools. - The case study approach provided access to staff who would not otherwise have attended evaluation days and, hence, gave a more rounded picture of the impact on training. - Involvement in the project developed trainees’ understandings of their own subject knowledge, of cross-curricular ways of working, of project working and of working in non-timetabled informal sessions with pupils. - The project allows for trainees to develop different, and more rounded, relationships with pupils. This has a positive impact on their teaching, particularly in respect of behaviour management. - The project enhances trainees’ professional identity in their own eyes, in the eyes of the department in which they are working and, in some cases, in the eyes of the wider school staff and leadership. - There are a number of different models for involvement ranging from trainees assisting other staff to trainees leading the project autonomously. The assistant model had not been one that had been seen in previous evaluations. - Project involvement, or leadership, continues to contribute directly to evidence of meeting QTS Standards, especially those around Professional Attributes. - Project involvement, or leadership, also continues to be seen as important in career development and applications for NQT posts. - The project provides authentic learning contexts both in-school and with the wider community.
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Cases, simulacra, and Semantic Web technologies‘Ensemble’ is an interdisciplinary research and development project exploring the potential role of emerging Semantic Web technologies in case-based learning across learning environments in higher education. Empirical findings have challenged the claim that cases ‘bring reality into the classroom’ and that this, in turn, might provide the basis for an understanding of the role of Semantic Web technologies in case-based learning environments. We describe how the work of authors including Baudrillard and Deleuze has provided an alternative framework for understanding the relationships between cases and the realities with which they are purportedly associated. We discuss how the idea of the ‘simulacrum’ has influenced our understanding of learning environments, has informed design and development practices, and has led to a shift in our understandings of the potential affordances of Semantic Web technologies in educational settings.
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Children's behaviour and cognitions across different balance tasksChildren's understanding of the way objects balance has provided important insights about cognitive development [e.g., Karmiloff-Smith, A. (1992). Beyond modularity: A developmental perspective on cognitive science. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press; Siegler, R. S. (1976). Three aspects of cognitive development. Cognitive Psychology, 8, 481–520]. We investigated the performance of 86 children aged between 5 and 7 years to see whether their cognitions about balance were consistent across different types of balance task. The children did not utilise the same cognitive processes across the different tasks; instead performance appeared to be influenced by perceptual and task characteristics. The findings emphasise that children's ability to access their knowledge varies with task demands and that theories about cognitive development need to take greater account of this variation.
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Citizenship and democracy in further and adult educationThis book addresses the questions why citizenship education is an important subject for students in further and adult education and why we need democratic colleges to support the study of citizenship education. It investigates the historical roots of further and adult education and identifies how the adoption of citizenship education in the post-compulsory sector can enrich vocational studies in further education and programmes in adult education.
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A comparison of student teacher conceptions of excellence in teaching at two universities in England and Finland‘Excellence' is a word that appears regularly in government documentation on teaching, for example when reviewing the curriculum review in England (DFE, 2011) or teacher education (DFE, 2010) but it is not defined. It appears that conceptions of excellence may be different in England and Finland,arising out of philosophical, historical, socio-economic and political differences, in other words, from cultural backgrounds. This assumption was tested by means of a small international research project that investigated student teacher conceptions of excellence in teaching at Education Departments at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland and the University of Bedfordshire in England.