Research
Up to £6,000/€9,000 was available for seed funding for research projects from colleges of education and university education departments on the island of Ireland. All applications required a North/South partnership drawn from institutions that are member of SCoTENS. Closing date for this round of research applications is 31 January 2008. All enquiries to Patricia McAllister at 028 3751 1550 (048 from the Republic) or p.mcallister@qub.ac.uk.
SCOTENS has supported a number of important research projects.
Download the application form 
.
Digital Video as a tool for changing ICT Learning in Schools and teacher education
This project is a follow on from previous work. The project aims to “identify examples of digital video which provide exemplars of what the researchers see as ICT for transformational learning in contrast to ICT being more focused on substituting or amplifying existing teaching and learning practices’. The researchers have confirmed that it is their intention to identify examples of good practice in ICT both in Initial Teacher Education and among teachers. They agreed to contact colleagues in Univ. Limerick who offer an MA in Digital Media in Education.
Dr Roger Austin, Ms D Graffin & Mrs Linda Clarke University of Ulster
Dr Paul Conway, University College Cork
Dr Joe O’Hara Dublin City University
Developing Reflective Skills in Student Teachers
The grant is to cover the development of collaborative research between University College Dublin and St Mary’s University College in the area of teacher professional development, with a specific focus on the development of reflective skills among student teachers. The research will culminate in a conference to be held before the end June 2008, where the research outcomes will be presented. A paper will be written up for publication in an international peer-reviewed journal.
Dr Gerry MacRuairc & Dr Judith Harford University College Dublin
Mr Dermot MacCartan St. Mary’s University College Belfast
Building Effective Science Outreach Strategies North and South
The primary aim of this project is to evaluate the structure, geographical spread, composition of Science Communication and Outreach Activities both in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, with a view to understanding their impacts and improving their design, management and efficiency of resources. The key task of this minor research is the undertaking of an all-island organisational survey of science communication and outreach providers in Ireland by drawing together diverse science outreach partners for a networking symposium. The symposium will involve two keynote addresses, and several themed focus group workshops.
Dr V McCauley, Dr C Domegan & Dr K Davison National University of Ireland Galway, and
Mr Billy McClune & Ms Ruth Jarman, Queen’s University Belfast
Social Justice Education in Initial Teacher Education: a Cross Border Perspective
The project will focus on:
1. Mapping existing provision and approaches to social justice, diversity and development education in Teacher Education institutions on both sides of the border.
2. Involving policy makers in the ministries on both sides of the Border to connect the academic and policy perspectives on the issues.
3. gathering attitudinal data on social justice, development and diversity issues among student teachers on two of the initial teacher education programmes and to establish whether there are observable differences in the patterns between students in the two jurisdictions, and between students on consecutive and concurrent programmes, in order to create an initial comparison which would inform a proposal for a larger study.
Dr Marie Clarke, Dr Audrey Bryan, University College Dublin.
Prof Tony Gallagher, Queen’s University Belfast
Dr Margaret Reynolds, St Mary’s University College, Belfast.
Dr Ken Wylie, Stranmillis University College
IASSEE an all-Ireland longitudinal study of student perceptions of history, geography and science education. (Part 3 and final part of research)
The research will focus on:
1. Developing a research framework and procedures that will enable you to determining students’ knowledge and understanding of content and pedagogical issues relating to primary history, geography and science, and their experiences and attitudes towards teaching these subjects at primary level.
2. Strengthening North/South links in initial teacher education and to support the development of projects and research in an all-Ireland context.
3. Working together to enhance the experience of initial teacher education North and South of the border through collaborative teaching initiatives. Download
Ms Susan Pike, St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra.
Mr Richard Greenwood, Stranmillis University College
School-based work in the North and South of Ireland: A review of Policy and Practice
The research will explore the role of the HEI Tutor during School Based Work placements; the following methods will be employed:
1. A case study approach using two sites, Stranmillis University College and St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra.
2. The findings of the case study will be used to inform the second stage of data collection, i.e. a questionnaire survey to all higher educational institutions engaged in Initial Teacher Education in the north and south of Ireland.
3. One to one interview with HEI tutors and school teacher tutors.
4. Dissemination of findings at a conference of HEI tutors and teacher tutors.
Dr Brian Cummins Stranmillis University College
Ms Bernadette Ni Aingleis, St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra, Dublin 9
Bringing School Communities Together to Promote Education for Diversity
- To involving four pairs of schools, in each jurisdiction, that have a history of involvement in intercultural and/or multicultural education and where particularly in the N Irish context, cross-community contact is viewed as one important location for making a contribution to such work.
- To engage Dr Simon Lichman to facilitate residential cross-border professional development with teachers from the paired schools mention in 1. above according to the methodologies of the Centre for Creativity in Education and Cultural Heritage.
- To encourage the school-attached professional personnel connected with the paired schools to attend residential professional development sessions.
- To have two school-home-community projects up and running in each jurisdiction by the end of the school year incorporating an action-research network of practitioners and researchers.
- To have completed a proposal for securing long-term funding.
Dr Ron Smith Queen’s University Belfast
Professor Keith Sullivan, National University of Ireland, Galway
Formerly Student Welfare/Teacher Development – now called
Cross Border exploration of CPD needs of heads of year in a sample of comprehensive and Integrated schools
The proposal is the first phase in a multi-phase project which aims to look at the understandings and relationships between the various stakeholders.
- Phase 1: seeks to examine the CPD needs of heads of year in comprehensive and integrated schools by means of a comparative study.
- Phase 2: will explore the attitudes of a sample of school principals
- Phase 3: will research the attitudes and perceptions of a sample of students
- Phase 4: will engage with parents and their expectations of the year head.
- Phase 5: will explore the views of the providers of initial teacher education programmes and the Dept. of Ed. and Science and SPHE Support Services/Health Promotion Schools Network.
- Phase 6: will design processes and modules in professional development for the key stake holders. The long term aim of the project is to build alliances between professionals to disseminate good practice across the island and develop materials and process which will improve the life chances of pupils and support teachers in their working lives.
Ms Patricia Mannix McNamara, Dr Tom Geary, University of Limerick
Dr Carol Sibbett, Queen’s University Belfast
Art and Science in Education: Moving towards creativity
The research will focus on:
- Developing a dynamic interface in education on the island of Ireland that will harness the arts and science in a synergistic manner to enhance learning and teaching in schools.
- Enhance creativity in teaching and learning.
- Expand the application of visual literacy to learning in both Science and Technology.
- Promote innovative strategies for assessment in Science and Technology that will measure skills in creativity and problem-solving and do not rely predominately on children’s written literacy and numeracy skills.
by holding a conference in March 2008 in St Mary’s UC Belfast.
Mr Ivor Hickey, Ms Deirdre Robson, St Mary’s University College, Belfast
Mr Donal O’Donoghue, Mary Immaculate College, Limerick
The Professional Development Needs of Teachers Working in the Area of Special Educational Needs
The purpose of this project is to investigate the professional development needs of those second level (post primary) teachers who have a specific remit to work with students who have special educational needs (SEN) in mainstream school settings.
Ms Elizabeth O’Gorman, Ms Mairin Barry & Mr Bernard McGettrick, University College Dublin.
Dr Eileen Winter and Dr Ron Smith, Queen’s University Belfast
Examining Assessment procedures for trainee teachers: a comparison
This research is concerned primarily with the qualifications required by teachers in post-primary and further education in Ireland and Northern Ireland. It seeks to examine and compare recent developments in the UK (TDA 2007) and Ireland (TCI) around professional teacher standards, and what these actually mean for trainee teachers and the teacher training programmes.
Mr Justin Rami, Dublin City University
St Mary’s University College, Belfast
North/South Conference on Education for Diversity & Citizenship
The funding will assist in the organisation of a teacher conference for up to 50 participants (25 from each jurisdiction) during April 2007. The theme of the conference will be Controversial Issues in the Classroom. The event will be facilitated by Dr Diana Hess, University of Wisconsin. Dr Hess is an Associate Professor of Social Studies Education and has acquired international recognition for her work with teachers around controversial and/or difficult issues. Download
Ms Una O’Connor, University of Ulster
Mr Gerry Jeffers, National University of Ireland, Maynooth
ESAI & BERA Joint Conference on Research
To organise two research training days, one in Northern Ireland in Autumn 2006 and one in the Republic of Ireland in Spring 2007. The topics to be discussed include: ethics and educational research; mapping of territory of education research; specific skills in educational research; developing a repository of research in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, using the Centre for Cross Border Studies new BorderIreland information database; project design with reference to key strategic objectives at regional, national and European levels. Download
Dr Denis Bates University of Limerick
Prof. John Gardner, Queen’s University Belfast
Teacher Education for Special Educational Needs in the North and South of IrelandSharing Cases of Practice
To organise a conference entitled "Student Teachers in Special Settings: policy and practice in Ireland. The Conference will be held at The National Institute for the Study of Learning Difficulties, Trinity College. Floor 4, 3 College Green. Dublin, on Thursday & Friday March 22nd and 23rd, 2007. The attendance will be initial teacher educators with responsibility for special educational needs in the Universities and Colleges of Ireland, members of General Teaching Councils and the Education and training Inspectorates in each jurisdiction. The Conference will aim to provide an assessment of pre-service teacher experience of pupils with disabilities and to provide answers to a range of research question. Download
Mr Hugh Kearns, Stranmillis University College
Dr Michael Shevlin, Trinity College Dublin
Diversity in Early Years Education North and South: Implications for Teacher Education
- To identify an appropriate early years setting that has children attending from both North and South of the border.
- To identify 2 settings, one North and one in South to act as control groups with children only attending from their jurisdiction
- To investigate children’s attitudes and awareness relating to social/national identity in 3 settings
- To investigate the impact of living in border regions has on young children’s emerging identities.
Dr Barbara McConnell, Ms Louise Quinn, Stranmillis University College,
Dr Philomena Donnelly, St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra, Dublin 9
IASSEE – An all-Ireland longitudinal study of student perceptions of history, geography and science education. (Part 2)
Phase two of the project will take place over the next 12-18 months, at times appropriate to the structure of the BEd courses in each of the participating institutions. We aim to interview a sample of students from each institution, to triangulate with data gathered via the initial questionnaire and to assess the impact of ITE curriculum courses and teaching practice experiences. These students will be drawn from the cohort originally surveyed in Autumn 2004 Download
Ms Susan Pike, St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra, Dublin 9
Mr Richard Greenwood, Stranmillis University College, Belfast
Together Towards Inclusion – A Toolkit for Trainers Year 2006
- Support for teachers, linguistic and intercultural
- Provision of opportunities for a cluster of teachers to work collaboratively North and South, to inform the outcome
- Focused research at institutional level (IILT TCD & SELB)
- Promotion of respect for diversity and challenging prejudice
- Promotion of an inclusive school/classroom
- Enhance provision of English as a second language
- Share best practice
- Disseminate best practice through the use of the Internet
Ms Mary Yarr Southern Education & Library Board,
Ms Barbara Simpson. IILT Trinity College Dublin
Professor David Little IILT Trinity College Dublin
A Preliminary Evaluation of a Teaching Package for Children with Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties (PMLD) 2003-2004 Dr Jean Ware (St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra) and Dr Collette Gray (Stranmillis College) Download
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Summary Report 
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