Download a copy of “The spoken Irish of pupils in Irish-medium schools in Northern Ireland”
This project will examine the proficiency in Irish of Primary 7 pupils in Irish-medium primary schools in Northern Ireland and compare them to data already gathered in relation to 6th class pupils in Irish-medium primary schools in the Republic of Ireland. The study in the Republic of Ireland identified weaknesses in the syntactic and lexical features of Irish-medium pupils’ spoken Irish and the present study will seek to ascertain if there are significant differences between the features of both populations.
To organise and run a conference for 40/50 delegates drawn from language teacher educators, primary and post-primary north and south to be held in Queen’s University Belfast.
To carry out a comparative study of the provision for EAL in pre-service and continuing professional development courses in Ireland north and south by holding 4 meetings of the project team between St Mary’s Belfast and Coláiste Mhuire, Marino.
The significant actions associated with the Project include:
A literature review of the field
A comparison of the education contexts in each jurisdiction
A review of the official policy context
An identification of the opportunities available for profession development for teachers in schools
A determination as to how EAL is structured into courses at the ITE phase in these two colleges
A survey of attitudes to EAL and views on personal competence among BEd students in the final year of their ITE programme in both institutions
This research project will develop case studies exemplifying good practice in the teaching of pupils from ethnic minorities by focusing mainly on identifying teaching/learning strategies which are successful in integrating ethnic minority children into the classroom and engaging them actively in their learning. Schools will be chosen from the North and South and will be representative of both the primary and post-primary sector.
Conference organisers and presenters at the Joint North South Conference – Dyslexia, Literacy and Inclusion on Friday 12th March 2010 in Saint Mary’s University College, Belfast
To help fund a conference which seeks to:
Develop a dynamic interface on the island of Ireland that will harness educational theory, research and practice on the special educational needs, dyslexia for the purposes of enhancing learning and teaching in schools.
Promote collaboration between Northern Irish and Southern Irish educational practitioners into what constitutes best practice in the identification and management of dyslexia.
Contribute to an overall knowledge-based society and inform the educational inclusion debate in the North and South of Ireland.
Bring together a nucleus of academics, educational psychologists, NGOs ( for example, representatives from the Northern Ireland Dyslexia Association) and curriculum developers from the North and South of Ireland who are interested in the area of dyslexia, and to sustain this initiative through the creation of a discussion group via e mail to disseminate research and examples of best practice.
This conference will update evidence based practice in the treatment of ASD to ensure that parents and professionals have the best possible information. This conference will follow on from three previous conferences.
To ascertain how competent BEd primary students in their respective institutions perceive themselves to be in identifying the characteristics of ASD through the teaching element of the BEd course
To establish how well prepared BEd primary students feel they are in addressing the needs of pupils with ASD through the teaching element of the BEd course.
To ascertain how much BEd primary student competence in the field of ASD is enhanced as a result of their time spent on school experience.
To investigate how BEd primary students could be helped to develop their teaching in the area of ASD whilst on school experience
To examine data gathered from the BEd primary students so as to establish whether there are observable differences between students in the two jurisdictions in order to make comparison.
To consult with primary and post-primary pupils on their level of participation in the assessment and remediation of their specific reading difficulties
To share ideas and findings between the two partners of the project via e-mail and face-to-face meetings
To work with Northern Irish and Southern Irish research partners to understand what constitutes good practice in collecting and analysing research data
To provide opportunities for young people in Dublin and Belfast to exchange information about their learning experiences
To empower the young people involved in this project in becoming more fully involved in designing, implementing and evaluating their education plans.
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.