'Out-of-field teaching' refers to the practice of assigning teachers to teach subjects that do not match their training or education -- an international phenomenon that seems particularly prevalent in mathematics. This paper reports on a study evaluating the impact of a national professional learning program for out-of-field secondary mathematics…

Virtue, according to Aristotle, is doing the right things at the right time with the right people for the right end and in the right way. This concept is central to the work of the Early Learning Initiative, an Irish community-based educational initiative. This paper describes how a community of parents, early childhood care and education…

Purpose: The article explores the significance of "evaluation" in the delivery of multifunctional extension advisory programmes and argues the necessity of integrating evaluation into programme planning, to ensure that programme guidelines are adhered to and extension advisory programmes generate their desired impact. The article focuses…

The evaluation of government-financed research has become increasingly important in the last few decades in terms of increasing the quality of, and payoff from, the research that is done, reducing the cost of doing it, and lending public credibility to the manner in which research is funded. But there are very large differences throughout the…

This literature review explores the historical development of information and communication technology (ICT) in Irish postprimary/secondary schools and examines how the education system has responded to the various ICT initiatives and policy changes. The review has found that despite national policy and significant ICT initiatives, it appears that…

This book is the result of a cooperative project of several European countries--Belgium, Greece, Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Each country involved provides a chapter outlining a national project or a specific organization presents its own approach and initiatives to teacher education, with particular…

Ireland's Industrial Restructuring Training Programme (IRTP) was evaluated to determine its effectiveness as a vehicle for improving the managerial and supervisory skill levels of employees in existing enterprises. Data were collected from the following sources: review of all program-monitoring documents submitted since the IRTP's inception;…

Ireland's program of specific skills training (SST) Objective 1 courses, which are designed to train/retrain the labor force required for implementation of Ireland's Industry and Services Operational Programme, was evaluated by analyzing program expenditure reports and participant profiles, surveying a random sample of 101 employers, and visiting…

A study examined European Social Fund (ESF)-funded middle-level technician (MLT) and higher technical and business skills (HTBS) courses at Irish technical colleges. Data were obtained from the following: review of relevant literature; review of all program-monitoring documents submitted by Ireland's Department of Education since 1990; interviews…