Creative problem-solving has been identified as one of the most critical future-proof skillsets we can develop in our society. When educating future designers, entrepreneurship skills are now considered essential; however, designers find it difficult to establish themselves as entrepreneurs. Therefore, graduate designers are increasingly in need…

Structural concepts are fundamentals of civil engineering for students to learn, for lecturers to teach and for engineers to use. Many students however find it difficult to understand structural concepts due to their abstract nature. "Seeing and Touching Structural Concepts" has been developed as an approach to help civil engineering…

This article discusses ways in which subject teachers teaching through English can support the linguistic needs of learners whose first language is not English. It is argued that by focussing on the language of their particular discipline and adjusting their teaching in order to foreground language, subject teachers can make a significant…

Teaching education is Ireland is currently undergoing significant structural and conceptual changes. School placement is at the centre of these reforms. This article reports the findings of an all-Ireland study which investigates student teachers' experiences of teaching geography during their school placements. Based on data collected from…

This paper examines the use of peer-videoing in the classroom as a means of promoting reflection among student teachers. Ten pre-service teachers participating in a teacher education programme in a university in the Republic of Ireland and ten pre-service teachers participating in a teacher education programme in a university in the North of…

This paper details a small-scale, research study into lecturers' perceived impact of microteaching within a postgraduate certificate in teaching in higher education in Ireland. Participants engage on the programme for a range of reasons: to broaden expertise and knowledge beyond the disciplinary boundaries within which they primarily operate; to…

Use was made of adapted problem-based learning (PBL) practical exercises to address the disengagement of apprentices with the existing assembly-style electronic laboratory programme. Apprentices perceived the traditional routines as having little real-world relevance. This detracted from the value and benefit to them of the practical component of…

Purpose: The paper aims to explore the experience of graduates in the workplace. The aim is to study how these experiences differ from the expectations of the graduates and the aspirations of their academics. Design/methodology/approach: The research involved two phases: first, a survey was conducted of marketing academics. This survey examined…

This paper explores the work of an ongoing research project at University College Cork (UCC) which has sought to further the understanding of students in the BA Early Childhood Studies (BAECS) programme on issues of global diversity, set within childhood contexts. It tracks the process of development of the project thus far, highlighting key…

In the context of Ireland's changing demographics, this paper explores the importance of pedagogic research in informing both philosophies and pedagogical practices in Initial Teacher Education (ITE) which endeavours to facilitate student teachers' engagement with the teaching and learning process in Ireland's multicultural classrooms. By…

This article argues that an overhaul of undergraduate education in Ireland is needed. It asserts that at present most students leave university short-changed, never having been exposed to the riches of discovery and research. A framework founded on research and inquiry is designed to stimulate learning and innovation through action. It is argued…

This paper reports on a model in which graduate students were encouraged to regard their classrooms as laboratories to replicate earlier research on the use of examples in teaching concepts. The De Cecco and Crawford (1974) concept teaching model, which requires teachers to define the attributes and values of concepts and to reduce the number of…

This book presents a wide selection of issues currently of interest and concern in higher education institutions in Ireland. The chapters are snapshots of the intersection between theory, practice and research in particular settings; they are not meant to be comprehensive. Nevertheless, they present practice approaches, new theoretical…

This paper describes the reactions of graduate secondary school student teachers to an experiment which required them to evaluate specified techniques and theories of teaching and learning as part of their classroom practice. The aim of the experiment was to: (1) improve the quality of their judgments about pupils; (2) acquire variety in teaching…

This report describes a course in the Irish student-teacher curriculum that was designed in response to criticisms of post-graduate teacher training that it was too theoretical and insufficiently practical. The design of the Applied Psychology of Instruction course was based on the teacher-as-researcher paradigm of professionalism. Student…