Critical thinking is a core component of higher education teaching and learning across multiple disciplines. However, supporting students to develop critical thinking skills can be challenging due to their prior experiences of education which may have emphasised rote learning and due to the high volume of approaches available to choose from as a…

The global twenty-first century (21C) skills agenda has become a common feature in the educational policy of many countries. However, teachers can face operational, definitional and systemic barriers to the integration of 21C skills in practice. The operational barriers include insufficient teacher capacity, which in turn is influenced by…

Geography is a subject in the Primary Curriculum in Ireland. It is taught in all schools with some examples of engaging and challenging practices, characterised by enquiry-based learning (EBL) of a range of content, with learning occurring inside and out. In other settings, Geography is more limited in scope and children's geographical experiences…

This study is concerned with the analysis of mathematical textbook tasks at the second-level in Ireland, in the context of the introduction of the revised curriculum entitled 'Project Maths'. A total of 7635 tasks on the topics of Pattern, Sequences and Series, and Differential Calculus were analysed; these tasks were selected from editions of…

Internationally, second level curriculum policy for STEM education is concentrating its efforts on promoting curriculum-making pedagogies, with enquiry-based teaching and learning at the forefront of this change. Policy aspirations have not translated well into practice, evidenced by science practical lessons consistently being delivered as…

This qualitative case study explores how implementing mandated collaboration in the workplace impacts teachers' professional practices based on the experience of primary school teachers in Ethiopia. The study adopted a constructivist orientation, which prompted the use of qualitative methods of inquiry, and data were collected through eighteen…

Minecraft Education is a popular digital game-based learning platform designed for use in educational settings. This study explores teachers' experiences of using Minecraft Education as an educational tool to foster the development of key competencies and skills in students. Semi-structured interviews with Irish primary school teachers (N = 11)…

Out-of-field teaching refers to the practice of assigning teachers to teach subjects that do not match their training or education. This paper reports on a study evaluating the impact of a national professional development programme for out-of-field teachers of post-primary school mathematics in Ireland -- the Professional Diploma in Mathematics…

Research shows that teachers influence students' attitudes towards; performance in; and perceptions of a subject. Hence, the need to improve the teaching and learning of many curricular subjects has been well documented for many years. This paper focusses on efforts made to develop competence among out-of-field teachers of mathematics and…

Signature pedagogies [Shulman, L. 2005. "Signature pedagogies in the professions." "Daedalus" 134 (3): 52--59.] are a focus of teacher educators seeking to improve teaching and teacher education. The purpose of this paper is to present a preliminary common language of signature pedagogies for teacher professional development…

Education for sustainable development establishes the need for change within education; in particular, teacher education is recognised as a priority for reorientation towards sustainability needs. The Ubuntu Network is an action research programme, focusing on supporting teacher educators to explore the integration of development education and…

Drawing on relevant research findings, this paper considers the professional knowledge base and practice of Irish post-primary teachers. Important aspects of the Irish context are discussed, including the official neglect of educational research, the prevailing top-down approach to curriculum reform and low levels of investment in teacher…

Despite a wealth of international research indicating the importance but also the dearth of explicit reading comprehension instruction in classrooms, current classroom reading pedagogy does not appear to have acknowledged and addressed this shortcoming to any significant degree. This is cause for some considerable concern, as today's students…

This article considers curriculum ownership, contestation and the relationship between curriculum and culture through the lens of the Exploring Masculinities (EM) programme. The programme was developed in the late 1990s to meet the social and personal needs of young men. As its dissemination was being planned, it became the subject of critical…

In Ireland and the UK it is accepted practice that agencies with formal responsibility for delivering school examinations allow examination candidates, and in many cases their teachers, to see their examination papers once they have been marked. Returned papers can carry various pieces of information; as well as the total score given for a…