Education & Training
Highlighting the need for greater equity in gifted education
Whether ability is determined by nature or nurture has preoccupied thinkers since classical times. Most now agree that ability is derived from a combination of inherited and acquired characteristics: more precisely, a combination of genetic and environmental components. Austrian gifted-education expert Dr Gundula Wagner is currently researching how class composition in schools affects gifted students’ academic outcomes. She argues that, […]
Inclusion at a crossroads: Special education in Ireland
Special education in Ireland has changed dramatically in recent years, as policymakers and educators have sought to improve learning for students with additional learning needs and/or disabilities. Following Ireland’s ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), inclusive education experts Joanne Banks and Michael Shevlin of Trinity College, Dublin, argue that inclusion is at a […]
The M-Factor: An experiential learning student competition
How might the format of reality TV shows be adapted to the academic environment to help engineering students develop management skills? That was the aim of a research project devised by Professor Theomary Karamanis, from Cornell University in New York in the United States, and Professor Allan MacKenzie, from McMaster University in Ontario, Canada. The findings show that not only […]
An instrument for measuring Assessment for Learning (AfL) in the classroom
This article introduces educational researchers to the Assessment for Learning Measurement instrument (AfLMi). Based on research by Zita Lysaght and Michael O’Leary at Dublin City University, in partnership with Larry Ludlow at Boston College, the AfLMi consists of 20 statements relating to four key assessment for learning (AfL) strategies recommended in the assessment literature. As designed, the instrument is intended […]
Play like a team in Teams: How students engage with online social learning
As the global pandemic increasingly keeps students away from classrooms, school and university-level teaching has had to adapt to online environments. It is now more important than ever that we understand how students can engage with each other in the online learning process. Associate Professor Sarah Prestridge from Griffith University, Australia, studied how students interact with their peers and online […]
The dangers of labels: English as a Second Language
According to the US Census, one-fifth of the American population speaks English as a Second Language (ESL) and speaks another language at home. Professor Lee Gunderson of the University of British Columbia in Canada investigates the negative consequences for people labelled as ESL or English Language Learner (ELL) in the United States. Having first raised these concerns more than 20 […]
Training a new generation of problem solvers: Innovation in STEM education
Humankind faces unprecedented environmental, social, and economic challenges. There is a critical need for STEM education to foster both science learning and the application of learning to problem solving. At the University of Utah, Professor Nancy Butler Songer and her collaborators have developed a suite of interdisciplinary instructional and field-based data collection resources offering elementary and secondary students the chance […]
Online laboratories and Cross-Reality in engineering education
COVID-19 has compelled educators to rapidly transition to online learning methods. This shift is particularly challenging for instructors whose courses involve hands-on laboratory instruction. In his research, Dr Dominik May, an Assistant Professor in the Engineering Education Transformations Institute at the University of Georgia, has been focusing on online laboratories and Cross-Reality learning spaces in engineering education for over a […]
How to use exemplars and rubrics to improve student outcomes
Associate Professors in the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Auckland, Eleanor Hawe and Helen Dixon, specialise in evaluating and improving learning assessments. Eleanor is interested in goal setting, feedback, and peer review. Helen focuses on teachers’ beliefs and their effect on learning. In their study, ‘Using rubrics and exemplars to develop students’ evaluative and productive […]
Digital transformation for higher education post COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) across the world to migrate to online environments, with differing degrees of difficulty and success. Lloyd George Waller of the University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica, argues that success depends on HEIs’ digital readiness which is in turn an outcome of their digital transformation strategic framework. In a forthcoming […]