This paper examines secondary school students’ experiences with Team-Based Learning (TBL) in Ireland, Spain, and the UK. In TBL, an active learning method, students work in small teams on collaborative, applied exercises. The Erasmus-funded TALENT Project trained 23 secondary teachers in Fundamentals of TBL. Two hundred forty-seven of their students completed a survey about their TBL experiences. Most (71%) preferred TBL to traditional lectures, though some disliked how others’ performance could affect individual grades. Positive responses indicate benefits of TBL in secondary education including: (1) increased student engagement and active participation; (2) enhanced quality of learning, including critical thinking and content comprehension; and (3) increased skills development through collaborative learning activities. These findings align with existing research on TBL in higher education and early studies in secondary education. The authors recommend further research and promotion of TBL in secondary education due to its benefits for student engagement, learning quality, and skills development.

1 Technological University of the Shannon (IRELAND)2 Munster Technological University (MTU) (GERMANY)

A CRITIQUE OF THE METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES FOR CRITICAL REALISM (CR) USING A THEORY-DRIVEN RESEARCH DESIGN UNDERPINNED BY SOCIAL PRACTICE THEORY (SPT)

Based on the benefits of Team-Based Learning (TBL) in higher education, our project investigated possible benefits of TBL in secondary education. We found that, despite challenges, the benefits of using TBL in secondary schools make it worth teachers’ time and effort. We conducted a year-long qualitative study with 13 teachers from Ireland, Spain and UK. While teachers found preparation time, institutional requirements, and managing student team dynamics challenging, challenges were outweighed by benefits including improved student engagement, quality of learning, skill development, and teacher job satisfaction. We recommend further TBL training for secondary-level teachers and further research into this topic.

Appears in: INTED2023 Proceedings Publication year: 2023Page: 7998 (abstract only)ISBN: 978-84-09-49026-4ISSN: 2340-1079doi: 10.21125/inted.2023.2174Conference name: 17th International Technology, Education and Development ConferenceDates: 6-8 March, 2023Location: Valencia, Spain

EXPLORING THE PEDAGOGIC PRACTICES OF TEACHING STAFF IN THE IRISH TECHNOLOGICAL HIGHER EDUCATION SECTOR USING TEACHING AND LEARNING REGIME THEORY

In Higher Education, science and health degree programmes involve significant practical elements. In many cases, students spend as much time in practical or clinical skill sessions each week as they do in classroom based lectures. These hands-on sessions engage students, develop both soft and technical skills, while allowing theory to be put into practice. However, in many cases, the design, assessment and feedback aspects of practical sessions has not received the attention warranted, with traditional approaches often persisting. This paper discusses a nationally funded, multi-institution enhancement project focused on implementing and evaluating digital technologies to enhance assessment in science and health practical sessions. Via an initial baseline analysis, four thematic areas were identified for pilot development: [1] Pre-practical videos combined with online/app quizzes, [2] Electronic lab notebooks, [3] Digital Feedback and [4] Rubrics. In collaboration with student partner groups, employers and academic staff, the TEAM (Technology Enhanced Assessment Methods) project designed and implemented 42 pilots in practical sessions across the four partner colleges, engaging almost 1,600 students. In this paper, the key lessons identified during the baseline analysis which informed the project, as well as those from the subsequent survey and focus group evaluation of participants’ pilot experiences, will be presented. Overall, the implementation of TEAM has represented a major success across the partner colleges, providing a strong foundation for continuous, iterative improvements in this field.

Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) are important infrastructure and digital educational spaces that are widely used. The lecturers’ voices on VLEs and their use were not adequately captured in the #VLEIreland project. Therefore, following the development and piloting of a questionnaire consisting of a common set of questions, lecturers were surveyed across seven Irish higher education institutes. There were 580 responses from staff who use the VLE, with the analysis based upon the 521 valid responses. The findings will explore the VLE features or tools used by lecturers, their attitude to the VLE, and barriers to the use of the VLE and related issues, including that of intellectual property ownership. Lecturers are broadly positive about VLEs, with 7 in 10 of those who use the VLE strongly agreeing that it is helpful. However the adoption and use of VLEs is not without difficulties. In particular, time pressures emerged as barriers to use, limiting the use of VLEs and engagement with training. Despite this, 91% of respondents answered Yes to the question “Are you interested in making more use of online tools in your teaching?” Drawing on the issues highlighted in the findings, this paper will explore the attitudes of lecturers to the VLE and the enablers of, and inhibitors to, their greater engagement with the VLE.

This is a cross institution project involving four Institutes of Technology in Ireland. The objective of this project is to assess the use of technology to enhance the assessment of laboratory sessions in Science and Health. In science, health and engineering, the laboratory sessions are at the core of the learning process for skill development. These laboratory sessions focus on the skills acquisition. The Irish Institute of Technology sector, in particular, develops these skills and considers them essential for ‘professionally ready’ graduates. In terms of student progression and retention, the assessment structure has been identified as having a significant impact on student engagement. The Technology Enhanced Assessment Methods (TEAM) project led by Dundalk Institute of Technology and partnering with Institute of Technology Sligo, Athlone Institute of Technology and Institute of Technology Carlow is exploring the potential offered by digital technologies to address these concerns. It aims to develop a framework for applying the principles of effective assessment and feedback to practical assessment. The TEAM project also aims to facilitate dialogue among stakeholders about what it is we want student to learn in laboratory sessions and how our assessment can facilitate this. A peer network of discipline-specific academics and students in the Science and Health field has been established across all four Institutes. As the network focuses on authentic skills assessment in all core modules, including physics and chemistry, the best practice from this project will inform future assessment procedures across laboratory sessions and may be considered for application within a Science and Materials Engineering context. Assessing the skills acquired in this environment takes many forms. Using student and stakeholder feedback along with an extensive literature review of the area, the team identified key technologies that cut across science and health disciplines, with the potential to influence and enable the learning process. The emphasis was on developing a powerful learning environment approach to enable students to deepen their learning through engagement with the process. The areas identified are: (i) Pre-practical preparation (videos and quizzes), (ii) Electronic laboratory notebooks and ePortfolios, (iii) Digital Feedback technologies and (iv) Rubrics). This paper describes the student experience and perceptions of the adoption of digital technology in science practical assessments. It also describes the process involved in setting up the pilot structure and it presents the initial results from the student survey.

Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) have become a critical part of the Higher Education (HE) learning, teaching and assessment environment over the past two d ecades. The study in this paper complements the longitudinal study designed by the #VLEIreland Project team to examine the key drivers and barriers for uptake and usage of an institutional VLE amongst students. There is a dearth of literature on VLE usage by staff in an Irish context. The findings of the #VLEIreland staff survey, presented in this paper, help us understand staff usage of technology tools including the VLE, and places this in a wider context. In 2014, the project team developed an electronic survey instrument to examine staff perceptions of the VLE and online learning tools. This collaborative study involved seven Irish HE institutes. There were 580 respondents to the electronic survey. Findings show lack of time as a considerable barrier to staff usage of the VLE and that staff usage is primarily for distribution of resources, communication and assignment submission. However, insights can also be gleaned from the data to assist educational developers when designing appropriate interventions for the development needs of staff. When considered in conjunction with findings from student data, the common misconceptions about VLE usage can be addressed including a negative impact on attendance and over-reliance on lecturers. In addition, consideration for the professionalisation of teaching in terms of digital literacy and technological skills is considered of vital importance to empower staff in the era of the digital turn.

The Irish Higher Education sector has experienced a variety of key policy developments in the recent past. The publication of a ‘National Strategy for Higher Education to 2030’ was followed by the establishment of the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (NFETL) and the subsequent publication of ‘A Roadmap for Enhancement in a Digital World’ 2015–2017. In tandem, the National Forum devised the first national enhancement theme ‘Teaching for Transition’ and more recently ‘Assessment for, as and of Learning’ with research funding allocated. This paper will discuss two current national educational research projects that focus on the development of digital pedagogy. The first focuses on supporting transition through enhancing feedback in first year using digital technologies. Y1Feedback is a two-year (2015–2017) multi-institutional change project involving two universities and two institutes of technology (IoTs). Informed by both an analysis of current assessment and feedback practices across the four partner institutions, in addition to a review of the literature, a number of themes for action emerged, including embedding assessment and feedback literacies, provide opportunities for dialogic feedback and fostering sustainable feedback practices that encourage self-regulated learning. These informed the development of a range of approaches to implementing technology-enabled feedback. A complementary project, the Technology Enhanced Assessment Methods (TEAM) for Science and Health Practical Settings project, also funded by NFETL, involves four IoTs. The development of both technical and soft skills is considered essential in terms of both student learning and employability, in Science and Health Practical Settings. The IoT sector, in particular, places a major value on producing graduates who are ‘workplace ready’ with an emphasis on developing practical skills. Assessment plays a key role in influencing student learning, effort and engagement. The TEAM project (2016–2018) is exploring the potential offered by digital technologies to address concerns such as over-assessment, authenticity and graduate skill development, particularly as there is considerable scope for improvement in practical assessment practices at undergraduate level. This paper will outline the activities in the project phases for each project. In keeping with the timing of the projects, findings will be presented. The paper will explore how these projects are both supporting national strategic objectives and used to leverage curriculum enhancement within an Irish institute of Higher Education including the engagement of students as partners and the development of digital and assessment literacies amongst staff and students.

The Y1Feedback Project is a multi-institutional learning and teaching enhancement project that aims to support the transition to Higher Education by using digital technologies to enhance feedback in the first year. The project is funded by the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in HE under the 2014 Enhancement fund. This paper outlines the project development and progress, with particular focus on identification of the feedback approaches that we are developing case studies of as part of this initiative. Although the project is not complete, the outcome of initial evaluations is reported and we reflect on the process and challenges encountered.

The Y1Feedback project is a partnership between four Irish Higher Education institutions, which aims to enhance feedback dialogue in first year undergraduate programmes through the use of digital technologies, to better support student transition. The project has conducted a review of feedback practice across partner institutions and a synthesis of feedback literature. Informed by this work, the project has identified a set of features of effective feedback for first year together with a set of technology-enabled feedback approaches. Currently, there are 20 case studies in progress to pilot these approaches. This paper reports the findings from the review of feedback practices and outlines features of effective feedback and approaches that educators can implement to better support first year transition.

It has affected many countries around the world, and Irish higher education has not found itself immune from undergoing a period of significant change, powered by a number of factors: economic, political, and technological. While these trends are global in their scope, and profound in their impact, the pace of change in the Irish economy since 2007-08 in particular has required institutions and their educational leaders to encourage the emergence of programmes which can respond to the current national needs. In periods of rapid change such as this, educational leaders by necessity tend to focus on short-term strategy and transition planning, adapted to their institutional contexts. However, there are critical leadership issues related to curriculum policy and classroom practice which extend into the long-term. Students on these emergent programmes need to be able to respond effectively in turbulent societal circumstances. This paper reflects on the role of educational leaders in creating and shaping programmes through an exploration of the notion of the market-higher education interface. This case study is seeking to gain enhanced understandings of emergent trends in higher education programmes in the past five year period against a backdrop of continued changes to the Irish economy and society. It seeks to explore the new realities of how two Irish higher education institutions (HEIs) are being shaped by the market and how they hope to maintain or enhance the viability of their offerings, resulting in effective programme provision into the still uncertain future. Recommendations focus on challenging existing practices with regards to how educational leaders support programme development.

A rolling longitudinal survey of students’ usage of Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) in various Irish Higher Education Institutions has been on-going since 2008, with a new round of student surveys in the current academic year. However, while the series of student surveys has proved to be highly informative, the staff voice has hitherto been unheard.Therefore, following a pilot survey; and using the online survey tool SurveyMonkey, lecturers were surveyed across more than four colleges. The VLE survey questionnaire uses a common set of questions and, on condition of anonymity, the participating institutions have pooled their results to allow us to compare and contrast the results. While many institutions routinely conduct in-house surveys or studies from time to time, this study is unique in that it draws on data from multiple institutions and diverse VLE platforms.Our previous findings from student surveys identified some of the key drivers and barriers to uptake and usage of an institutional VLE and provided a useful illustration of the different ways that students really use them. Presenting lecturers’ voices on VLE usage, this presentation will explore initial findings from the inaugural staff survey. We will discuss and interpret these results in relation to the insights gleaned from the surveys of students’ engagement with VLEs and technologies as part of their learning. The adoption and use of VLEs is not without difficulties and therefore, drawing on the issues highlighted in the study this presentation will discuss the attitudes to, the enablers of, and the inhibitors to greater engagement by lecturers of VLEs.Given that the need to develop academics’ digital capacity in a teaching and learning context has been identified as a strategic goal at national and EU level this new iteration of the VLE survey is very timely, particularly in light of the recent publication of the National Forum’s Report (2015) Strategic and Leadership Perspectives on Digital Capacity in Irish Higher Education which highlighted a poor evidence base in relation to VLE usage.

This paper describes a collaborative action research study in which peer assisted learning was deployed simultaneously across a range of disciplines in two institutes of technology in Ireland.The aim of the research was to determine if peer assisted learning enhances the learning experience of first year participants. An action research approach was selected and involved three phases between 2009 and 2011. The implementation of each phase was informed by a review of the previous phase. The third phase also incorporated the rollout and evaluation of a new peer assisted learning student leadership module (an elective 5 ECTs European Credit and Accumulation Transfer System) in both institutes.This paper focuses on both quantitative and qualitative data from the first year experience student survey, which was designed and deployed in phase one and repeated in phase two. The survey is supplemented by data from focus groups with student leaders and session reviews. Qualitative data was analysed using both the constant comparison method and text analysis.Our findings illustrate the challenges associated with implementing and embedding a long-term peer assisted learning program as part of the first year student experience. In addition, we found wide ranging benefits for the two institutes of technology that collaborated on the development, rollout, and evaluation of the program. An evidence based model emerged, which involved a partnership between management, academic staff, student services, and learning and teaching advocates. These partners continue to work together to sustain the program.

Reflection, Action, Evidence and Review is the final 5 credit module taken by students seeking the award of the LIN AIT Postgraduate Diploma in Learning, Teaching and Assessment. It is the only mandatory module on the LIN flexible pathway. Students are required to review their learning through the range modules selected from LIN or alternative providers. They develop an argument to show how they, through their previous learning, meet the postgraduate diploma programme learning outcomes. They articulate their knowledge, skills and competence to date and identify any gaps that may exist. They then plan how to meet these gaps through appropriate reading, writing and other evidence. This is self-directed learning supported by the module leaders acting as learning advisors. The module ran in 2012 for one student and in 2013 with six students. The role of the module in developing lecturers as reflective practitioners is becoming clearer as it is rolled out. As they complete the LIN and other teaching and learning modules lecturers review their practice and implement changes based on evidence from the literature and their own reflection. As they move through the modules these changes accumulate and they begin to see themselves in a different light – as discipline experts and informed teachers. The Reflection, Active, Evidence and Review capstone module is retrospective as it enables the participants to stop, reflect and identify the change in their behaviour and attitudes as a lecturer. It is also forward-looking as it enables them to plan for CPD in a coherent integrated way that links their discipline/practice and teaching. This paper presents the module, its learning outcomes and how it enables participants to develop their academic professional profile and show that they meet the learning outcomes of the LIN AIT Postgraduate Diploma in Teaching and Learning.

This article reports on a case study undertaken to explore college students’ views of the benefits of screencasts in enhancing their Maths learning experience at an Irish institute of technology. A total of 47 screencasts – developed for 14 topics for Year 1, Year 2 and Year 3 mandatory Algebra and Calculus courses taught by one instructor – were uploaded onto the college’s Moodle site for students to access. An open-response survey asking about the benefits of the screencasts and how they helped students to learn the course content was administered online. Out of the total population of 266 students taking the courses, 138 responded to the survey constituting a response rate of about 52%. The data were analysed using an inductive thematic content analysis, in which student feedback was scrutinized and categorized according to the central ideas they shared. Themes that represented different types of screencast use and benefits were generated from this clustering of feedback. Consistent with previous studies, the findings show that a vast majority of students (88.4%) used the screencasts to fulfill myriad learning needs, and viewed the videos as an extremely useful tool that enhanced their Maths learning experience, stating that they were “very helpful,” “very informative,” “easy to follow,” “very practical,” and “a brilliant asset to have.” The narrative data pointed to ten primary benefits of screencasts, which included supporting flexible and personalized learning, supplementing lectures and enhancing understanding of keyskills, delivering a vicarious learning experience, facilitating exam revision and material review, providing multimodal support for Maths learning, helping students to keep track with Maths modules, filling up gaps in notes, serving as a memory aid, providing a tighter match with course content, and making Maths learning more enjoyable. The findings have positive implications for screencasts as a promising tool for Maths learning in future decades.