Purpose: This paper presents emerging findings from an ongoing research project which aimed to explore online lesson study (OLS) as a vehicle for teacher collaborative professional learning. Design/methodology/approach: Two parallel OLS cycles with two OLS teams were facilitated by the author using Zoom and Google Drive as digital collaborative…

The use of individual tutoring as a method of educational instruction has been prevalent for several decades. One popular tutoring practice is Paired Reading, a reading support technique specifically designed for non-professionals. The accessible nature of Paired Reading makes it an attractive option for schools who wish to capitalise on support…

This paper investigates the impact of social interactions on mathematical language development in children during cooperative learning in a fourth grade mathematics classroom in Ireland. An experimental group completed mathematics activities in cooperative groups, while the control group completed these tasks individually. Participants from both…

In the past decades, society in general has become strongly diverse. This change also affects schools. As a result, learning groups cannot be seen as homogeneous and taught in this way. One of the challenges is students' linguistic skills. Dealing with different linguistic competencies should not only be a focus of formal education in schools but…

Forest School is a concept, or intervention to traditional educational settings, backed up by research and built upon long-standing theories that children engage with nature naturally and that learning becomes more relevant to the student when they can relate it to real life scenarios. This research documents the implementation of the Irish…

This study examines pre-service primary teachers' first engagement with music education at university level in the Republic of Ireland. Data from focus group interviews and coursework present voices from the students in prolematising their learning journeys with music education. These qualitative research methods are used to investigate student…

The prominence afforded to literacy in the Irish Primary School Curriculum has received considerable attention in recent years, spurred by Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) rankings, governmental priorities, public commentary and academic debate. At times, this discourse has presented literacy as a separate and distinct entity…

This article reports on a school-based ICT initiative, called Dissolving Boundaries (DB) which links primary, (students aged 5-11), post-primary (students aged 12-18) and special schools (students aged 5-18) in partnerships across the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The aim of the research was to investigate if…

In recent years, novel paradigms of computing have emerged, which enable computational power to be embedded in artefacts and in environments in novel ways. These developments may create new possibilities for using computing to enhance learning. This paper presents the results of a design process that set out to explore interactive techniques,…

This volume contains papers submitted to the 11th Annual International Conference of the Bulgarian Comparative Education Society (BCES), held in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, 14-17 May 2013, and papers submitted to the 1st International Distance Partner Conference, organized by the International Research Centre "Scientific Cooperation,"…