The quantity and quality of talented individuals in STEM (science/S, technology/T, engineering/E and mathematics/M) fields contribute to a nation's overall competitiveness. Taiwan and many countries around the world are vigorously promoting the training of STEM professionals and the enhancement of STEM literacy for all as one of the key education…

This paper explores the experiences and perspectives of parents from minority-ethnic backgrounds concerning their children's education in primary and post-primary schools in Ireland. Five focus groups were conducted with 20 parents of non-White African and Asian backgrounds. Our findings demonstrate complex interactions and tensions between home…

This qualitative research study examined the educational provision for children with medical needs in Irish hospital schools using a case study approach encompassing the perspectives and experiences of 12 teachers currently teaching in two paediatric hospital schools. Document analysis and semi-structured interviews were employed across two…

This paper reviews the role of the Designated Liaison Person (DLP) for Child Protection in the Irish primary school context. This is a role assigned by the Board of Management to a person in the school who oversees all matters pertaining to child protection including reporting abuse, liaising with staff and outside agencies in relation to child…

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the EUROCALL society succeeded in holding the 28th EUROCALL conference, EUROCALL2020, on 20-21 August as an online, two-day gathering. The transition process required to make this happen was demanding and insightful for everyone involved, and, in many ways, a logical consequence of the core content and purpose of…

This report focuses on the structure of mainstream education in European countries from preprimary to tertiary level for the 2017/18 school and academic year. Forty-three education systems are included covering 38 countries participating in the EU's Erasmus+ programme (28 Member States, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Switzerland, the former…

Ireland is in the midst of a sexual and reproductive health and rights sea change. The year 2015 alone saw significant shifts in the social, policy and legal spheres, including the landslide vote for marriage equality in a national referendum, and the passage of the Gender Recognition Act. These are landmarks that clearly show the appetite for…

This collection of short papers is an outcome of the third conference on virtual exchange in higher education hosted by the Pedagogical University in Krakow in April 2018. Following the focus of the conference on virtual exchange in service of social inclusion and global citizenship, the papers collected in this volume offer first-hand insights…

This book contains a compilation of papers presented at the International Psychological Applications Conference and Trends (InPACT) 2023, organized by the World Institute for Advanced Research and Science (WIARS), held in International Psychological Applications Conference and Trends (InPACT) 2023, held in Lisbon, Portugal, from 22 to 24 of April…

The notion of competencies has been a familiar feature of educational reform policies for decades. In this essay, Padraig Hogan begins by highlighting the contrasting notion of capabilities, pioneered by the research of Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum. An educational variant of the notion of capabilities then becomes the basis for exploring…

This article reports on a two year project in which educational psychologists offered consultation to groups of teachers, to help them find solutions to school-based problems. Teachers were drawn from within individual schools and from across a number of schools. Typically, teachers were trained by educational psychologists in group consultation…

Linking between schools in the United Kingdom and schools in sub-Saharan Africa has been a feature of the educational landscape for more than twenty years, but became a government priority between 2000 and 2010. Whilst the interest in Ireland was less, both countries resourced linking programmes primarily as a means of raising awareness of…

Research on the place of digital collaborative learning in schools has established its extensive use for the provision of online courses (Stevens, 2007), for learning within schools (Orech, 2009) and as a means of promoting inter-cultural education (Austin, 2006). Given that teachers' understanding and practice in collaborative learning is…

This paper describes a model for computer programming outreach workshops aimed at second-level students (ages 15-16). Participants engage in a series of programming activities based on the Scratch visual programming language, and a very strong group-based pedagogy is followed. Participants are not required to have any prior programming experience.…

This volume of the 30th annual proceedings of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education conference presents: plenary panel papers; research forum papers; short oral communication papers; and poster presentation papers from the meeting. Information relating to discussion groups and working sessions is also provided.…