This article explores the normative representations of higher education students in seven films and television series from four European countries. Drawing on the concept of the 'independent learner' as an 'ideal construction', I demonstrate how these texts offer complex and at times paradoxical representations of who gets positioned as the…

This paper explores how a collaborative self-study of teacher educators in the Republic of Ireland supported pre-service and practising teachers on teacher education programmes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Teacher educators engaged in student feedback meetings conducted online as a replacement to traditional in-school visits, some of which were…

Prior to the challenges imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, anatomy practical sessions at Trinity College Dublin involved eight to 10 students per donor station, rotating between digital learning, anatomical models/osteology, and dissection activities for three hours weekly. To maintain cadaveric participation in the anatomy laboratory while…

This study explores students' perceptions of the effectiveness of a Problem-Based Learning (PBL) design project, taken as part of a first-year engineering module, in developing professional skills needed for engineering practice. Students completed surveys before and after the PBL group project, and produced personal reflections on the process.…

This collaborative self-study examined the experiences of two teacher educators who developed and implemented a pedagogical approach that prioritised learning how to facilitate meaningful physical education (PE) experiences in their physical education teacher education programs. Data sources included 33 individual planning and reflection…

Problem Statement: This paper focuses on assessment in Irish education, which, despite best intentions, shepherds students through the process to an extent that the individual is prone to undervalue her/his ability to trust in the self as a rational, self-thinking individual. In Ireland's assessment system lies the paradox whereby from childhood…

The focus of this paper is twofold: first, on the development of an electronic version of a European Language Portfolio (ELP), known as the LOLIPOP (Language On-line Portfolio Project) ELP, and second on its integration into an undergraduate module on Intercultural Communication in an institute of higher education in Ireland. The paper begins by…

While the concepts and principles associated with learner autonomy underpin a broad range of CALL applications and research projects, current debates and research paradigms in CALL do not provide adequate tools and models to investigate in depth the relationship between CALL and the development of learner autonomy. This paper explores the…