Though teachers in schools are increasingly being asked to take responsibility for the education and training of prospective and practicing teachers, little empirical research has been undertaken into the support that they require to perform their duties effectively. This study provides an international needs analysis of the professional learning…

As the COVID-19 pandemic has forced all Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to transfer teaching to online platforms, intricate questions in relation to remote teaching and learning dominate the discourse. Teacher educators (TEs) are now tasked with designing online modules, facilitating online learning, and providing direct instruction for…

The purpose of this paper was to examine Irish Physical Education teachers' views on curriculum change at the beginning of its implementation stage, with a particular focus on revision to the Physical Education curriculum and the new Wellbeing programme. In the light of these revisions, teachers were asked to make considerable changes to their…

Current literature suggests that while teacher educators perform a multitude of complex roles, they receive minimal preparation or possibilities for professional development to fulfil these roles. As a result, they need to acquire relevant knowledge and skills after taking on the position of teacher educators. Therefore, it is important to learn…

Curriculum, while often narrowly defined, is a contested space that stimulates continuing international debate, yet the importance of curriculum studies is frequently overlooked across the continuum of teacher education. Within the Irish context a technicist interpretation of curriculum studies, focusing primarily of subject knowledge and…

This study focused on primary teachers' views of co-teaching approaches in addressing the learning needs of pupils with special educational needs (SEN) in multi-grade classrooms in Irish primary schools. A case study incorporating a mixed methods approach was chosen. Views of 22 multi-grade and special education teachers (SET) were ascertained…

Peer observation of teaching (POT) has become common practice in many universities. However, it could be argued that existing models often have limited scope for understanding the student experience. This study presents a modified approach to POT in which the researchers adopted the roles of (1) lecturer, (2) peer-participant and (3)…

Does teacher professional development make a difference? How do we know? While researchers and policy-makers acknowledge that teacher professional development (PD) needs to be assessed and evaluated, there is often little clarity as to how this can be achieved. Evaluation of teacher PD by schools has been described as the weak link in the PD chain…

This paper gives an account of one aspect of a recent research project that explored dimensions of inclusion in mainstream schools in Ireland. In particular, the working lives of teachers who have specific responsibility for students with disabilities and/or special educational needs (SEN) in mainstream schools were explored. In Ireland, such…