Research Associates
Dr Paula Lehane
Dr Paula Lehane is an Assistant Professor in the School of Inclusive and Special Education. Having graduated with a joint degree in education and psychology, she began her career as a primary school teacher in Dublin. While working in this role, she completed a Graduate Diploma in Special Educational Needs (GradDip SEN) and a Masters in Additional Support Needs (M.Ed. ASN) with University College Dublin. In 2018, she received funding from the Irish Research Council (IRC) to complete her Ph.D. in the field of digital tests and assessments for post-primary learners at CARPE. This work was awarded the Kathleen Tattersall New Assessment Researcher Award in 2022.
Paula's current research interests include assessment (in particular classroom assessment), literacy, inclusive education and digital technology. She has been published in several peer-reviewed journals including the European Journal of Teacher Education, and Technology, Pedagogy and Education. Paula chairs the Masters of Education in Specific Literacy Difficulties (SpLD/Dyslexia) and lectures in the areas of assessment, inclusive pedagogy and research methods.
Dr Francis Ward
Dr Francis Ward is an educator, researcher, and performing artist in the Institute of Education at Dublin City University, with over seventeen years of experience teaching at tertiary level and a longstanding background in music and arts education.
He lectures across undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in areas such as music education, multicultural education, research methods, and technology-enhanced learning, and contributes to programme coordination and research supervision, including doctoral students in education.
His research focuses on technology in teaching and learning, socially inclusive and intercultural arts education, and how creative, playful, embodied, and technology-enhanced approaches support learner engagement, agency, and innovative educational practice.
He has published widely and delivered invited lectures and workshops internationally at universities across Europe, North America, and Asia. His invited work has addressed topics such as creative arts pedagogy, virtual ethnography, and the emerging role of Generative AI in teaching, learning, and assessment. A former Fulbright Scholar and Irish Research Council Scholar, he has also received funding from SATLE, QuID, and the Teaching Council. His primary CARPE-aligned project, GenAI as a Co-Pilot in the Assessment of Capstone Research Projects in Education, directly supports the centre’s focus on innovation, evidence-informed assessment, and policy engagement.
Alongside his academic work, he maintains an active profile in performance and community engagement.
Dr Pia O'Farrell
Dr Pia O'Farrell's research primarily focuses on assessment of mental health in the classroom and the implications for policy and practice. She holds a PhD in psychology from Trinity College, Dublin, in which she undertook research on assessment of mental health in primary schools.
With extensive experience in the education sector, Pia is currently involved in projects exploring the use of GenAI for assessment in higher education.
ORCID: 0000-0001-5010-4623.
Prof Anne Looney
Anne Looney is the Executive Dean of the Institute of Education. A graduate of the Mater Dei Institute in Dublin, and the Institute of Education in London where she completed her doctoral studies, she taught in a post-primary school for 14 years before joining the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment. In 2001 she was appointed Chief Executive. She led the NCCA until 2016 when she moved to the Higher Education Authority as interim Chief Executive. She joined DCU as executive dean in March 2017. She spent 12 months as a professorial research fellow at the Institute for Learning Sciences and Teacher Education at ACU in Brisbane in 2014/15.
She has published on curriculum and assessment, school culture and ethos, the reform of education systems and religious and moral education. She is the incoming President of the International Professional Development Association.
Dr Vasiliki Pitsia
Dr Vasiliki Pitsia is a researcher at the Educational Research Centre (ERC), specialising in quantitative research methodology and statistical analysis techniques. She is involved in national and international large-scale assessments, including the National Assessment of Mathematics and English Reading (NAMER), the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), and the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS). 
She is also an Associate Editor of the Irish Journal of Education and represents the ERC in several national and international groups. Vasiliki has acquired a broad range of research experience through her roles as a researcher, data analyst, and psychometrician on various projects in Ireland and Greece, and as a consultant at the World Bank Group.
She also has extensive teaching experience, delivering lectures on research methodology, statistics, measurement, and assessment to postgraduate students and staff at academic institutions across Europe and workshops on statistics within the ERC.
Her research has attracted grants, including the Irish Research Council Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship, and awards, such as the AEA-Europe Kathleen Tattersall New Assessment Researcher Award, and it has been published in peer-reviewed academic journals and presented at national and international conferences.
Vasiliki holds a BEd in Primary Education from the University of Ioannina, Greece, an MSc in Quantitative Methods and Statistical Analysis in Education from Queen’s University Belfast, and a PhD in Educational Assessment from Dublin City University. Her research interests and areas of expertise include research methodology, statistical analysis, psychometrics, measurement, and assessment.
Dr Anastasios Karakolidis
Anastasios Karakolidis is a Research Fellow at the Educational Research (ERC) Centre with oversight of OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in Ireland.
He holds a Bachelor of Education from the University of Ioannina, Greece, an M.Sc. in Quantitative Methods and Statistical Analysis in Education from Queen's University, Belfast and a PhD in Assessment from Dublin City University (he was the first PhD student of CARPE).
He has been actively involved in a number of research projects across countries and has delivered lectures on research methodology and advanced statistical techniques to postgraduate students and academic staff.
His research interests focus on research methodology, statistical analysis, measurement, assessment, testing and educational inequalities. Anastasios has published in peer-reviewed academic journals and presented at numerous international conferences.
ORCID: 0000-0002-7460-7759. Google Scholar profile. LinkedIn profile. Research Gate profile