Teaching and Learning Fellowship Scheme 2005

Gerry McNamara

School
Education Studies
Previous TLF Awards
No DCU awards in the last three years
Track Record
In the course of my working life I have been employed in a number of different branches of the Education Sector. I began my career in education as a teacher in Ballymun Comprehensive, one of the nearest secondary schools to DCU. I moved from there to the NCVA and was involved in the initial development of what has now become the FETAC award system. Since 1995 I have been employed as a lecturer in the School of Education Studies taking over the position of Head 1998.
This broad range of professional experiences within a diverse range of educational contexts has helped me to formulate an approach to teaching and learning that I have been lucky enough, with the assistance of colleagues in the School of Education Studies, to see implement across a range of programmes within the School and beyond. In essence this approach has two key aspects. The first involves the maximising of access to Higher Education by groups who have been traditionally marginalized either by their socio-economic circumstances or by time constraints imposed on them by their personal and professional lives. To this end, with my colleagues, I have been at the forefront of developing a range of programmes specifically targeted at non-traditional learners. These programmes include
· B.Sc in Education and Training (part time - accredited 1997-2002 http://www.dcu.ie/prospective/deginfo.php?classname=BETP&mode=full) – the only part time undergraduate qualification in the University specifically targeted at adult learners working in the Further Education sector in Ireland. This is a programme that draws together participants from adult education, targeted programmes to alleviate social disadvantage within the education system, health care and private industry. It is directly funded by the Department of Education and Science and I have recently negotiated, with my colleague Carmel Mulcahy, the continuation of funding for this programme for the next two years. It is widely recognised nationally as the flagship programme of its type and offers a series of entry and exit points in keeping with the core principles of adult education.
· B.Sc. in Education and Training (full time – accredited 2003 http://www.dcu.ie/prospective/deginfo.php?classname=BET&mode=full) a version of the above programme directed specifically at adults interested in participating in Higher Education on a full time basis.

· MSc In Education and Training Management (Leadership – accredited 1995 http://www.dcu.ie/prospective/deginfo.php?classname=GEM&mode=full#leade…). A professional qualification targeted at individuals working in Education, Industry and Healthcare. With an average intake of 50 students per year it uses an action research and applied practice model to allow professionals working in range of organisational settings to reflect on their personal experiences with a view to generating innovative, research based solutions to their own professional challenges.

· MSc In Education and Training Management (ICT – accredited 2004 http://www.dcu.ie/prospective/deginfo.php?classname=GEM&mode=full#elear…). A version of the above programme designed to allow educational professionals engage with potential impact of innovations in the field of ICT on current and future educational practice.
A cursory glance at the above list would indicate my strong personal commitment to making a reality the call of the networking university section of the Strategic Plan which commits DCU to “enhance lifelong learning and to broaden access to the University of targeted groups (including disadvantaged persons and practicing professionals”. The education and learning theme is also mirrored in this approach to course provision, in particular the commitment to addressing “obstacles faced by people who are socially disadvantaged, or who have disabilities, in accessing learning and innovation”.

In addition to development of targeted course provision, I have actively sought to develop an approach to teaching and learning that is adult centred, inclusive and takes advantage of the potential offered to educators by recent developments in the field of ICT. I have therefore emphasised adult-centered pedagogy and assessment procedures. In relation to pedagogy all my programmes and modules are constructed around action research and problem-based learning strategies. Students are encouraged to engage with their workplaces to identify real world problems and to apply research-based methods, to come up with solutions, to apply these solutions and to evaluate the outcomes. This becomes the cyclical method of action research leading to consistent re-evaluation and improvement of practice. I see my own teaching role primarily as a facilitator of learning concerned to enable students to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary for them to solve the problems they identify.

As part of the process of enabling students to become self-directed learners I have been, along with my colleague and research collaborator, Joe O'Hara, making increased use of online learning. With financial assistance from the HEA Targeted Initiative Funding (e11,000) and the DCU Teaching and Learning Fund we have developed an extensive range of online resources specifically targeted at improving the pedagogic and andragogic skills of educators from a variety of backgrounds (see Moodle Site Education resources @ http:// moodle.dcu.ie/course/view.php?=207 enrolment Key: pedagogy). This approach uses the latest generation of digital video (DV) technology to allow trainee teachers at secondary, Further Education and Higher Education levels identify, implement and evaluate generic teaching skills relevant to their own educational context. Teachers have been provided with a DV camera and a laptop based portable editing suite and asked to record examples of their teaching. This material has been placed online in streaming video format on the Moodle VLE. The process of skills development is enhanced by the provision of both written resources on skills identification and an online collaborative reflection forum hosted on Moodle and moderated by staff from the Schools of Education Studies. (See Moodle Site ES 114 Microteaching@http://moodle.dcu.ie/course/view.php?id=12337&edit=off enrolment Key: Science or http://webpages.dcu.ie/~edstud/se1_microteaching_2005/index.htm) The potential of this forum as a place for individual and group critical reflection in a supportive environment, leading to the creation of ongoing networks and communities of practice, has become central to the way I see my own pedagogy and that of the School developing. For this reason, in the last two years, I have committed a significant proportion of the Schools discretionary budget to the purchase of audio visual equipment to facilitate the development of our ICT infrastructure. Total investment in the last three years has come to e37,000 with a further e5,000 being earmarked for the coming semester.
Again, there is a strong congruence between my own approach to teaching and learning and that advocated by the DCU strategic plan. To take just one pertinent example, my own particular pedagogic philosophy would seem to me to be particularly suitable to the achievement of the objective of facilitating “the interaction between theory and practice, between personal and professional development (which) will be recognised as hallmark of DCU education” (The networking university : a learning community)

I have, naturally, as an education specialist a strong interest in teaching and learning and have published work and given papers in this field. Some of these are mentioned below.

McNamara, G., H. Roussi and J. O’Hara (1997) ‘Entrepreneurship in Teaching: Some Pedagogical Challenges from the Perspective of Teacher Education’ in R. Skytta and H. Roussi (eds.) Points of Departure: the European Dimension in Vocational Teacher Education. pp. 37-50. Ireland/ Finland: European Commission.

McNamara, G., J. O’Hara and H. Roussi (1998) ‘The Pedagogical Challenges of Constructivist Theory in Learning and Information Technology’, Irish Educational Studies 1: 17-38.

McNamara, G. (2001) ‘How People Learn – What we think we know’. Paper given at an International Workshop on Problem-Based Learning in Science Education, Dublin, May, 2001.

O’ Hara, J and McNamara, G. (2004) ‘Online Professional Development – real trainers in a Virtual World’. Paper given at the annual conference of the Education Studies Association of Ireland, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Friday April 2, 2004.

Summary Future Plans in T&L
The previous section outlines in some detail my own personal and strategic commitment to the area of teaching and learning. I have endeavoured throughout my practice to introduce innovative pedagogical approaches with a view, in particular, to facilitating the inclusion of non-traditional learners into the mainstream of University life.

This approach is very much in keeping with the overall tenor of the University strategic plan. The plan is clear in its commitment to ensuring that DCU becomes an “international leader” in the field of e-learning. However, as important from my perspective, is the link that the strategic plan makes between this sectoral leadership and the practical outcomes to be expected from such a position. Leadership in this field is to be used not just to innovate technologically but also to meet a number of broader, socially inclusive and pedagogically challenging objectives. These “include deepening the quality of learning, more effective symbiosis between personal and professional development, more critical thinking and social awareness, broader access to learning for all- including those with disabilities” (The networking university). I strongly believe that the School, under my Headship, has developed a suite of courses and an approach to teaching and learning that goes quite a long way to r
ealising the objectives set out above. The challenge now is to decide where to go next.

What we need to do as a learning community is develop a coherent and robust model of teaching and learning that can be applied not only throughout DCU but also on a wider stage. I would therefore propose to use the resources accompanying the Fellowship to develop such a model. This process would consist of two linked elements :
· The design of ICT supported spaces for the development, investigation and sharing of the various pedagogic practices employed by Education studies students in the second level, further and higher education sectors
· The “mapping” of the practical or tacit knowledge underpinning these practices with a view to disseminating them to the wider university community.

One possible format for the dissemination of this model would be through the development of a Graduate Diploma in Further and Higher Education, something that the University, through the OVPLI, has been looking at in recent years. We as a School are committed to assisting in the development of such an initiative and are prepared to allocate resources to pursue such an outcome.

The Proposed Research

I would propose to focus on the creation of a network of practice between staff and students currently involved in initial teacher education in the School of Education Studies. The programmes to be included are

· BSc in Science Education - second level up to senior cycle
· BSc in Education and Training (full time) – primary school and Further Education
· BSc in Education and Training (part time) – experienced practitioners in Further Education (e.g. PLC, FETAC, Private industry)
· MSc in Education and Training Management – senior professionals in the healthcare, education (including HE) and industrial training sectors

Contacts between these disparate groups will be created and fostered using a series of ICT based interventions, and in particular by the creation of a project homepage on the DCU Moodle VLE. This site will contain digital video resources similar to those developed to date (see Conors website). Research will be carried out with a view to enhancing the reflective practice element of DV selection, editing and justification with a view to using it as a model for further dissemination. In addition, written material and a moderated discussion forum will be provided. Participants will be encouraged to use the site to learn about each other’s education sectors, to share resource material and to engage in discussions about the nature and reality of the educational experience.

As well as initiating a dialogue a primary aim of this project will be the exploration of the area of knowledge generation by participants in different sectors of Irish education. One of the challenges facing educators is to develop the essential craft or tacit knowledge necessary to become practically competent rather than just academically competent in their chosen field. Variously described as “underpinning knowledge” (Barbiero, 2003), “instinctive knowledge” or “embodied knowledge” (Busch & Richards, 2002) tacit knowledge is largely an unspoken knowledge that only surfaces in the context of active engagement with a task. A major difficulty in this process of knowledge acquisition is that it is quite often hard, some would argue impossible, to articulate. This dilemma was summarised by Michael Polyani (1967) when he stated that quite often “we know more than we can tell”. The challenge for all educators is to get to that stage of instinctive competence in relation to their education practice. Recent work has suggested while this type of knowledge is “hard to verbalize as it is expressed through action based skills and learned through experiencing” (Gourlay, 2002) it can be learned through vocational practice and through “rich modes of discourse that include the use of analogies, metaphors and models and through the sharing of stories” (Choo, 1998). There are strong echoes here of Schon’s (1974) conception of the reflective practitioner engaging in and reflecting on practice with a view to constantly improving that practice.
By the conclusion of the project it is planned that this process of dialogue will allow participants to examine the tacit knowledge underpinning their actions as educators . Their insights will be summarised and a “map” of the tacit knowledge that they see as essential to their practice provided across a range of sectors. Given that this information will have been generated by participants interacting with the systems as educators in a range of discrete settings, it should be both original and of particular value to their counterparts.

Role of ICT
The use of ICT in this aspect of the project will be vital. While there is a broad consensus as to the importance of reflection in the development of any teacher education students (Schon 1974, McNamara & O’Hara 2000, Field 2002), there is still some debate as to the proper forum for engaging in such reflection. Criticisms of current modes of reflection often focus on the comparative insularity of the reflecting community within individual educational institutions. A solution to this will be the pairing of students as buddies (Schon) with a view to developing their capacity for reflective practice. The buddy system would mean integration between the students and staff (and it is worth bearing in mind that most of these practitioners are “students” in DCU but “staff” in their own institutions) from the respective institutions rather than merely developing a them / us scenario. In addition, the project will be used to explore alternative methodologies for capturing data which could act as a basis for reflection. It is proposed to pay particular attention to the potential of digital video technology in this context.

Critical, public evaluative engagement with emerging knowledge is seen as an essential element of any teaching development programme (Dewey 1933, Knowles 1996, Elliot 1994 Euridyce 2002) and it is hoped that the template developed by this project will have wider applications within the University.

Use of Fellowship Resources
I would see three main areas of resource allocation
· Buying in teaching time to free me up to develop both resources and a pedagogic model
· Buying in additional specialist equipment including DV recorders, editing facilities etc
· Hosting a number of research seminars in the School – including the identification of key international figures in the field to speak to staff and students in the University.

(see additional information section for research plan outline)
Referree #1
Joe O'Hara
Referree #1 position
Lecturer
Referee #1 affliation
School of Education Studies
Referee #1 email
joe.ohara@dcu.ie
Referee #1 letter
To Whom It May Concern:

I would like to offer my support to the application of Dr. Gerry McNamara, Head of the School of Education Studies, DCU for inclusion in this years award of Teaching and Learning Fellowships.

I have spent ten years working with Dr. McNamara, initially as a student and for the last eight years as a colleague. Throughout these years Dr. McNamara has been a consistent source of innovation in the area of teaching and learning within the School and indeed beyond. His own background in second level and adult education, working in some of the most socio-economically deprived areas of North Dublin, has greatly influenced his approach to the field. He has a strong commitment to enabling traditionally marginalised groups access the University. For this reason he has sought to develop programmes and approaches to teaching and learning that take account of the practical, lived experiences of the individuals taking courses in the School.

On a practical level this has resulted in the development of courses such as the BSc in Education and Training on both full time and a part time basis. This programme is targeted, in its part time form at least, at practitioners from Further and Adult education. Recognising their broad vocational experience the programme adopts an action research / reflective practice model of course delivery requiring a significant amount of applied research on the part of the students. This pedagogic approach has proved highly successful and a number of adult students have moved from undergraduate certificate level through to PhD studies in the last eight years. Structurally the programme is also sensitive to the needs of non-traditional learners allowing for multiple entry and exit routes, delivering all teaching at night or at weekends, introducing blocked teaching sessions over holiday periods and linking with the FETAC awards system at entry. So successful has this model developed by Dr. McNamara been, that the Department of Education and Science has recognised the course as a sector leader and, perhaps uniquely in the University, has funded the programme directly for the past eight years.

This model of teaching and learning developed by Dr. McNamara, focusing on the inclusion of personal and professional experience with a view to enhancing professional competence through the use of applied research approaches, has spread throughout the School. Programmes such as the MSc in Education and Training Management (Leadership and e-learning) use it very successfully to provide high quality postgraduate education for education professionals from a range of sectors.

What is important to note is that this approach to teaching is backed up by extensive personal research. Dr. McNamara is one of the leading writers on action research / applied research in Ireland and has been invited to contribute to and indeed edit a number of national and international publications in the area. In recent years he has expanded his research to look at the role of reflective evaluation in the development of core teaching competencies. Recognising early in this research the importance of ICT to the development of these skills as Head of School, he has invested heavily in the ICT facilities available to staff and students. He has also taken an active role in the championing of online and VLE based learning in the School helping to establish the MSc in e-learning in 2002 and encouraging all staff to develop a blended model of course delivery using WebCT initially and now MOODLE.

The quality of Dr. McNamaras work in the area of Teaching and Learning has been acknowledged both nationally and internationally. In addition to a substantial number of conference presentations and publications in leading education journals he has also been the recipient of numerous research awards. Funding bodies who have made these awards include the EU through their Framework, Leonardo Da Vinci and Comenius programmes, the Department of Education and Science, the HEA and numerous smaller research bodies. Many of these awards have been used to develop the teaching capabilities of the School and have greatly enhanced our provision to students.

I feel that Dr. McNamara has provided great leadership in the field of teaching and learning over the last decade. His commitment to the opening of the University to those who have not traditionally had the opportunity to access Higher Education is important. Equally as important is his commitment to the development of an approach to teaching and learning that ensures that students are seen as equal participants in the generation of knowledge rather than passive recipients of “notes from on high”. Based on rigorous research this emerging model, in my opinion, should allow the University begin to genuinely open to the whole community. This should make many of our stated commitments to “lifelong learning” less of a hope and more of a reality.

Yours faithfully,

Joe O’Hara
School Of Education Studies

Referee #2 name
Conor Sulivan
Referee #2 position
Student
Referee #2 affiliation
School of Education Studies
Referee #2 email
conor.sullivan@dcu.ie
Referee #2 letter

To Whom It May Concern:

I wish to support the application of Dr. Gerry McNamara, Head of the School of Education Studies for inclusion in the teaching and learning fellowship programme.

In 1999 I started as a student on the BSc in Science Education at DCU. We were the first cohort to undertake the programme. Gerry McNamara took a special interest in individual students and their personal development and had a very challenging way of teaching us. He was constantly encouraging us to come up with our own solutions to the problems that we faced as student teachers. By the end of the course I realised that being a good teacher was more than learning what was in a book, it was about taking these ideas, trying them out and then coming up with your own version of the theory.

Gerry helped me through the four years of Science Education. He created a positive atmosphere and when I finished the course I decided that I wanted to continue my studies in education. Presently I am a student on the MSc in Education and Training Management (e-learning) programme. Again the format of teaching used is one that encourages us to work through issues that we are facing in our professional lives and to reflect on these in the light of the theory we are reading. This makes the programme very relevant and again Gerry has been at the centre of explaining this way of learning to us. As part of my studies I have also been given the opportunity to work with the current students on the BSc in Science Education. Along with Gerry, I co-ordinate the microteaching module, a programme that allows student teachers develop their teaching skills through the use of video technology in small scale teaching situations. Gerry has encouraged me to explore new technologies as a way of improving microteaching and together we have developed an online microteaching community.

In my own experience with Gerry, I have found him to be instrumental in my progress. I had a particular interest in the technical side of education, which with the help of Gerry, was encouraged to help him set up an online microteaching virtual learning environment. Our current first year Science Education students have online access to all of their microteaching sessions. The students view these clips in order to monitor their own teaching progress. Using the DCU Moodle VLE, they post up comments, and provide constructive criticism for one each other. We have equipped the students with digital editing skills. Their assessment is to pick out three good examples of teaching. This could involve using various stimuli, using questions to engage the students, reacting well to a response, or just generally good teaching. They then post their clips up onto Moodle along with comments justifying why they chose the clip. Having the students’ microteaching sessions in digital format has opened up numerous possibilities in the area of evidence based online reflection. Gerry has already indicated that we will continue to explore this area in coming years.

Finally, I would just like to take this opportunity to wish Gerry every success in his application for funding, to further investigate the use of ICT as a way of facilitating innovative approaches to teaching and learning. I feel ICT can allow us as students to engage with information and with each other in innovative ways to maximise the learning experience.

Yours faithfully

Conor Sullivan.
GEM 2 Student
Other information
Outline of Research Plan

Research Aims
· To create a vibrant, online learning community comprising educational professionals
· To allow participants to engage in a genuine and open dialogue about the nature of their experiences
· To map the tacit or craft knowledge generated by educators across a range of educational settings
· To encourage participants to grow as reflective practitioners and determinants of their own continuing professional development through partnership with fellow developing teachers and other inter and intra professional colleagues.

Research Objectives

By the end of the project
· A website containing multimedia and written resources and a moderated asynchronous discussion forum will have been created
· An initial “map” of tacit knowledge will have been produced
· A model for teaching and learning will based in the professional practice of Irish educators undertaking courses in DCU will have been developed
· A series of research seminars hosted by the School of Education Studies will have taken place
· Models for applying the methods developed in other contexts within the University will have been developed

Research Timeline

Phase 1 Months 1-4

Identify additional teaching staff
Acquire ICT resources (including DV cameras, editing equipment)
Develop project website
Pilot project website(s) with recent graduates of Ed. Studies programmes
Development of research model relating to the “mapping” of tacit knowledge
Establish evaluation framework (both formative and summative)

Phase 2 Months 5-10
Identification of research volunteers
Development of training workshops in the areas of
· Online reflective engagement
· Mapping tacit knowledge
· Recording and editing digital video
Delivery of workshops to volunteers
Piloting of project pedagogic model with volunteers including
· Recording of professional practice across a range of educational settings
· Editing of material and placing on server
· Online reflection on nature, quality and context of education practice being presented

Phase 3 Months 11-15
Development of outline “map” of tacit knowledge
Organisation of research seminar to present initial findings
Production of interim evaluation report
Integration of key elements of project into mainstream Education Studies teaching

Phase 4 Months 16-21
Development of ethical framework for implementation of project across School
Delivery of training workshops across School of Education Studies programmes
Implementation of pedagogic model across selected School of Education Studies programmes

Phase 5 Months 22-24
Completion of map of tacit knowledge
Completion and publication of final evaluation report
Organisation of national research seminar with a view to presenting project findings
Identification of next stage of project