Researcher Details |

Gillian Lake

Dr.

Dr Gillian Lake is an Assistant Professor in Early Childhood Education and Chair of Postgraduate Studies by Research at DCU Institute of Education. She is also a Fellow of Advance HE, (FHEA) in the UK. She was a Primary Teacher in Ireland for many years before first undertaking an MSc in Child Development & Education (University of Oxford). She was then awarded the Elfrida Talbot Scholarship to undertake a PhD in Education at University of Oxford, focusing on language development and Early Childhood Education. She has continued to work in this area, both as a lecturer (DCU & Oxford Brookes University, UK) and a researcher. Her current research projects in the area of Early Childhood Education have allowed her to collaborate with industry (Expert Advisor to Child Paths Ltd), the early childhood sector and international research partners (collaborators here). She was recently invited to join the review panel for the International Journal of Early Years Education and is a regular reviewer for the European Early Childhood Education Research Journal. Gillian was shortlisted for both the DCU President's Award for Excellence in Teaching and the DCU President's Award for Engagement in 2021. She was presented with a Research Ally Prize from the Irish Research Council in December 2022 for her work in supporting and supervising research students. She is DCU's representative on the National Academic Integrity Network. Most recently, she and her colleague Dr Fiona O Riordan completed a project which investigated Awareness of Academic Integrity across all DCU stakeholder (National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education).

Book Chapter

	Year	Publication
	2018	Lake, G (2018) 'The Learning Relationship: Principles of Effective Learning and Practice in the Early Years' In: Professional Dialogues: Rediscovering Early Years Pedagogy and Principles. Cheshire : Critical Publishing Ltd.

Peer Reviewed Journal

	Year	Publication
	2023	McLean, K, Lake, G, Wild, M, Licandro, U, Evangelou, M (2023) 'Perspectives of play and play-based learning: What do adults think play is?'. Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 48 (1). https://doi.org/10.1177/18369391221130790
	2022	Lake, G.; Urban, M.; Giblin, F.; French, G.; Farrell, T. (2022) 'Making a difference in the real world. User-centred impact evaluation of an eight-country, community-based early childhood programme'. Evaluation and Program Planning, 92 . [Link] [DOI]
	2021	Gillian Lake (2021) 'Article to Action: Supporting Peer Mediated Intervention'. Young Exceptional Children, 24 (2):108-110. [DOI]
	2019	Lake, G; Evangelou, M (2019) 'Let's Talk! An interactive intervention to support children's language development'. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 27 :221-240. [DOI]

Conference Contribution

	Year	Publication
	2023	MARIA EVANGELOU TSITIRIDOU; Gillian Lake; Eleni Tympa (2023) EARLI Conference 2023 Let's play and talk! An intervention to support vocabulary and narrative development for 3 year olds Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, .
	2023	Eleni Tympa; Maria Evangelou-Tsitiridou; Gillian Lake; Vatou Athina; Vatou Anastasia; Evridiki Zachopoulou (2023) EECERA 31st Conference 2023 ‘Let’s play and talk!’ A development of an early years’ intervention to enhance children’s soft skills through sustained planned pretend play Lisbon, Portugal, .
	2022	O'Riordan, Fiona; Lake, Gillian (2022) AHE An Academic Integrity Awareness Campaign Across a University Manchester, England, .
	2022	Binabdulrahman, Hibah; Lake, Gillian (2022) 7th Lancaster Conference on Infant and Early Child Development Exploring preschool stakeholders' perceptions of the value of the development of critical thinking skills in early childhood in Saudi Arabia Lancaster, England, .
	2022	O' Keeffe, Christina; McNally, Sinead; O'Toole, Andrea; Liu, Weiyi; Lake, Gillian (2022) 22nd European Conference on Literacy and the 46th Annual Conference of the Literacy Association of A Scoping Review of Early Childhood Education Literacy Instruction for Young Autistic Learners Dublin, .
	2021	Lake, Gillian (2021) EECERA Annual Conference The use of software solution to support children’s transition from Pre-school to Primary School online, .
	2021	Lake, Gillian (2021) Lancaster Conference on Infant & Early Child Development Supporting an ecological perspective for children’s transition from Pre-school to Primary School online, .
	2021	Merrins-Gallagher, Aoife; Lake, Gillian (2021) EECERA Annual Conference Telling the Tale of An English-Irish Bilingual Oral Narrative Programme for Linguistically Diverse Junior Primary Classrooms online, .
	2021	Binabdulrahman, Hibah; Lake, Gillian (2021) Pedagogical and Early Education Research Student (PEERS) Conference An exploration of preschool stakeholders’ perceptions of critical thinking skills for preschool children in Saudi Arabia online, .
	2021	O Riordan, Fiona; Lake, Gillian (2021) International Center for Academic Integrity Academic Integrity Awareness Campaign Across a University online, .
	2021	O Riordan, Fiona; Lake, Gillian (2021) AHE An Academic Integrity Awareness Campaign Across a University online, .
	2021	Lieu, Weiyi; McNally, Sinead; Lake, Gillian (2021) Early Childhood Ireland Research Symposium Shared Book Reading in bilingual Irish-Chinese families and monolingual Irish families in Early Childhood online, .
	2019	Lake, G, Urban, M, Giblin, F, French, G, Farrell, T (2019) European Early Childhood Education Research Association TOY to Share, Play to Care - Impact Evaluation Thessaloniki, Greece, 20/08/2019-23/08/2019.
	2018	Lake, G, Beckerle, C, Licandro, U, Broens, A (2018) European Association Research in Learning & Instruction SIG 5 - Learning and Development in Early Childhood Supporting children’s language development through reflexive interaction during planned pretend play in Symposium Individual language support in heterogeneous children’s groups for conference SIG 5 Conference 2018 Berlin, 28/08/2018-30/08/2018.
	2017	Licandro, U. Lake, G, Beckerie, C, Itel, N (2017) European Association Research in Learning & Instruction Main Conference Symposium: Child Language in Preschool Settings: Development and Support Tampere, Finland, .
	2017	Lake, G (2017) Intervention Development in the Early Years: from Inception to Implementation Intervention devleopment BERA Conference, Brighton, UK, .
	2015	Evangelou, M, Toulourmakos, A, Lake, (2015) The Role of HLE in Language and Literacy Outcomes at Ages 4 and 5 HLE Munich, Germany, .
	2015	Lake, G (2015) Significance of the findings of a Randomised Control Trial of an oral language intervention in the Early Years RCT School of Education, Oxford Brookes University, .
	2015	Lake, G (2015) Let’s Talk: An intervention supporting children’s vocabulary and narrative development through storybook reading and sustained planned pretend play in the early years Description of Doctoral Research BERA Conference, Belfast, .
	2014	Lake, G (2014) Let’s Talk: An intervention supporting children’s vocabulary and narrative development through storybook reading and sustained planned pretend play in the early years Doctoral Research University of Oxford, .
	2014	Lake, G (2014) Let’s Talk: An intervention supporting children’s vocabulary and narrative development through storybook reading and sustained planned pretend play in the early years Doctoral Research University of Oxford, .
	2012	Lake, G (2012) Let’s Talk: Supporting oral language through sustained planned play and storybook reading in the early years Doctoral Research EARLI Conference, Utrecht, .
	2012	Lake, G (2012) Let’s Talk: Supporting oral language through sustained planned play and storybook reading in the early years Doctoral Research University of Oxford, .
	2011	Lake, G (2011) Investigating the effects of The Forward Together Programme on Senior Infant (KS1) children’s literacy levels in Ireland Families Master's Research University of Oxford, .

Published Report

	Year	Publication
	2021	Mathias Urban, Gillian Lake, Geraldine French, Fiona Giblin, Therese Farrell (2021) TOY for Inclusion Impact evaluation and policy recommendations. Executive summary. ICDI, .
	2020	Urban, M., Lake, G., French, G., Giblin, F. & Farrell, T. (2020) TOY to Share, Play to Care Impact evaluation and policy recommendations: Final report. International Child Development Initiatives(ICDI), . [Link]
	2022	French, G.; McKenna, G.; Giblin, F.; Concannon-Gibney, T.; Farrell, T.; Gillic, C.; Halligan, C.; Lake, G.; Ni Dhiorbhain, A.; Ni Laimhin, M.; O'Neill, S. (2022) Literature review to support the updating of Aistear, the Early Childhood Curriculum Framework. National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, . [Link]
	2022	French, G., McKenna, G., Giblin, F., Concannon-Gibney, T., Farrell, T., Gillic, C., Halligan, C., Lake, G., Ní Dhiorbháin, A., Ní Láimhín, M. & O’Neill, S. (2022) Literature review to support the updating of Aistear’s themes of Well-being, Identity and Belonging, Communicating and Exploring and Thinking. NCCA, . [Link]

	Year	Publication
	2021	Aoife Merrins Gallgher, Gillian Lake (2021) A Tale of Two Halves Collaboratively Supporting Children with English as an Additional Language (EAL). NEWSL [Link]

Blog

	Year	Publication
	2022	Lake, Gillian (2022) Hackathons: A Creative Approach to Developing Researchers and Solving Educational Challenges. BLOG https://blog.eera-ecer.de/hackathons-in-educational/

Web Page

	Year	Publication
	2022	Lake, Gillian (2022) Hack to Transform 2021 - Case Study for CBL. WEBP https://www.dcu.ie/teu/challenge-based-learning#tab-73111-5

Editorial

	Year	Publication
	2022	McLean, Karen; Lake, Gillian; Wild, Mary; Licandro, Ulla; Evangelou, Maria (2022) Perspectives of play and play-based learning: What do adults think play is? Comment. ED [DOI]

Professional Associations

Association	Function	From / To
British Education Research Association	Member	01/01/2017 - 01/01/2020
European Early Childhood Education Research Association	Member	01/01/2015 -
European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI)	Member	01/01/2017 -

Honors and Awards

Date	Title	Awarding Body
01/12/2022	Research Ally Prize	Irish Research Council
01/04/2021	Shortlist: President's Award for Engagement	DCU
01/04/2021	Shortlist: President's Award for Excellence in Teaching and Learning	DCU
01/01/2015	BERA Conference 2015 Presentation Award	BERA
01/01/2012	Talbot Scholarship, University of Oxford	University of Oxford

Committees

	Committee	Function	From / To
	Faculty Research Commitee		-
	National Academic Integrity Network		-
	Faculty Research Admissions Panel		-
	Graduate Research Studies Board		-
	Kilcloon Parents' Association		01/10/2018 - 01/09/2019
	Leixlip Parent Teachers Association		-

Employment

Employer	Position	From / To
Oxford Brookes University	Senior Lecturer in Child Development & Education	01/09/2014 - 17/01/2018
Oxford Brookes University	Associate Lecturer	01/01/2011 - 31/08/2014
University of Oxford	Temporary Research Assistant	01/05/2011 - 01/09/2011
Ratoath JNS	Mainstream Primary Teacher (Permanent)	01/09/2003 - 01/09/2010
Dublin City University		18/01/2018 -

Education

	Start date	Institution	Qualification	Subject
		ILM/DCU	Professional Skills for Research Leaders
		Advance HE	Aurora Leadership Programme
		Oxford Brookes University	Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching in Higher Education
		University of Oxford	DPhil in Education
		University of Oxford	MSc in Education (Child Development & Education)
		Royal Irish Academy of Music	Associate Diploma in Speech and Drama (Teacher)
		St Patrick's College, Drumcondra	Postgraduate Diploma in Education (Primary)
		DIT, Aungier St	MA in Public Relations
		UCD	BSSc (International)

Languages

	Language	Reading	Writing	Speaking
	French	Functional	Functional	Functional

Reviews

	Journal	Role
	Oxford Review of Education	Reviewer
	International Journal of Early Years Education	Reviewer
	European Early Childhood Education Research Journal	Reviewer

Creative Outputs

	Year	Title	Type
	2021	An Academic Integrity Awareness Campaign Across a University	Recording

Enterprise Engagement

Year	Engagement Type	Client	Description
2017	Consultancy	Gatsby Foundation, London	Invited to give workshop on 'Reading Research Reports - Statistics'
2016	Consultancy	University of Oxford, Education Endowment Foundation, Behavioural Insights	Invited to deliver training and advice on language assessments to research assistants on an extensive UK-wide research project.
2023	Other	Child Paths Ltd	Advisory Work

Outreach Activities

Year	Engagement Type	Organisation	Description
	Presentations/Talks to an external audience	Kilcloon Parents' Association	Talk to Kilcloon Parents' Association. The Importance of Play in Young Children's Development
	DCU in the Community	DCU IoE - DCU TY Access Week	DCU Access: Transition Year Uni Week. Meetings with students over DCU Access week
	Advisory Work	Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick	External Examiner on BA Early Childhood Practice
	Advisory Work	Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick	External Examiner on Bachelor of Education
	Presentations/Talks to an external audience	St John Baptist Infant School, Clontarf	Talk to St John Baptist Infant School, Clontarf. 'Supporting young children's development through play - tips and tricks'
2021	DCU in the Community	Leixlip PTA	Committee Member - Leixlip PTA

Media

	Title	Year	Type	Authors
	Newstalk: Between the Lines: Childhood Early Years and the Importance of Play	2019	Radio Interviews	Lake, G

Research Interests

Oral language Intervention Emerging Literacy
Narrative Development Pretend Play

Early Years
Partnership in the Early Years
Enabling Parents in the Early Years
Evaluation research
Professional Development in the Early Years
Early Years Pedagogy

Creative pedagogy, curriculum and formative assessment

Chair of Postgraduate Studies by Research (PhD/Masters by Research)

PhD/Masters by Research and EdD Supervision

Research Projects

Title	Role	Start date	End date
Academic Integrity Awareness	PI	15/02/2021	15/06/2022
Supporting Transition of young children from preschool to primary school	PI	28/09/2020	03/01/2022
Literature Review: Updating of Aistear, The Early Childhood Curriculum Framework	Researcher	01/09/2021	01/03/2022
Literature Review: National Literacy and Numeracy Strategy Review	Researcher	10/06/2021	13/01/2022
Evaluating Let’s Talk - Early Years Professionals’ perceptions of the implementation of a language programme for young children	PI	08/06/2020	07/06/2021
Space Academy	Evaluator	06/04/2020	06/06/2021
Evaluating the Impact of TOY to share, Play to Care	Individual Paper at EECERA Conference	20/08/2019	23/08/2019
Suite Science - Evaluation Report	Evaluator	15/05/2019	14/02/2020
TOY to share, Play to care	Researcher	31/01/2019	30/01/2021
International Collaborative Meet on Language Development in the Early Years, Germany	Convenor	01/05/2018	31/07/2018
Partnership perspectives on the research, parent and practitioner triumvirate in the Early Years	PI	01/04/2017	15/01/2018
Let’s Talk! An intervention supporting children’s vocabulary and narrative development through sustained planned pretend play and group shared storybook reading in the early years	Principal Investigator	03/10/2011	30/06/2015

Current Postgraduate Students

Student Name	Degree	Supervision
Liu ,Weiyi	PhD	Supervisor
Binabdulrahman ,Hibah	PhD	Supervisor
Leonard ,Shane	PhD-track	Supervisor

External Collaborators

Type	Name	Company	Role
External	Ciaran Flynn	Child Paths	Industry
External	Dr Karen McClean	Institute For Learning Sciences & Teacher Education, ACU	Academic
External	Dr Suzy Edwards	Institute For Learning Sciences & Teacher Education, ACU	Academic
External	Camille Catlett	Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	Academic
External	Anne Heffernan	Mind the Gap Films	Industry
External	Kildare County Childcare Committee	Kildare County Childcare Committee	Other
External	Dr Maria Evangelou	University of Oxford	Academic
External	Professor Mary Wild	Oxford Brookes University	Academic
External	Professor Ulla Licandro	University of Oldenburg	Academic
External	Sandra Mathers	University of Oxford	Academic
External	Professor Eva Lloyd	University of East London	Academic
External	Bea Stevenson	Family Links Oxford	Other
External	Rebecca Matthews	Oxford Brookes University	Academic

Teaching Interests

Chair of Postgraduate Studies by Research (PhD/Masters by Research)

Child Development
Language Development
Early Education
Intervention Research
Research Methods
Psychology of Learning
Undergraduate and postgraduate research supervision

Modules Coordinated

Term	Title	Subject
2022	Formative Assessment of Early Learning	EC321
2021	Description of 2022_EC328	EC328
2023		GTEIE