Gráinne Walshe

University of Limerick | UL · Centre for Transformative Learning (CTL) & Science Learning Centre

To address the issue of gender disparity in participation in the physics state matriculation exam, a novel school visit program was designed. The program was facilitated by undergraduate university students of physics and related courses who visited schools providing lower secondary education and delivered a single-session workshop including hands-...

A common aim of many national curricula is the development of students’ 21st century skills. This is frequently predicated upon interdisciplinary STEM teaching and learning. This chapter focuses on the Australian, Irish, and Scottish lower secondary school curricula and presents a comparative analysis of curricular documents from the three countrie...

This report commissioned by the Gender Balance Advisory Group in Ireland sets out what is known about critical barriers to girls’ participation in STEM education and STEM learning, while also highlighting effective interventions to increase participation of girls in STEM. The STEM Education Policy Statement 2017-2026 acknowledges that there is a ne...

Radical constructivism was defined by von Glasersfeld as a theory of knowing that provides a pragmatic approach to questions about reality, truth, and human understanding. Radical constructivism draws heavily on Jean Piaget’s constructivism, but also on ideas about epistemology, or how we come to acquire knowledge, from British empiricism, Kant’s i...

STEM integration has often been recommended as a way to support students to develop twenty-first century skills needed to function in the complex modern world. In order for students to experience integration, however, their teachers need support in designing, developing and implementing integrated curricular instruction, which is often at odds with...

Presentation for a conference paper on a number of initiatives taken by the Department of Physics at the University of Limerick to enhance female representation and progression in Physics. In particular it discusses the design and impact of SOPHia, an outreach project that aims to encourage more young women to take up Physics at a school subject. P...

This paper describes a novel study that aims to explore students’ mathematical preparedness for STEM education at tertiary level in the Irish context. The study addresses the issue of student retention in STEM degrees by investigating the perceptions of three stakeholders – teachers, students and lecturers – on the mathematical preparedness of stud...

Science and mathematics integration has long been recommended as a way to increase student conceptual understanding of, interest in and motivation to learn both subjects. However, attempts to develop a model to integrate science and mathematics have not resulted in a consensus regarding optimal curricular organisation. This research therefore has d...

This chapter examines the importance of mathematics in science.

Professional development resources emerging from a research project focused on argumentation in second-level science classrooms, particularly on socio-scientific issues. These resources were created in the context of the new Junior Cycle Science Specification in Ireland.

The integration of mathematics and science teaching and learning facilitates student learning, engagement, motivation, problem-solving, criticality and real-life application. However, the actual implementation of an integrative approach to the teaching and learning of both subjects at classroom level, with in-service teachers working collaborativel...

Figure 1: Illustrates a brief history of Nanotechnology in a timeline (Image obtained from http://www.nanoforum.org/educationtree/othersections/nanotimeline.htm)