Research Projects

MIE is a partner in the €1m research project Educational Knowledge Transfer. The project will develop new, innovative and multidisciplinary approaches to teaching and learning, as well as allow university-business collaboration in the development of e-learning technology comprehensive strategy that will be tailored to the needs of the education sector.  The project will also allow the development of a collaboration partnership between universities and companies that promote the joint creation of services based on scientific knowledge and the transfer of educational knowledge to the e-learning company, which in turn will impact on a better service to educational institutions and education professionals.  Finally, the project should lead to the design of a flexible, smart, versatile and interoperable system that allows improving the dynamics of collaboration, regulate self-learning, making a formative evaluation and channelling the feedback to students in practice on an ongoing basis. Learn more.

Solidarity in Diversity (SOLiDi)

MIE is a partner organisation in the €4m Solidarity in Diversity (SOLiDi) Innovative Training Network funded under the Horizon 2020 ITN Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action. Led by the University of Antwerp, in Belgium, MIE is a partner to the work of Maynooth University, through the work of the Migrant Teacher Project. Both Dr Rory McDaid (Project Coordinator of MTP) and Dr Garret Campbell (Project Manager for the MTP) will engage in this project. Rory will facilitate doctoral student access to teacher network and orientation to MTP throughout the duration of the project and will be an external co-supervisor of a PhD student, while Garret will participate in methodology courses and workshops offered through the Centre of Public Education and Pedagogy at Maynooth University. SOLiDi will develop a training and research program that is focused on how to generate solidarities across cultural boundaries, taking the proximity of citizens with different ethnic-cultural backgrounds in specific places and the practices they engage in as starting point. Building on the strengths of the interculturalist paradigm, SOLiDi will originally contribute with an intersectional understanding of how place-based solidarity practices are shaped by and can work around entrenched social inequalities and unequal power relations. To that end, SOLiDi brings together a group of international scholars from sociology, geography and educational science and a wide range of non-academic partners that are active in different sectors. SOLiDi will train 15 early stage researchers in relevant theories, research methods and ethics and paradigms of social change such as public pedagogy and policy and organisational change to study practices of place-based solidarities in diversity in different geographical, policy and organisational contexts. The aim is to articulate a new vision on solidarity adapted to superdiverse societies and to better equip professionals and organisations with adequate and innovative tools for facilitating solidarity in diversity.

Spatial Thinking in STEM Learning

MIE is a partner organisation in the SellSTEM Innovative Training Network funded under the Horizon 2020 ITN Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action. Led by the Technology University Dublin this project has a €4m budget. MIE is a partner to TU Dublin, and the lead researcher from MIE is Dr Teresa O’Doherty. MIE will co-supervise and host a doctoral student who will pilot the teacher education module with preservice teachers. SellSTEM will train a new generation of early stage researchers (ESR) to bring fresh thinking to the twin issue of low enrolment and gender imbalance in STEM education and careers by addressing deficits in spatial ability among young people across Europe. A key factor of intelligence, spatial ability is strongly related to achievement in and attraction towards STEM learning yet is underdeveloped among many young people in Europe. The large gender gap in spatial ability in favour of males means girls are over-represented in the low spatial ability group and more disadvantaged in STEM learning. ESRs will be trained to collect spatial ability data from children in Europe, measure their relation to academic performance and career choice and analyse interaction by gender, region and socioeconomic status. ESRs will create ways to develop spatial ability among children through online learning, tactile activities integrated with other subjects and through project-based learning including maker space workshop. ESRs will work with teachers and teacher educators to identify barriers and enablers to developing spatial ability so they can provide sustainable classroom solutions to increase the spatial ability of children beyond existing levels. Education policy and curriculum design will be critiqued against latest research on cognitive development. Improved policies and curricula will be produced along with strategies to change teacher education and teaching practice. Guides for teachers to assessing spatial ability and classroom teaching activities for different age groups will be developed so teachers can assess and promote growth in spatial ability especially among girls. SellSTEM ESRs will produce new knowledge and methods to promote spatial development, increase STEM enrolment and reduce gender imbalance and help to open up an important research topic in Europe.

EiTTT (Empowering Inclusive Teachers for Today and Tomorrow) is a new European strategic partnership project funded under the Erasmus+ KA2 Education Programme of the European Commission. MIE coordinates this 30-month project. Learn more.

MIE is a partner in this Erasmus+ project that is working to develop student-centered education by enhancing transparency of assessment practices though the development of empowering and dynamic approaches to the eportfolio process. Learn more.

The THRIECE (Teaching for Holistic, Relational and Inclusive Early Childhood Education) project is a response to the current shift in European education towards neoliberal discourses that prioritise ‘valuable’ knowledge while devaluing areas not seen to have utility in a global economy. THRIECE is funded under the Erasmus+ Programme. Learn more.

EDUCATE (Enhancing Differentiated Instruction and Cognitive Activation in Mathematics Lessons by Supporting Teachers) is a 30-month project funded under the Erasmus+ programme. Learn more.