NUI Maynooth Eprint Archive
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‘How Can I Use Digital Technologies to Facilitate Cooperative Learning in my Classroom?’ A Self-Study Action Research Project Undertaken During a Global Pandemic
No full textIn the 2020-21 academic year, school closures and social distancing requirements had a profound impact on the way in which children learned and teachers taught. This self-study action research project explores how I attempted to address the constraints of a new, restrictive learning environment with an intervention that used digital technologies to facilitate cooperative learning in my 6th class classroom.
Using an array of digital tools including BookCreator, Stop Motion Studio and the full range of apps available on GSuite for Education, the 27 children in my class were asked to work in cooperative groups to complete an open-ended task; one in which they created a character from the future and detailed that character’s success in overcoming the challenges of living through a global pandemic.
Schools were closed for the first half of the intervention, while my pregnancy meant that I was forced to facilitate the second half from home. Consequently, the use of digital technologies was inextricably linked with the restrictions of the pandemic, and with all of their accompanying frustrations. Conscious that the intervention could not be examined separately to the context in which it took place, I focused not only on the affordances of digital tools to facilitate the cooperative learning process, but on the significance of the nature of the task and on the impact that the Covid-19 restrictions had on that same process.
Qualitative data was gathered from the written and oral reflections of my students and a group of four critical friends, as well as from my own observations and reflective journal. An analysis of this data led me to conclude that digital technologies could be used to
facilitate cooperative learning by supporting dialogue between group members and by offering a sense of autonomy to students. The motivation that dialogue and autonomy could generate proved especially important in the context of online learning and the socially distant classroom. The negative emotions fuelled by the restrictions of the pandemic were not, however, always counterbalanced by the affordances of digital tools or by the open-ended nature of the task; and children's motivation often suffered due to a perceived lack of autonomy over various elements of the project.
These results have implications for my future practice and, indeed, for policy; suggesting that greater flexibility needs to feature in the classroom and curriculum alike. Importantly, my findings will allow me to live more closely to my values of student voice and autonomy. As I encourage children to express themselves with the aid of digital tools, I will continuously adjust my practice so as to promote a sense of autonomy; and successfully reap the long-proven benefits of cooperative learning
How can I encourage emotional expression and awareness through the use of drama methodologies?
No full textThis dissertation seeks to explore how I can encourage emotional awareness and expression through the use of drama methodologies. This study aims to investigate the findings of prioritising the emotional well-being of students through drama lessons. This research took place in a Junior Infants in a gaelscoil, with 19 participants in the research.
The intervention lasted eight weeks was broken into two phases. Phase 1 consisted of drama games which introduced the children to dramatic conventions, while Phase 2 lasted six weeks and consisted of drama lessons which used a wordless picture book as a stimulus. Data was collected through baseline and closing interviews, observations and a teacher reflective journal. Triangulation was achieved by reflecting on the data collected in accompaniment with the use of relevant literature and consultation with a critical friends.
Following the use of thematic analysis to interpret the data, three clear findings emerged from the study (Braun and Clarke, 2006). Firstly, the children became more comfortable and open with sharing their emotions; secondly, the intervention improved the emotional skills of children who were struggling to socialise with their peers; and finally that the children began to contextualise both their and others’ emotions.
As a result of these findings, recommendations are provided as to how this study can be implemented and improved upon. The findings indicate that by using drama lessons to support emotional awareness, children become more willing to discuss their emotions, and more expressive about describing how they feel. The findings also indicated that this emphasis on emotional learning developed the social skills of some children in the class. As such, this research concludes that drama methodologies are an appropriate tool to encourage the emotional awareness and expression, and that this will create a classroom culture that promotes the emotional well-being of the children
Through selective activism towards greater resilience: the Czech Constitutional Court's interventions into high politics in the age of populism
No full textWith technocratic populist Andrej Babiš leading the Czech government coalition, the country has experienced some democratic backsliding. In contrast to its Hungarian and Polish counterparts, however, the Czech Constitutional Court has been spared from executive capture. This article argues that resilient constitutional courts may act as one of the key safeguards against illiberal populism. We demonstrate that resilient constitutional courts are products of an institutional framework, which prevents court-packing by loyal allies of populist leaders, and of courts’ activities that increase their reputation with the public, thus making political attacks against them overly costly. We argue that the Czech Constitutional Court has exercised an approach of selective judicial activism that focuses on keeping political competition fair while avoiding involvement in controversial socially transformative judicial decision-making which would outrage large parts of the population. Moreover, by acting as a guardian of fair political competition, the Court contributed to the further fragmentation of the political landscape, which in turn prevented the accumulation of political power, and hence the Court shielded itself from political attacks
Reforming to Please: A Comprehensive Explanation for Non-Exit from the European Court of Human Rights
No full textStates’ growing dissatisfaction with the performance of the European Court of Human Rights – Governments’ commitment to reform process – Threats of exit that failed to materialise – Adaptation of Hirschman’s exit–voice–loyalty framework to explain states’ non-exit from the European Court of Human Rights – Sufficiently effective voice, manifestations of loyalty, and high costs of exit as possible reasons behind non-exit – Governments’ inability to achieve change in the Court’s practice unilaterally – Divergent perceptions and expectations of governments – Court’s responsiveness to governments’ concerns – Showing the importance of cautious, incremental changes to accommodate diverse governmental expectations on the role of the European Court of Human Right
Deadline-Aware TDMA Scheduling for Multihop Networks Using Reinforcement Learning
No full textTime division multiple access (TDMA) is the medium access control strategy of choice for multihop networks with deterministic delay guarantee requirements. As such, many Internet of Things applications use protocols based on time division multiple access. Optimal slot assignment in such networks is NP-hard when there are strict deadline requirements and is generally done using heuristics that give suboptimal transmission schedules in linear time. However, existing heuristics make a scheduling decision at each time slot based on the same criterion without considering its effect on subsequent network states or scheduling actions. Here, we first identify a set of node features that capture the information necessary for network state representation to aid building schedules using Reinforcement Learning (RL). We then propose three different centralized approaches to RL-based TDMA scheduling that vary in training and network representation methods. Using RL allows applying diverse criteria at different time slots while considering the effect of a scheduling action on meeting the scheduling objective for the entire TDMA frame, resulting in better schedules. We compare the three proposed schemes in terms of how well they meet the scheduling objectives and their applicability to networks with memory and time constraints. One of the schemes proposed is RLSchedule, which is particularly suited to constrained networks. Simulation results for a variety of network scenarios show that RLSchedule reduces the percentage of packets missing deadlines by up to 60% compared to the best available baseline heuristic
Quark-gluon vertex from Nf=2 lattice QCD
No full textWe study the quark-gluon vertex in the limit of vanishing gluon momentum using lattice QCD with two
flavors of O(a) improved Wilson fermions, for several lattice spacings and quark masses. We find that all
three form factors in this kinematics have a significant infrared strength and that both the leading form
factor λ1, multiplying the tree-level vertex structure, and the scalar, chiral symmetry breaking form factor λ3
are significantly enhanced in the infrared compared to the quenched (Nf=0) case. These enhancements
are orders of magnitude larger than predicted by one-loop perturbation theory. We find only a weak
dependence on the lattice spacing and quark mass
A Study of Infrasound Signals in Mesopause OH* Emissions Using a Ground-Based Three-Element Array at Maynooth (53.3 N, 6.6 W)
No full textAbstract included in tex
Rending the “Soft Plains” of America: Rape and Liberation in the Poetry of William Blake
No full textWilliam Blake is often popularly recalled as a proponent of “free
love” who equated unrestrained desire with the push for
universal liberty, yet much of the sex that appears in his work is
non-consensual and violent, the product of a masculine urge for
sexual self-actualization. This apparent contradiction has
confounded critics for decades, particularly since feminist theory
transformed the discourse on rape in the mid-twentieth century.
As this article will argue, however, the representations of sexual
assault in Blake’s work are neither an endorsement nor an
evasion of the gendered dynamics of forced sex, but are instead
evidence of his efforts to work through his own uncertainty
regarding what limits, if any, the drive for personal liberty should
observe. In his interrogation of this question, Blake takes an
approach that is analogous to the methodology of hermeneutics,
repeatedly revisiting instances in his mythopoeia in which liberty
and sexual assault collide in order to confront the contradictions
inherent in his conception of emancipation. Working through
these versions, Blake uncovers the imperialist, colonialist logic
that underpins any quest for individual liberation that refuses to
acknowledge its victims
Long‐term variability and trends in meteorological droughts in Western Europe (1851–2018)
No full textWe analysed long-term variability and trends in meteorological droughts across Western Europe using the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI). Precipitation data from 199 stations spanning the period 1851–2018 were employed, following homogenisation, to derive SPI-3 and SPI-12 series for each station, together with indices on drought duration and severity. Results reveal a general absence of statistically significant long-term trends in the study domain, with the exception of significant trends at some stations, generally covering short periods. The largest decreasing trends in SPI-3 (i.e., increasing drought conditions) were found for summer in the British and Irish Isles. In general, drought episodes experienced in the last two or three decades have precedents during the last 170·years, emphasizing the importance of long records for assessing change. The main characteristic of drought variability in Western Europe is its strong spatial diversity, with regions exhibiting a homogeneous temporal evolution. Notably, the temporal variability of drought in Western Europe is more dominant than long-term trends. This suggests that long-term drought trends cannot be confirmed in Western Europe using precipitation records alone. This study provides a long-term regional assessment of drought variability in Western Europe, which can contribute to better understanding of regional climate change during the past two centuries