The incorporation of self-and peer-assessment and feedback has significant potential as a pedagogical strategy to promote deep learning in project based coursework. This study examined the impact of a deeper approach to learning on pre-service teachers' critical thinking and metacognitive skills. It also examined the impact on student learning outcomes within a project based module with a significant design element. Forty seven students participated in the pilot of an online peer feedback system. Results suggest that the quality of students' reflections through peer feedback and overall satisfaction with the module remained high despite students' citing a preference for instructor feedback. The data also indicate that the incorporation of self-and peer-assessment and feedback resulted in higher quality learning outcomes and enhanced critical thinking skills.Keywords: peer feedback, project based learning, teacher education. IntroductionThe distinction between deep and surface learning is well established (Entwistle and Ramsden 1982) with deeper approaches to learning associated with higher quality learning outcomes (Trigwell, Prosser and Waterhouse 1999). It is also clear that students' perceptions of their learning environment are related to the approach to learning they adopt (Entwistle 1991;Dow 2006). That deep learning is allied to deeper pedagogical approaches, focusing on teaching for understanding and more importantly personal understanding (Entwistle 2000). However, developments in teaching and learning approaches require equivalent adjustment and advancement of assessment strategies. Biggs (1999, p. 2) stresses the importance of this constructive alignment; "Does the format of assessment match your teaching objectives? If it does match your objectives, the backwash is positive, but if it does not, the backwash will encourage students to use surface approaches to learning". It appears that assessment strategies which encourage students to think for themselves, to become critical and creative thinkers, shift students focus in a class towards a deeper approach to learning (Scouller 1998). Conversely, assessment which encourages memorisation and recall is more likely to result in students adopting a surface approach, especially when combined with perceived heavy -2 -workload demands (Trigwell, Prosser and Waterhouse 1999;Gunderman et al. 2003). It is clear therefore that optimising the role of assessment in education can greatly enhance student learning, especially assessment that moves beyond a summative focus to a more formative purpose Liu and Carless 2006). However, summative approaches to assessment still dominate in education (Knight 2002), especially in the Irish context which employs a matriculation system in the form of a final exam (entitled Leaving Certificate), the results of which are employed for the allocation of university places to students. With such emphasis placed on summative assessment at second level it is not surprising that students are frequently cited as focusing solely on achiev...

This study investigated the suitability of the FIT-Choice scale for use within an Irish Initial Teacher Education setting with a cohort of first year pre-service teachers (n = 143), from across five different subject disciplines. Exploratory factor analyses were conducted to examine participants' motivations for choosing teaching as a career, as well as their perceptions about teaching. The results were found to be consistent with the original FIT-Choice structure. Prior teaching and learning experiences, as well as perceived ability, were found to be the strongest influential factors in participants' decision to become a teacher. These findings further highlight the prominence given to subject-based knowledge in Ireland. The relationships between participants' motivations for becoming a teacher and their satisfaction with career choice were also examined. Choosing teaching as a fallback career was negatively related to satisfaction, whereas a desire to work with children was found to be a significant positive predictor.

The ubiquitous and often pervasive expansion of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) agenda across global education systems has largely gone uncontested. Strategic efforts to build on perceived natural subject synergies across the separate STEM disciplines are promoted as central to supporting the growth of economies through the development of human capital and by ensuring the supply of suitably trained individuals for vocational roles in these areas. However, these efforts are predicated on the assumption that such perceived natural subject synergies can easily support pedagogical complimentary and in so doing, often fail to acknowledge the social histories of the subjects involved. In this paper the authors examine the divergence in treatment of STEM subjects within the Irish second level context through the lenses of subject hierarchies and social class. The cultural capital associated with studying each of the respective STEM subjects in school is considered and the objectives of the STEM agenda are problematised.

Design education has moved towards a collaborative practice where designers work in teams and with other disciplines to solve unstructured problems. Along with the cognitive skills involved in the execution of the design process, designers also need skills to work in teams, share information, negotiate common ground and reach consensus. Conversation is core to establishing successful collaborations and learning for students. In order to assess and facilitate collaboration skills, it will become necessary to understand what constitutes constructive and effective dialogue amongst students. The aim of this research is to compare expert versus novice interdisciplinary teams to understand how to better support teams to engage in constructive dialogue during educational design projects. Two cases were studied across different design domains during the problem definition, ideation and concept development phases of the design process. The cases involved a bio-medical fellowship project and an undergraduate product design project. The teams' conversations were recorded and qualitative content analysis was applied to reveal the cognitive processing and conversation activity that enabled the teams to progress during team collaborations. The findings show that during team interactions design teams alternate between four main cognitive processes, supported by a further six conversation activities to execute the design task. Experts were found to use these cognitive processes and conversation activities more effectively than novices. Recommendations are proposed that can guide design educators to support students during team interactions when solving design problems. The findings have implications for how team work is facilitated and assessed in education.

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Serious games are becoming increasingly popular due to their association with increased learning outcomes when compared to traditional self‐regulated learning activities. However, the majority of research examining the outcomes of serious games has focused almost exclusively on learning outcomes. This has resulted in a lack of research examining why these types of games result in increased positive outcomes, such as engagement or performance. This study seeks to address this gap in existing research by examining the relationship between game difficulty and participants’ engagement, performance and self‐efficacy in a Pacman style maze navigation game. This required the use of hidden difficulty variations which participants were randomly assigned. Participants engaged with the game over a 5‐days practice period. Results from this study suggest that difficulty plays a considerable role in influencing participants’ self‐efficacy for the task. Self‐efficacy has been consistently linked to positive outcomes such as increased engagement and performance. This highlights the importance of difficulty as a game design factor as well as providing an insight into the manner in which serious games could be further refined in order to increase user’s self‐efficacy and associated positive outcomes. Implications for future serious games and self‐efficacy research are discussed.

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