Tracey Connolly

Tracey is a College Lecturer in the School of Education and Professional Master in Education (PME) Co-Ordinator of School Placement. On the PME programme Tracey teaches the History and Structure of Irish Education and team teaches School Placement Support. Tracey is a Lead Tutor for PME School Placement and is research supervisor to a number of Ph.D and M.Ed. students. Tracey co-ordinates and teaches the module Educational Disadvantage and Multiculturalism as part of the Masters in Guidance and Counselling programme. Prior to her appointment as College Lecturer, Tracey was Research Fellow at the School of Education and project manager of Bridging the Gap which was a major research project on educational disadvantage. In that role, Tracey was team leader for curriculum development programmes undertaken by teaching teams within primary and post primary schools and was involved in providing professional development at a local and national level. Tracey’s developing research profile consists of peer reviewed publications in the area of education and history, she has presented at national and international conferences and she has been involved in organising conferences. Tracey has been successful at generating external research funding and was recently engaged in a collaborative research project looking at assessment in teaching practice. Tracey’s teaching experience spans from teaching at post primary level following the completion of her Higher Diploma in Education to University Tutor with the Department of History, UCC while undertaking her Ph.D. to her post as College Lecturer. For the Harvard Graduate School of Education Tracey has taught online and provided pedagogy support to international groups of teachers. Tracey was amongst the first cohort of academics in UCC to complete a Postgraduate Diploma in Teaching and Learning at Higher Level Education and in 200

Tracey's research interests to date fall into the areas of curriculum development, teacher education and history. Tracey's research interest in curriculum development has been influenced by her research work in partnership with schools in taking a holistic approach to educational inclusion through curriculum development. Influenced by this work, Tracey has published on educational inclusion and research methods. In the area of teacher education Tracey is particularly interested in how we teach for preparation for the teaching profession as emphasised in a 2005 OECD report entitled Teachers Matter which stresses ‘initial teacher education must not only provide sound basic training in subject matter knowledge, pedagogy related to subjects and general pedagogical knowledge, it also needs to develop the skills for reflective practice and research on the job.’ The areas that Tracey has published include curriculum development, teacher education and educational disadvantage, qualitative research methods in education, Multiple Intelligences and application in the classroom, management in education, Irish demographical history and emigration. From 2001 to 2010 Tracey was team leader for curriculum development research projects undertaken by teaching teams within schools, she presented the research and findings at national and international conferences, and she published widely in the area of educational inclusion (all peer-reviewed). Tracey presented the research to policy makers at a national level and this work was cited as an innovative model for inclusive education by the HEA (2006) Towards the Best Education for All. Recently Tracey was research lead on a SCoTENs funded project called Assessment in Teacher Education North and South which aimed to

Tracey’s aim in teaching is to develop a culture of thinking which complements a learner centred approach. Tracey actively undertakes research for her teaching and has developed multimedia, audio and visual teaching aids. Informed by research, Tracey has developed written materials for students and she applies innovation forms of teaching in her practice. In 2005 Tracey won the President’s Award for Research on Innovative Forms of Teaching for her research ‘Learning through evidence’ which aimed to enhance a more student centred approach.Tracey’s teaching spans from undergraduate and postgraduate levels to Ph.D. supervision. Currently Tracey teaches on the following modules:Professional Master in Education:ED6330 Direct Teaching ED6330 School Placement Support ED6301 History and Structure of Irish EducationM.Ed.ED6035 Dissertation SupervisionM.A. Guidance and Counselling ED6213 Educational Disadvantage and Multiculturalism: Learning and IdentityED6212 Portfolio Project B.Ed. Sports Studies:ED4312 History and Structure of Irish Education