November NUI Galway Academic Wins National Teacher Research Innovation Award

Teachers’ Research Exchange (T-REX) National Award to the School of Education, NUI Galway to Support Innovation in Teacher Education

NUI Galway School of Education lecturer, Dr Clíona Murray has been awarded a prestigious teacher researcher award within the national T-REX (Teacher’s Research Exchange) Module Innovation Framework.

Dr Murray teaches on the Professional Master of Education and Máistir Gairmiúil san Oideachas programmes in the School of Education at NUI Galway, and her main research interests are in teacher identity and professional development, education policy studies, and inclusion and diversity in education.

Coordinated by Mary Immaculate College, Limerick with partners NUI Galway, University of Limerick, and Marino Institute of Education, Dublin - T-REX is a nationally funded online platform and set of tools to support teachers and educational researchers and professionals to collaborate, undertake and share research, and is freely available to all teachers in Ireland.

Following an open call for proposals, an independent review panel, which included Initial Teacher Education representation, teacher representation and student representation conducted a rigorous review of applications from all over the country. The five national awardees developed proposals which impressed the panel in terms of their creativity and innovativeness; value for student learning; and exploitation of what the T-REX platform has to offer. Each of the awardees will receive financial, academic and technological support to develop their modules and to integrate the T-REX research platform and approach.

Speaking of her award, Dr Clíona Murray, School of Education, NUI Galway, said: “This funding from the T-REX Module Innovation Framework will support the development of a collaborative research community within the Practitioner-Based Research module of the Máistir Gairmiúil san Oideachas, and enhance the emergent research literacy skills of students in initial teacher education at the School of Education in NUI Galway.” 

Dr Tony Hall and Dr Cornelia Connolly, the T-REX Principal Investigators at NUI Galway’s School of Education, said: “The Module Innovation Framework is an important component of the T-REX ecosystem to help bridge research and practice in Irish education. It is designed to support lecturers and teacher educators to embed the T-REX platform and philosophy within their own teaching practice. We would like to congratulate Dr Clíona Murray on her award, which should help to enhance teacher education at NUI Galway, as an important part of the wider national deployment of T-REX, supported by the National Forum, the Teaching Council, the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment and Centre for Effective Services.”

Funded by the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, T-REX recognises and encourages module leaders in Initial Teacher Education and Early Childhood Education in Ireland to re-design their modules to incorporate the T-REX platform into their teaching.

For more information about T-REX, visit: www.t-rex.ie.

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