Dr Fionnuala Dillane
Fionnuala Dillane, a native of Templeglantine, Co Limerick and a graduate of NUIG and TCD, is a teacher and researcher of nineteenth- and twentieth-century British literature and culture in the School of English, Drama and Film. She was Head of undergraduate Teaching and Learning from September 2006 (the date she joined the School) to June 2010 and has been the chair of the school’s ten-person Teaching and Learning committee since its establishment in 2008. Key achievements of this committee that reflect the school’s engagement with and support of the undergraduate student learning experience include the development and implementation of a range of transparent school procedures relating to student welfare, student learning and student assessment, and the introduction of a revised undergraduate English curriculum. She is the editor (with Ronan Kelly) of New Voices in Irish Criticism (Dublin: Four Courts, 2003) and is currently completing a monograph on George Eliot’s involvement with the nineteenth-century periodical press, a research project which has been funded by the IRCHSS.
Teaching
With her colleagues in the school, Prof Danielle Clarke, Dr Naomi McAreavey and Dr Niamh Pattwell, and with the support of colleagues in the James Joyce Library, Dr Dillane has been part of an innovative project that introduced stage-one English students to Enquiry-Based Learning, a mode used typically in more practice-based subjects, but operating in the school to help a large-group class to understand key concepts in English literature from the Medieval period to the twentieth century. Dr Dillane developed and designed the second of these modules (ENG10060 Literature in Context 2: Defining Literary Culture in the Modern Age 1700-1950) which she co-teaches with her colleagues, Dr John Brannigan and Dr Porscha Fermanis. The module’s learning outcomes emphasise knowledge integration; the development of analytical, critical and independent thinking; and the fostering of peer learning and group work skills. The project has been supported by UCD seed funding and related research has been published in the peer-reviewed journal, Working with English [See Clarke, Danielle, Fionnuala Dillane, Katie Long, Naomi McAreavey and Niamh Pattwell, ‘Literature in Context: Enquiry-based learning for First Year English Students’, Working with English 5 (Winter 2009): 33-49.]. Dr Dillane has been organising writing clinics for English undergraduates with basic writing difficulties since 2007 and she is developing work on the role of the group lecture in student learning experiences as part of a long-term project that examines the social and emotional processes of learning.
Project
The President’s Teaching Award will allow for the establishment of a centralised writing clinic for undergraduate students in the College of Arts and Celtic Studies. This clinic will offer a clearly identifiable and accessible support system for the significant number of undergraduate students who are not reaching their potential because of poor writing skills. Students with particular writing difficulties, taking responsibility for their own learning, will book in for half-hour clinics with senior post-graduates from across the college who have a proven track record in teaching excellence. The clinics, which are not school-based and cannot be taken for programme credits, will help individual students to identify recurring writing problems. Tutors will respond directly to individual student’s needs by offering targeted exercises, strategies and advice in a one-to-one environment. The clinics will operate as a supplementary learning option for undergraduates in difficulty. Clinics will run for 8-10 hours a week during key periods in each semester (pre and post mid-term assessment deadlines). For further information, please contact Fionnuala.Dillane@ucd.ie.
Dr Crystal Fulton
Dr. Crystal Fulton teaches a range of subjects in the School of Information and Library Studies, where she is also the Head of Teaching and Learning. She believes that when people understand the relevance of a particular innovation to their own lives, they are more likely to adopt that innovation. As a result, she continuously explores innovation in the classroom to meet individual learning needs, encouraging both undergraduate and postgraduate students to experiment with their learning by bringing meaningful, real life information contexts to problem-solving. She has initiated a variety of new practices in her school, such as student volunteer activities to help underprivileged schools and groups, seamless incorporation of e-learning opportunities with traditional learning activities, utilization of social computing technologies in assessment, and small group break-out sessions in lectures for problem-solving.
Teaching
Her teaching is grounded in her research into the information behaviour of people in everyday and work contexts, including social networking behaviour and health information seeking and use among the elderly. This research has been supported by multiple grants from the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences (IRCHSS), the American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T), and the International Council for Canadian Studies (ISSC). Currently, she is co-investigator for a UCD Teaching and Learning-funded project, Creating e-Practicums to Enhance Undergraduate Learning. Dr. Fulton has published a number of refereed papers and book chapters, and she is the author of a new textbook, titled Information Pathways: A Problem-Solving Approach to Finding Information (Scarecrow Press, 2010) which focuses on information skills development for increased information literacy.
Project
The President’s Teaching Award provides support for Dr. Fulton’s project, Learning to Teach, Teaching to Learn, to facilitate doctoral students’ development as effective instructors. Doctoral students will have the opportunity to explore effective means of creating syllabi, presenting content, engaging students in learning, and integrating e-learning tools in teaching and learning in an actual undergraduate class environment through a new module aimed at doctoral students, IS50060: Learning to Teach; Teaching to Learn. Developing Effective Practices in 3rd Level Education (10 credits). This module is now open to doctoral students across the university. Interested doctoral students and staff should contact Dr. Fulton at Crystal.Fulton@ucd.ie for further information.