Professor Brendan Tangney

Dr. Brendan Tangney is a Professor in Computer Science & Statistics and a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin. He holds an M.Sc. from the University of Dublin (Trinity College Dublin) and a Ph.D. from the University of Bolton. His research focuses on the areas of technology & learning, educational reform, teacher professional development and equality of access. He works closely with Trinity Access and was principal investigator on the Bridge21 project - which is now part of Trinity Access. He has held visiting positions in the Universities of Sydney and Kyoto. He is a member of the Editorial Board of Computers & Education and the Journal for STEM Education Research. He chaired the Ministerial Advisory Board on the Implementation of the Digital Strategy in Schools (2017-2020) and was co-chair of the 2020 Constructonism Conference. At college level he is a tutor and has served as Registrar, Warden of Trinity Hall and Junior Dean.

  Computer Education/Literacy   Computer-Aided Instruction   Computers & Education   Creative music education   Educational/Instructional Technology   E-Learning   Information technology in education   Innovation in learning   Technology & Learning

My research spans Education and Computer Science and recently much of it is applied within TAP schools and outreach activities. It follows the paradigms of action, and design based, research with a view to transforming practice on the ground. A key distinguishing feature of the work is its longitudinal nature. The initial overarching research question was "how best to make use of the affordances of technology to support learning?". This lead to the exploration of different pedagogical approaches and the development, and evaluation, of tools (for areas ranging from music to mathematics) to align with them. It emerged that tools designed to support social constructivist, and constructionist, pedagogies were effective. The then emerging area of mobile learning was a particular focus and a framework to shape that area was developed. Embedding the use of innovative tools in the classroom is challenging. Research findings, and my own experiences in teacher professional development, revealed that teachers needed a pragmatic pedagogical model with which to structure teaching, so that learners could leverage the affordances of technology to help students both master curriculum content and develop key skills. The Bridge21 pedagogical model, and the corresponding approach to teacher professional development, emerged from this research and practice. Of late my research has overlapped with involvement in the TAP. Here the guiding research question is "How can innovative pedagogy be used to help improve the educational aspirations and attainment levels of students in areas of socio-economic disadvantage?". A body of evidence has been produced to demonstrate that Bridge21 helps to attain these goals in both informal settings and in schools. This is very significant result as it address obstacles identified by the OECD in the embedding of key skills in school systems. More immediately the Bridge21 work with TAP, and other, schools is having a direct impact on the lives of tens of thousands of students. The key specific contributions of my research can be summarised as follows. 1. Helping develop and promote a constructivist/constructionist approach to technology enhanced learning. In particular helping to shape the then emerging field of mobile learning. 2. The development of the Bridge21 model for fostering key skills and promoting student ownership of their own learning and the widespread use of that model in the work of TAP and in schools around the country. Current research focuses on longitudinal evaluation, especially of the CodePlus outreach programme to attract female students into computer science (with UL and NUIG) and Access Maths, a new (Three Ireland funded)action research project in the area of teaching mathematics in DEIS schools. The later is motivated by the lack of progression into STEM by students from TAP linked schools.