Category: Irish Journal of Education

IRISH CHARTER SCHOOLS Kenneth Milne Leckys condemnation of the Charter schools has never been seriously challenged, nor could it easily be. Yet they were the work of that very improving’ spirit to which such contemporary foundations as the Dublin Society and the Linen Board owed their origin in the early (and much neglected) decades ofRead more…

A SURVEY OF READING COMPREHENSION IN DUBLIN CITY SCHOOLS Declan McDonagh In 1964 the Teachers Study Group carried out a survey of reading attainment in Dublin city schools. The findings of the study provided a base line for reading comprehension level against which the results of subsequent surveys at five yearly intervals might be compared.Read more…

INTERDISCIPLINARITY IN THE UNIVERSITIES Patrick Lynch Technological developments following the industrial revolution have produced vast changes in living conditions. A broadly based education is necessary if individuals are going to be able to cope adequately with changing technological and cultural conditions. Historically, third level education in many countries has ignored the need for inter-disciplinary education.Read more…

BACKGROUND CHARACTERISTICS OF CHILDREN OF HIGH VERBAL ABILITY Thomas Kellaghan and Elizabeth Neuman A representative sample (N 100) of eleven-year old Irish children of high verbal ability (the top ten per cent of scorers on a verbal reasoning test) was compared with a representative sample (N 461) of children of the same age of averageRead more…

THE QUALITY OF THE IRISH LEAVING CERTIFICATE EXAMINATION George F. Madaus and John Macnamara Questions in nine subjects of the 1967 Irish Leaving Certificate Examination were studied. A group of raters judged the intellectual skills which each question was most likely to bring into play on the basis of their knowledge of the subject matterRead more…

MARKER RELIABILITY IN THE IRISH LEAVING CERTIFICATE John MacNamara and George F Madaus The reliability in marking of nine subjects in the Irish Leaving Certificate examination taken at the end of secondary (grammar) schooling was investigated. Forty scripts in each subject were marked by two different examiners and by one examiner on two different occasions.Read more…

HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND – COMMENTS ON THE REPORT OF THE COMMISSION ON HIGHER EDUCATION 1960-67 R A Breathnach, Bryan G ALTON, Declan M Larkin and Patrick Lynch The Commission to investigate higher education in Ireland was set up in 1960 by the then Minister for Education, Dr P J Hillery, with the following termsRead more…

EDITORIAL The first issue of this journal appears at a time of great change in the field of education. In Ireland, as elsewhere, the signs of change are obvious. There is talk of re-organizing schools, and new curricula and technical aids are finding their way into more and more classrooms. Change, of course, raises problems,Read more…