Nearly 120 students graduated from Trinity’s postgraduate certificate in 21st century teaching and learning yesterday, which is jointly run by the Trinity Access Programme (TAP).
In the Exam Hall yesterday, 116 students graduated from the programme. The certificate is a part-time, one-year course offered jointly between TAP, the School of Education and the School of Computer Science and Statistics. The course aims to enhance the expertise of teachers in new models of teaching and learning, with a particular emphasis on the technology and skills of the 21st century.
In an email statement to The University Times, Prof Brendan Tangney, who founded the certificate, said: “We are delighted to see so many teachers graduating from this programme.”
Tangney is well-known in Trinity for his work on the multi-stranded Bridge 21 programme. “They, along with the 320 who graduated in the previous two years, form a group with sufficient critical mass to help bring about the innovations needed in Irish education to help prepare young people for the times of enormous change which are ahead of us”, he said.
All of those enrolled on the programme are teachers already working in primary and secondary schools around Ireland, and in particular the inner city, where TAP focuses its school outreach programmes. Part of the course is about encouraging teachers to encourage cultural changes in their schools and communities.
The ceremony was followed by a celebratory reception in the School of Computer Science and Statistics.
TAP is Trinity’s flagship access programme, which offers opportunities to students and support to staff in Irish secondary schools. Just this week, Provost Patrick Prendergast was in Brussels to discuss what College has learned about access from TAP.
