Professor Tom
Collins
Education Department
NUI Maynooth
Co Kildare
Ireland
Telephone:
01 708 3656
Facsimile:
01 708 4610
Email:
tom.collins@nuim.ie
Professor Tom Collins is Head of Department and Dean of Teaching and Learning at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. As Head of the Education Department, he has oversight of the Department’s extensive programme of under-graduate and graduate provision in teacher education and related areas. As Dean, he holds institution wide responsibility for all aspects of pedagogical innovation, particularly with regard to staff development and the application of new technology in teaching and learning.
His research interests include issues to do with inclusion and education, access, pedagogical innovation and educational policy. He is currently chair of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) which has the Statutory responsbility to advise the Minister for Education and Science in Ireland on all curricular matters from birth to 18. He has worked as an adviser (in association with Professor John Coolahan) to the Government in drafting the first Green Paper on Adult Education in 1998 and the White Paper in 2000.
He writes a regular article in The Irish Times on the theme of Education and Irish Society.
Selected Recent Publications
‘Overview Paper on the Individual Learner Plan for Community Employment Participants’ (2008) Mutual Learning Programme of the European Employment Strategy – Peer Review, Ireland, 8-9 May 2008.
‘Report of the Independent Salmon Fishing Group’ (2006) (with Malone J. and White P.)
Department of Marine, Communications and Natural Resources, Dublin.
‘Community Development and State Building : A Shared Project’ (2002),
Community Development Journal 37 : 91-100, Oxford University Press.
‘Ireland : Adult Learners and Non-Traditional Students in Irish Higher Education’, pp67-82 in
Schuetze, H. G., and Slowey, M. (Eds.). (2000). Higher education and lifelong learners:
International perspectives on change. Routledge - Falmer. London and New York.
Higher Education : the Challenge of Lifelong Learning,
(Editor with Fleming, T. and Coolahan, J.), Maynooth (1999).
Adult Education in an Era of Lifelong Learning,
Green Paper on Adult Education Stationery Office (1998). (Special Government Adviser, with
Prof. J. Coolahan).
Strategy for Lifelong Learning,
European Commission, Brussels; Luxembourg : Office for Official Publications of the European
Commission (1996). (Special Government Adviser, with Prof. J. Coolahan.)
Selected Recent Presentations
‘Education and the Challenge of Inclusion’ ILSA Conference, St. Patrick’s College, Drumcondra, September 2008.
‘Today’s Issues for Teachers’ ASTI, Mullingar, January, 2008.
‘Investment in Education’, Magill Summer School, July, 2007.
‘Teaching and Learning;Emerging Challenges’. Christian Brother’s Conference, June, 2007.
‘The Role of the Principal: Emerging Challenges’ IPPN Conference, Killarney
February 2007.
Other Professional Activities
Chair, Commission on Nursing Hours, 2008.
Chair, National Council for Curriculum and Assessment 2006 – present.
Chairperson, National Rural Water Monitoring Committee 1998 – present.
Member, Broadcasting Commission of Ireland, 2004 – present.
Member of the High Level Review Group of the Public Sector, 2007 (OECD Review).
Chair, Cherry Orchard Urban Regeneration Group, 2005 – present.
Chair, Council of Directors of Institutes of Technology, 2005.
Last
updated October 2008.