Donal Doyle – Associate Lecturer, Institute of Technology, Carlow

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    • Donal Doyle – Associate Lecturer, Institute of Technology, Carlow's presentations

    Donal Doyle is an Associate Lecturer at the Institute of Technology Carlow, a GAA Development Manager with Dublin GAA, and provides Sports Coach Development Consultancy. Donal graduated from Dublin City University in 2006 with a BSc (Hons) Degree in Sport Science and Health and began employment with Dublin GAA. The Wexford native holds a Foundation Diploma in Adult Training & Education from National University of Ireland Galway (2010) and is a Coach Education Tutor (Coaching Ireland Approved) with over ten years tutoring experience. He played sport for over 30 years and has been involved in coaching sports at all age groups and levels for over 15 years.

    In 2016 he graduated from the renowned Leeds Beckett University with a MSc Sport Coaching. In his role as an Associate Lecturer on the Bachelor of Arts (Hons) Sports Management and Coaching Programme, he has an active role in the academic direction of the course and provides academic and consultative support to students in their learning activities. Donal is a member of the International Council of Coaching Excellence and attended the ICCE Global Coach Conference 2017 in Liverpool. An interest area of Donal’s is establishing learner centred tasks through incorporating experiential learning and reflective practice learning concepts into the learning process.  He provides pro bono consultancy to volunteer sports club where appropriate. Donal currently lives in Dublin with his wife and three children.

     

    Title: Incorporating experiential learning and reflective practice learning concepts into learner centred assessment tasks.

    Synopsis:  Key elements of establishing a learner centered assessment task require the learner to be involved in their own learning and being facilitated to learn in their own way. I continually use problem solving and group activities in my lecturing sessions and promote key principles in the learning environment that underpin successful learning. The learning concepts of reflective practice and experiential learning are important components within the preparation of my teaching, tutoring and mentoring practices.

    I incorporated both concepts in an assessment task for learning where each student undertook an analysis of a sport coach’s development pathway and development needs. The student designed, delivered and evaluated mentoring opportunities that aimed to meet the learning needs of their coach. Each student then presented the assessment task as a case study to their peers where reflection, experiential learning and appreciative inquiry took place. The student was continually at the centre of the learning activity by doing the activity, accepting feedback, wanting to learn and making sense of the activity with their peers, all of which are factors that underpin successful learning (Race, 2010) and form elements of experiential learning. Reflection and experiential learning were key learning concepts that came to the forefront of my MSc research study into how coaches developed their coaching knowledge.

 

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