GAA launch Phys Ed exam portal
Following September’s introduction of Physical Education as an examination subject at Higher and Ordinary level of the Leaving Certificate, Minister for Education and Skills Joe McHugh and GAA President John Horan have launched the GAA’s innovative new Online Learning Portal ‘LCPE’ to support this course in Croke Park.
GAA LCPE is an innovative online portal featuring a bespoke ‘Learning Network’ designed around the structure of familiar social media platforms, in turn, promoting a metacognitive approach to learning – students and teachers are invited to consider how to approach the prescribed learning outcomes, discovering their own information sources and then aligning their thinking to create more effective solutions to questions and challenges.
More importantly during this pilot phase of the course, such a ‘metacognitive learning’ approach encourages teachers to share their collective knowledge and experience to grow the base of information around the featured topics for everybody’s benefit.
“Promoting such a culture of sharing information among teachers, including presentations, lesson planners, class notes and resource, will help everybody to more effectively tackle the challenges presented by this course,” said John Horan, President of the GAA.
“We in turn hope that everybody undertaking the course will benefit from this service and emphasise that usage is in no way limited to just schools focusing on our Gaelic Games.”
Speaking at the launch of the GAA support material, Minister McHugh said: “The GAA deserve great credit for showing the initiative here to set up this online resource. The enthusiasm and their engagement with the Camogie and Ladies Gaelic Football Associations in order to create this resource is another fine example of the GAA being ahead of the game.
“It’s a big positive when you see an organisation with the reach and influence of the GAA taking the initiative to offer extra resources for teachers and students and provide really valuable back-up to the dedicated supports being provided by the Department of Education and Skills for schools who have begun the Leaving Certificate PE course.”
The new resource allows users to enter a fully secure, private community, with teachers linked to each other for the development and sharing of information and knowledge, while learners are specifically linked to their own class.
The portal in turn is then supported by an online resource library giving the user access to the GAA’s extensive portfolio of educational content. It also provides a suite of tools allowing teachers to better facilitate class discussions, track progress through learning outcomes, rate and provide feedback on lessons, assign and correct homework, assist in preparation of class materials and facilitate formal monitoring and testing of learners, while promoting the GAA’s underpinning values of wellbeing and lifelong learning.
Access is provided free of charge to all teachers and learners undertaking Physical Education as an examination subject in the Leaving Certificate and can be accessed through desktop, laptop, tablet and mobile browsers. It is private and secure and is initially being presented as a ‘Live Beta’, reflecting the status of the course itself, while allowing for further evolution.