Elaine Regan

I am currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Science Education at the King's College London. I have been working here since July 2010 with Professor Justin Dillon on two EU funded projects (IRIS and INQUIRE) and the NSF funded Relating Research to Practice project. My most recent project is a 5-year collaborative project entitled Enterprising Science: Teacher Professional Partnership Programme.

• Interest and Recruitment in Science (IRIS) (http://iris.fp-7.org/) is a collaborative research project addressing the challenge that few young people (women in particular) choose education and career in science, technology and mathematics (STEM). IRIS aims to contribute to understanding and improving recruitment, retention and gender equity patterns in higher STEM education. King's College London are conducting a qualitative focus group study of undergraduate course choice and compare choosers and non-choosers of science courses.
• INQUIRE - Inquiry-based teacher training for a sustainable future (http://www.inquirebotany.org/en/) is a teacher training initiative in a consortium of botanic gardens, natural history museums, universities and NGOs to reinvigorate inquiry-based science education in European educational systems. INQUIRE draws on research in investigative science, argumentation, attitudes to science, interest and motivation, use of external partners and learning outside of the classroom (LOtC). King's College London will lead the Quality Management Team and will focus on supporting reflective practice and practitioner research with partners and the evaluation of the INQUIRE course delivery.
• Relating Research to Practice (http://research2practice.info) is a website that contains a set of briefs summarizing recent peer-reviewed educational research. The briefs are written with the interests, needs, and institutional settings of informal science educators in mind. This website is itself a research project. We are asking the question:
Can current peer–reviewed educational research be made available, accessible, and useful to informal science educators? Can it be used to inform practice?
With a limited set of 200 research briefs culled from the last two years of 10+ different educational journals, including a few from the UK/EU representing global perspectives on teaching and learning, we seek to determine whether or not a continued effort to make current research accessible would be of use to the informal science education (ISE) community.

I hold a PhD from the University of Limerick, Ireland, entitled Irish Student and Teacher Perspectives on Enrolments, Subject Choice, Attitudes Towards Science and the Promotion of Leaving Certificate Chemistry. This work combines perspectives on attitudes towards science, promotion of science in schools within a mixed method framework in the design, implementation and evaluation of an in-school promotional intervention in science.

I have completed postdoctoral work at the University of Nottingham with Professors Chris Day, Pam Sammons and Dr Alison Kington on the ESRC funded Effective Classroom Practice Project and with Professor Peter Bartlett on the NHS funded Best Interest Decision Making with the Mental Capacity Act project.

I love to read and am a massive bibliophile and other than reading and writing, I enjoy the perpetual training battle I have with my playful and assertive West Highland White Terrier, Daisy and spending time with my family and friends.
Address: Department of Education and Professional Studies,
King's College London
Waterloo Bridge Wing (3.16a)
Franklin-Wilkins Building,
Waterloo Road,
London SE1 9NH