Rate My Professor Donal Canty

Dr. Donal Canty is an Associate Professor in the School of Education at the University of Limerick, where he also serves as Deputy Head of the School of Education. He lectures in Initial Teacher Education and Subjects Pedagogics at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Canty is qualified as a Post-Primary Teacher of Graphics and Architectural Technology and taught subjects including Construction Studies, Technical Drawing, Materials Technology (Wood), Technical Graphics, and LCA Graphics and Construction at post-primary level from 1996 to 2004. His research interests encompass Initial Teacher Education, Technology Education, assessment methods such as electronic portfolios and Adaptive Comparative Judgment, grading of soft skills, and the enhancement of STEM Education. He directs the Technology Education Research Group (TERG) and has acted as principal investigator on projects examining electronic portfolios and Adaptive Comparative Judgment in Irish second-level education, as well as the GRASS project on grading soft skills, a three-year EU-supported initiative involving multiple European universities and schools. Canty is a member of the National Spatial Skills Research Network and has supervised PhD and Masters students in Design and Technology education. His contributions align with SDG 4 on Quality Education. Key recent publications include "Beyond procedural approaches to designing: a framework for supporting students’ hierarchical thinking through their representational journeys" (2026), "Subject(s) matter: a grounded theory of technology teachers’ conceptions of the purpose of teaching technology" (2024), and "Epistemological treatment of design in technology education" (2023). He has delivered invited lectures on topics including e-portfolio assessment and Adaptive Comparative Judgment. His total research outputs comprise 44 papers, 21 articles, 4 book chapters, and 4 conference contributions.