Our People

Dr Liam Guilfoyle

Fellow, Ordinary Fellow

Lecturer in Science Education

Department of Education

BSc, PhD (Limerick, Ireland)

liam.guilfoyle@education.ox.ac.uk

Liam is a Departmental Lecturer in Science Education. He teaches on the PGCE Science, MSc in Learning and Teaching, and MSc in Medical Education programmes as well as leading the Advanced Qualitative Research course for doctoral students across the Social Sciences Division.

His research interests generally centre around (1) teachers’ engagement with and in research, and (2) epistemic beliefs, cognition, and practices within and across disciplines, but particularly in science.

He is currently engaged in the H2020-funded ‘FEDORA’ project, focusing on future-orientated science education and a UK-Ireland collaborative project mapping models of school support for teachers’ engagement with and in research. Prior to his appointment as a Departmental Lecturer, he was a postdoctoral researcher for three years on the Oxford Argumentation in Religion and Science (OARS) project, funded by the Templeton World Charity Foundation.

He has also worked as a researcher on a range of other projects such as an FP7-funded in-service teacher education project on Inquiry Based Science Education (Chain Reaction), a Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) funded project focused on developing the teaching of argumentation on socio-scientific issues in second-level classrooms (STeP into Science), an evaluation of SFI’s national Celebrate Science Week, and a National Forum for Teaching and Learning commissioned exploration of non-accredited CPD for those who teach in Higher Education.

Liam serves as a member of the Teaching Council’s Research Engagement Group (REG) in Ireland, which works to promote teachers’ engagement with and in research. He has also been appointed as the Education Specialist on the Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council’s Education and Training Standards Committee. He is a member of the Research Committee of NARST: A Worldwide Organization for Improving Science Teaching and Learning through Research, and he is an active member of the European Science Education Research Association. He reviews for a range of academic journals including the International Journal of Science Education, Science and Education, Teaching and Teacher Education, Research in Science & Technological Education, and Psychology Learning and Teaching.

Liam is currently the Co-Chair of the Oxford Research Staff Society (OxRSS) and the research staff representative on the Personnel Committee of the University of Oxford.