Patti Roche
Dr
My PhD, which I successfully defended in 2024, explored the use of drama as a creative pedagogy for children with dyslexia.
I began my teaching career in a primary school in Rathmullan, north Donegal, a place that is still very close to my heart. However, I left this school to pursue a full-time training as an actor in the Samuel Beckett Centre in Trinity College Dublin. Following this, I worked as an actress in Dublin, particularly with Co-Motion theatre company. I returned to teaching after a number of years, this time to teaching children with dyslexia , as mentioned above. I brought many of the skills and games which I had learned in drama school into the classroom and found that the children enjoyed this three-dimensional experience of literacy and seemed to be more engaged and scaffolded by the drama activity.
Therefore, my research interests lie in the areas of multi-modal practice for children with dyslexia, and in particular using drama for this purpose. It focuses on the strengths of children with dyslexia such as creativity and visual spatial ability, and examines how these can be leveraged to support their access to literacy, but also crucially, how their well-being and self-esteem can be augmented through such an approach.
Connected to the above, I am interested in the link between cognitive and affective learning, in creative pedagogy and in inclusive pedagogy for all.
Teaching Interests
I teach across several programmes in the literacy department. I co-ordinate the 1st year module, Literacy in Education 1 (Ed.1021) but also contribute to the second year one (Ed2029), 4th year (Ed. 4057) and PME 1 (Ed. 9045).
I believe strongly in a dialogic approach to teaching and learning and in the connection between cognitive and affective learning.
I also believe that a paradigm shift is taking place in terms of what is knowledge and how we acquire it. This has implications for all involved in teaching and learning in a 21st century context, and makes us consider how we need to adapt to the opportunities and challenges of technologies such as AI, by focusing on the space that we as humans can move into in terms of higher order thinking and creativity.