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Dr Liam O'Hare

BSc. Psychology (Hons.), PhD, CPsychol.

Research
Areas: Education and Psychology
Substantive topics: Education Programme Evaluation (Behaviour, Social and Emotion Learning, School Belonging; Literacy); Critical Thinking and Academic Performance.
Methods: Randomised Controlled Trials; Psychometrics; and Epidemiological Surveys.

Contact Details
Room 02.003
111 Botanic Avenue
School of Education
Queen's University Belfast

Tel: 028 9097 5973
Fax: 028 9097 5066
Email: l.ohare@qub.ac.uk

Professional Roles
Dr O’Hare is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Effective Education in Queen’s University, School of education where he is principal investigator on number of research projects. See below for more details.

Dr O’Hare is also the Project Manager in the Improving Children’s Lives Initiative in Queen’s University Belfast http://www.qub.ac.uk/sites/ImprovingChildrensLives/. His role is to oversee the day to day management of the initiative and promote its core values by developing children’s services that are:

  • Outcomes focused;
  • Evidence informed; and
  • Children’s Rights Based.

Furthermore, he is also a BPS Chartered Teacher and Researcher in Psychology and has substantial experience researching individual differences in education and health settings. In previous research projects he has used psychometric techniques to develop several reliable and valid outcome measures. These measures are essential for conducting rigorous evaluations of services.

Selected Publications
McGuinness, C. & O’Hare, L. (2012). Editorial - Introduction to the special issue: New perspectives on developing and assessing thinking: Selected papers from ICOT2011. Thinking Skills and Creativity http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2012.04.004
Connolly, P., Sibbett, C, Hanratty, J., Kerr, K., O’Hare, L. and Winter, K. (2011) Pupils’ Emotional Health and Wellbeing: A Review of Audit Tools and a Survey of Practice in Northern Ireland Post-Primary Schools Belfast: Centre for Effective Education, Queen’s University Belfast.
O’Hare, L. & Connolly P. (2010) A Randomised Controlled Trial Evaluation of Bookstart+: A Book Gifting Intervention for Two-Year-Old Children, Belfast: Centre for Effective Education, Queen’s University Belfast.
Kehoe, S. & O’Hare, L. (2010) The Reliability and Validity of the Family Affluence Scale. Effective Education  2(2) 155 – 164
O’Hare, L. & McGuinness, C. (2009). Measuring critical thinking, intelligence and academic performance in psychology undergraduates. Irish Journal of Psychology. 30 (3-4) 123-131
Biggart, A., O’Hare, L. and Connolly, P. (2008) A Need to Belong An Epidemiological Study of Black and Minority Ethnic Children’s Perceptions of Exclusion in the Southern Area of Northern Ireland. Queen’s University Belfast: Centre for Effective Education
O’Hare, L. Forbes, T. Trew K. and McGuinness, C. (2007) Evaluating a widening participation intervention for non-traditional students: students’ self-ratings of how their skills develop. Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning 9, (1) 48-51
Kee, F. Sheehy, N. O’Hare, L. Bane, C. Bell, A. Dempster, M. FitzGerald, O. (2005) Rheumatologists’ judgments about the efficacy of anti-TNF therapy in two neighbouring regions.  Rheumatology, Nov 2005; 44: 1407 - 1413.
O’Hare, L. & McGuinness, C. (2004) Skills and Attributes Developed by Psychology Undergraduates: Ratings by Undergraduates, Postgraduates, Academic Psychologists and Professional Practitioners. Psychology of Learning and Teaching. 4, 35-42.

Research Funding Secured
Title: A Cluster Randomised Controlled Trial of Booktime in England: A Free Book-Gifting Programme for Primary One Children.
Role: PI (with Dr Andy Biggart)
Period: 2012
Funder: Booktrust
Amount: £20,000

Title: A Cluster Randomised Controlled Trial of Booktime in Northern Ireland: A Free Book Gifting Programme for Primary One Children.
Role: Co-Investigator with Professor Paul Connolly
Period: 2011
Funder: Booktrust
Amount: £6,000

Title: Randomised Controlled Trial Evaluation of an After-Schools Programme to Improve Literacy Among 5-6 Years Olds in Tallaght, Dublin (630 children)
Role: Principal Investigator (with Dr Andy Biggart)
Period: 2008-2012
Funder: Tallaght West Childhood Development Initiative
Amount: £258,237

Title: Randomised Controlled Trial Evaluation of an After-Schools Programme to Improve Prosocial Behaviour Among 8-9 Years Olds in Tallaght, Dublin (630 children)
Role: Principal Investigator (with Dr Andy Biggart)
Period: 2008-2012
Funder: Tallaght West Childhood Development Initiative
Amount: £196,373

Title: Pupils Emotional Health and Wellbeing. Survey of PEHAW tools and School Practice Survey (115 schools)
Role: Co-investigator
Period: 2009-2011
Funder: Department of Education NI
Amount: £51,637

Title: Bookstart+ : Randomised Controlled Trial Evaluation of an book-gifting Programme for toddlers (400 families)
Role: Principal Investigator
Period: 2009-2010
Funder: Booktrust
Amount: £11,197

Title: Training Programme for Contract Research Staff
Role: Principal Applicant
Period: 2008-2009
Funder: Staff Training and Development Unit, Queen’s University Belfast
Amount: £6,116

Title: Evaluating the impact of an e-pathology course on student performance, learning and interaction
Role: Co-applicant
Period: 2007
Funder: The Higher Education Academy, MEDEV subject centre
Amount: £5,000

Research Projects Completed
Title: A Need to Belong: An Epidemiological Study of Black and Minority Ethnic Children’s Perceptions of Exclusion in the Southern Area of Northern Ireland. (700 Children)
Period: 2007
Funder: Southern Area Children and Young People’s Committee

Title: Communication in the blood donation service
Period: 2005-2007
Funder: Transfusion Research Network of Ireland, R&D office

Title: Head-start: Evaluation of Higher Education Intervention for Non-Traditional Students
Period: 2005
Funder: Queen’s University Belfast

Title: Decision Making by consultant Rheumatologists
Period: 2004-2005
Funder: R&D office

Title: Critical Thinking in Undergraduate Psychology Students (PhD thesis)
Period: 2000-2004
Funder: Department of Education NI

Title: Perceptions of Skills Developed by Undergraduate Psychology Students
Period: 1999

Keynote Addresses, International Presentations & Symposia
Symposium: A,E,I,O,U a Mnemonic for Critical Thinking
15th International Conference on Thinking (Belfast, Northern Ireland 2011)

Keynote Symposium: Effective Education
32nd International School Psychology Association Conference (Dublin, Ireland 2010)

Seminar:  Minority Ethnic Children’s Sense of Belonging
31st International School Psychology Association Conference (Malta 2009)

Symposium: Critical Thinking in Undergraduate Students
13th International Conference on Thinking (Norrkoping, Sweden 2007)

Seminar: Predicting Success in Higher Education
13th European Association of Personality Psychology Conference (Athens, Greece 2006)

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