Bridge21 is an innovative approach to learning for secondary education that is team and project based and that takes place in a technology mediated environment.  Bridge21 was conceptualised initially as an outreach intervention whereby participants attended workshops at a dedicated learning space within a third-level institution focusing on a particular model of technology-mediated group-based learning (Lawlor, Conneely, Tangney, 2010). This paper analyses the current expansion of the Bridge21 project to six mainstream schools against a back-drop of Government led reforms for lower secondary education in Ireland (National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, 2011).  The key skills central to the proposed reforms aim to make education more relevant to the challenges of 21st century living and to empower students to think critically, communicate effectively and work collaboratively, amongst other skills.  This paper investigates the viability of the Bridge21 model in facilitating the promotion of a selection of these key skills within the context of six participant schools.

Specifically the objectives of the paper are as follows:

• 1.      Describe implementation of an intervention and associated teacher professional development programme (Bridge21) designed to facilitate the embedding of key skills-oriented teaching and learning in secondary education.
• 2.      Illustrate students’ and teachers’ experiences and views regarding the Bridge21 intervention.
• 3.      Identify factors that facilitate and impede the implementation of the Bridge21 model within participant schools.
• 4.      Assess the viability of the Bridge21 model as a vehicle for realising selected key skills amongst students in the participating schools.

The research assumes that articulating desired learning outcomes in the form of key skills provides an appropriate theoretical framework for curriculum organisation.  The prevalence of the key skills approach in policy initiatives at European and wider international levels is evidence of this view (European Communities, 2007; Ananiadou & Claro, 2009).  Enacting key skills policies suggests a more cross-curricular/thematic approach to teaching and learning as distinct from the subject based approach, as called for in the national curriculum innovation that provides the backdrop for this work.  The Bridge21 model assumes also that technology can be an enabling factor in an approach to teaching and learning which is constructivist and constructionist in nature. Whilst embracing technology as an enabling factor, the exploration of alternative approaches to pedagogy and new models of classroom practices is required also. McGarr (2009) suggests that in order to meaningfully integrate ICT, policies should be presented not as ICT initiatives, but as initiatives in teaching and learning. In responding to Resnick’s (2000) call for an approach to pedagogy which involves “knowledge-based constructivism and effort-based learning,” Bridge21 aims to apply flexibility and innovation in learning by employing group based project-oriented approaches which encourage creativity, collaboration, problem solving and design skills, mediated by technology. This is particularly relevant in the context of the development of 21st century skills such as information and digital literacy.

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