Public Understanding of Evidence; Data Interfaces and Representation; Play and Playfulness; Clowns and Clowning; Lego Serious Play; International and Development Education.

Dr Sean McCusker has a background in Engineering with a Ph.D in Civil Engineering. However, since moving to Education, he has spent many years in educational research and development. He has worked on large scale Assessment projects, including the World Class Arena and World Class Tests and the KS3 ICT Tests. He has been applying creative ideas to adapt practices and techniques from a range of environments for use in education. He has led projects in Storytelling and ICT-enabled distance learning.  He has been involved in a number of European Projects, taking part in and leading the UK partnership in projects on; Girls and STEM, Girls and Technology, LEGO® Serious Play® and Seniors and Technology.

His research interests are centred on Understanding and Communication within broad educational contexts.  This covers many strands including; developing methods for representing large and complex data sets, understanding how data is interpreted and used, Assessment and Assessment for Learning and LEGO® Serious Play®.  His interests lie in the affordances of play and playfulness as a tool for thinking and exploration. Current work focuses on the potential of clowns and clowning methods witinin the educational context. He also has a parallel interest in the development of tools to enable the public understanding of quantitative data and is in the process of developing this through the use of innovative and interactive data display interfaces.