Inside Education - a podcast for educators interested in teaching

My guest on this podcast is Pamela Snow, University Distinguished Professor from La Trobe University in Australia. She was in Ireland for the inaugural Right to Read conference, which was held in Dublin on Saturday, 21 March 2026.  Among the topics discussed were: Why functional literacy is insufficient for full civic engagement What it means to be literate Students from some groups disproportionately underachieve in literacy The challenge of being critically literate in the world today Why teaching a knowledge-rich curriculum is essential to help students discern authentic news sources Why reading is a public-health imperative “Once you get to school, everybody should be exposed to high-quality explicit instruction delivered by knowledgeable teachers” “Low literacy achievement in the first three years of school really casts a very long shadow. We know from international research that if you’re behind in reading … after your first three years of school, only twenty per cent of children catch up. Instead of teachers choosing “their own adventure” they need to use proven methods of literacy instruction that work at scale to help all readers, especially those likely to be lower achievers. The difference between “balanced literacy” (grew out of whole language ideology – associated with people like Kenneth Goodman) and structured literacy (structure-explicit reading instruction – mapping speech and text as the “on-ramp to the comprehension freeway.”) Inquiries were held into poor levels of reading following the emphasis on “balanced literacy”: National Reading Panel in the United States (2000); National Inquiry into the teaching of literacy in Australia (2005) and in England, the Rose Report (2006). Finding was that whole language was not working at scale. English is a rule- and pattern-governed language when you understand etymology. “Reading is not biologically natural and we need to teach in a way that doesn’t leave reading to chance. We need to be bringing all children along by giving them the essential code knowledge that they need.” What it means to say that phonics is a constrained skill and essential but unconstrained skills (such as the size of your vocabulary; ability to work with active and passive voice) are also required to read competently. The importance of background knowledge for readers, depending on their age and stage. Background knowledge can help a reader see nuance, inconsistencies and inaccuracies in a text. What a knowledge-based curriculum looks like in practice. John Sweller and cognitive load theory. Something has been learned when it’s in long-term memory. Why “discovery learning” is an unjust and inefficient approach for many children but is still advocated to student teachers in many initial teacher education programmes. Pre-teaching that might occur and how it is different for fiction (e.g. metaphor and simile) and non-fiction (a lot of vocabulary, for instance). Influences on her thinking about literacy include Professor Kevin Wheldall, Professor Max Coltheart, Dr. Louisa Moats, Professor Linnea Ehri, Professor John Sweller, and Professor Jeanne Chall. Education has done a poor job of knowledge translation, in contrast to other fields such as medicine, engineering and aviation. See Nidhi Sachdeva’s Substack post on this topic here. She seeks “levels of evidence” – an article published in a peer-reviewed journal is a start but is not enough. She looks for rigour, how a research sample was recruited, how terms were defined, what was done, if it was an intervention study where the intervention came from, how well it was implemented and if there were fidelity measures. She also wants to know about the experiences of the teachers and what parents think of an intervention. Frequently a probabilistic approach needs to be taken. Teachers need to be critical consumers of research, using strong critical appraisal skills. Education has a tendency to adopt fads and fashions. No regulatory body in education tests approaches before they are rolled out in classrooms. This would not be tolerated in a field such as healthcare. Education needs to surrender its love of fads and fashions and be more evidence-led and evidence-aligned. Professor Snow and her colleague, Professor Tanya Serry conduct research at the SOLAR Lab at La Trobe University. The importance of having printed text present when teaching phonemic awareness, to help children map speech to print. Questions remain about how much of the phonics code to teach to all children. See work of David Share and statistical learning. Pronunciation correction as an exciting new frontier in reading instruction. Why she likes the Dibels suite and believes the running record should be retired. Research questions that are settled in literacy education: For now, all children need to be able to decode and this can best be taught by explicitly teaching children how the code works, enhancing automaticity and fluency. We need to not use predictable texts in the early stages of reading because they encourage children to guess, which is not reading. It leverages their oral language skills. But unlike aviation and medicine, education does not have a strong culture of de-implementation. Eclecticism is not the friend of evidence-based practice in education. Doctors and pilots sign up for a high level of scrutiny and they have low levels of autonomy in doing their work. Fluency as a bridge between decoding and comprehension according to Tim Raskinski. Pam’s blog. She admires the work of Carl Hendrick who collaborates with Paul A Kirschner. Both do a tour de force in distilling complex concepts in ways that teachers can pick them up and use them in their classrooms. Greg Ashman and his “Filling the Pail” Substack. She is currently reading Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton. Variability in schools is the enemy of quality.

My guest on this podcast is Dr. Conall Ó Breacháin from the School of Language, Literacy and Early Childhood Education in Dublin City University. Among the topics we discuss in this episode are:  Differences between 1999 language curricula and the 2016 language curriculum in Ireland (e.g. focus on plurilingualism and the transfer of skills is a noticeable difference in emphasis in the redeveloped curriculum, broad learning outcomes versus learning objectives in 1999). He refers to the work of Jim Cummins who featured on Inside Education in Episode 15 and Episode 16. How learning one language can help the learning of another. Was there a need to change the 1999 curriculum when “it was working fine”? Finding the right degree of innovation in curriculum change. The importance of providing teachers with a timeline for proposed change and a plan for how teachers will be supported around the change. Why teachers typically don’t ask for curriculum change. The most underrated ideas in the redeveloped language curriculum – digital literacy? Plurilingualism? What is meant by the term “knowledgeability,” a term used by Anthony Giddens What teacher agency is. The difference between teacher agency and teacher autonomy A practical example of teacher agency applied to a problem of teaching reading Agency is a conceptual framework to understand how people act in the structures within which they are acting. Ethical and unethical agency Challenges of measuring agency Questions Conall still has about teacher agency How teachers can influence one another in their practice Changing the culture of a school and the role of leadership (wherever it comes from) “Connecting” to a curriculum (current or previous) Associating curriculum with accountability. Analogy: Changing curriculum is like servicing an airplane mid-flight – “It’s not like [teachers] get a six-month sabbatical to get their heads around” a new curriculum before implementing it. The process of writing the dissertation Gert Biesta (qualification, socialisation and subjectification) on Inside Education 356  and Inside Education 357.  Catherine Snow on Inside Education 184 and Inside Education 185.  Nell Duke Ciaran Sugrue Curriculum and Ideology The difference between educating pre-service and practising teachers. We Cut Corners (http://wecutcorners.net/)

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney. My guest on the podcast today is my colleague, Dr. Claire Dunne, from the Marino Institute of Education. Among the topics we discussed were: Why learning another language gives you another window on the world. Why literacy is crucial for those who speak minoritised languages so that they can have widespread access to texts in the language. Why should people learn Irish, when in most cases it is not required for communication purposes? What the Irish language has in common with Cant and Irish Sign Language. How older people in Wales are incentivised to learn Welsh and share it with younger people. People’s favourite memories of learning Irish (including creative applications, the arts and the relationship with the teacher). The positive impact parents can have in showing an interest in a child’s learning of Irish Setting targets for what you want to learn in the language (e.g. tell a joke, sing a song) Identifying good practice in the teaching of Irish (e.g. board games, more time in the yard) Resources are available from An tÁisaonad in Belfast. The importance of practitioners sharing with each other experiences of what works [in the teaching of Irish]. Resources available on COGG (including the report on good practice in the teaching of Irish). The importance of giving older children responsibility as a way to motivate their interest in the language; give them a reason to improve their Irish. More suggestions: Going to the Gaeltacht for a night; starting a reading club in Irish. Universal Design for Learning contrasted with differentiating learning. Different ways to practise teaching language related to clothes. Handbook titled “An Ghaeilge do gach duine” based on the principles of engagement, representation and expression in multiple ways. Drawing inspiration from textbooks published in the past for inclusive teaching of Irish today. The first all-Irish school was set up by Luíse Ghabhánach Ní Dhufaigh and Áine Nic Aoidh and was innovative in using continuous assessment, writing their own textbooks and in emphasising health and wellness. Role plays, games and visual aids were also present in many Irish-language publications of the time. Recommendations to commit to memory stories and poems were common in the publications for teachers; this was good where the material to be memorised was relevant, useful and meaningful. Early publishers of books and pamphlets in supporting the Irish language are named and she notes the importance of the establishment of An Gúm in 1926. The development of Irish-language immersion education in schools from 1917 onwards. All infant-classes were to practise immersion education for the first decades of the new state. The importance of motivating students to want to learn Irish. The benefits of multiple representations to help children learn new vocabulary Why adaptations to assessments might be preferable to granting exemptions from studying Irish to students with learning disabilities. The relevance of learning Irish in an era of translation software and large language models. Nell Noddings Find resources created by Claire (and others) on the COGG website.

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney. On this week's episode, we delve into the history of Irish education in the 1800s to learn about an ambitious attempt to educate teachers by co-locating theory and practice. We look at the rise and fall of model schools as a means of teacher training. My guest is retired primary school teacher and principal, Dr. Joe Doyle who recently published Model Schools - Model Teachers? A nineteenth-century Irish teacher-training initiative. Among the topics we cover are: Being prompted to study the topic by William Murphy, a fellow member of Dúchas – the Tullaherin Heritage Society that produces a journal titled In the Shadow of the Steeple. Being bowled over by the amount of information that was available to access in the National Archives of Ireland. He chose history as his academic subject when he studied for the Bachelor of Education degree in the early 1990s (a truncated course awarded to those who had the National Teacher (NT) qualification before the B.Ed. degree was introduced). His first scholarly foray into history and education was an account of education in the Thomastown area in the nineteenth century. Having expressed interest in pursuing his studies in the history of education, he was invited to meet with the late Professor John Coolahan, previously a guest on episode 10 and episode 253 to discuss the matter. His initial interest was in Kilkenny schools which had landlord patronage in the 1800s. However, Professor Coolahan persuaded him to pursue what he saw as a more fruitful topic, about cooperation in Kilkenny school management between 1831 and 1870. Winning a millennium scholarship in St. Patrick’s College where he was advised by Professor James Kelly on the topic of model schools. What model schools in Ireland were (built in the 1840s, 1850s and 1860s). They consisted of 19 District Model Schools, 7 Minor Model Schools and 3 others: the central model school, West Dublin, and Inchicore. The central model school was a fully fledged institution for preparing teachers but a wider network was needed to achieve the aim of preparing sufficient teachers for the entire national school system. They combined teacher education with education of young schoolchildren. The Kildare Place Society received Government grant aid from 1811 on the basis that one of their principles was that they were there for people of all religions. They provided short courses for practising teachers, who would previously had had minimal preparation for their roles. The Kildare Place Society was promoting the (quite rigid) Monitorial system developed by Joseph Lancaster. Training took place for implementing that system and for organisation and keeping school records. This was a system whereby one teacher, assisted by capable pupils, could supervise up to 500 children. Hedge schools mostly taught the three Rs and did not have Irish although some variations may have been present. He refers to Brennan’s Schools of Kildare and Leighlin. Here is a link to a talk by Dr. Antonia McManus on hedge schools in Ireland and here is a link to a book she wrote on the topic. The difference between district model schools and minor model schools (the latter did not have student teachers in residence there). The retention rate of teachers who were prepared in model schools was around 30%. The pay was poor and many of the students used it as a way of getting a good intermediate education and went on to work in the civil service or in a bank. More presybyterians and Anglican teachers than Roman Catholic teachers were prepared. He acknowledges the work of Emmet Larkin in understanding the Catholic Church in the nineteenth century. Archbishop Paul Cullen initially focused on sorting out problems among Roman Catholic clergy in the Dublin Diocese before becoming interested in the model schools. He was opposed to the model schools because they were non-denominational. From 1863, any Catholic trained in a model school would not be employed in a national school under Catholic management. Some information about the Powis commission is available on pages 22-23 of this doctoral thesis. How preparation of Catholic and Protestant teachers became segregated in Ireland. A description of a typical day for student teachers in a model school. Sources of information for the history of Irish education: Annual Reports (include a section on model schools), Government inquiries late 1830s on the practical working of the National System), 1854 (substantial report), 1870 (Powis Commission – 10 volumes; report and minutes of evidence and statistical part). ED1 reports – initial applications for setting up national schools). ED2 reports (registers – dealings of Board of Education with individual schools – a lot of detail when things go wrong); ED9 reports (specific reports that arose between the school and the Board of Education); ED3 files used to report on model schools. All in the National Archives. Minutes of commissioners’ of national education and kept in the manuscript room of the National library. The minutes generally are a bit formulaic. Some national schools still have their own records. The experience of working as a research student supervised by Professor John Coolahan. Irish Education: Its history and structure by John Coolahan. The Irish Education Experiment by Donald Akenson. Joe’s book is titled Model schools – model teachers? A nineteenth-century Irish teacher-training initiative. The dust jacket of the book was designed by Terry Bannon and it was printed by Naas Printing.  

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney. On this week's podcast I speak to Professor Sonia Cabell who is an associate professor of Reading Education in the School of Teacher Education and the Florida Center for Reading Research at Florida State University. She was a keynote speaker at the Literacy Association of Ireland conference on 9 November 2024. Among the topics we discussed are the following: How Marcia Invernizzi, co-author of Words their Way introduced her to the idea of doing a doctorate. Laura Justice was her dissertation adviser. She became interested in preventing reading difficulties through interventions in the pre-school to second grade years. More teachers today are consulting original research on literacy than twenty or twenty-five years ago. “If you know better, then you do better.” Teacher education programmes frequently don’t teach student teachers how to consume research. An important trait for teachers to develop is to be curious about what the evidence says about “this” practice and being open to what the evidence says as reported in trusted journals that translate the research well. She recommends The Reading Teacher and The Reading League Journal as sources of accessible reliable information for teachers. She likes Scholastic’s The Science of Reading in Practice series. Don’t make one person a guru. Listen to different voices and compare them. Jeanne Chall refers to the transition of “learning to read to reading to learn” as a stage of development and not as a way to intervene (in the teaching of reading). A good eight-year-old reader would be decoding fluently (their grasp of the alphabetic code continues to increase) so they can focus their attention on what the text means and they should be continuing to develop fluency in their oral reading. Scarborough’s Reading Rope. Strands of language comprehension: Background knowledge, perceptive and expressive vocabulary, verbal reasoning (inferential thinking and abstract thinking), language structures (syntax), and literacy knowledge (understanding different kinds of genres). John Guthrie’s work on Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction. James S. Kim of Harvard University and his (Model of Reading Engagement) MORE assessment. The inextricable link between knowledge and oral language skills and can be built together in young children. In the interactive read-aloud context you are exposing children to the formal language of books, which is critical because of the formal language structure of books (syntax and vocabulary). How to Teach Your Baby to Read By Glenn Doman. Self productivity by Cunha and Heckman. It’s not just where you start in pre-school that counts but the rate of skill growth in oral language and decoding and subsequent writing; skills beget skills in early literacy. “Our ability to read becomes really stable, really early.” “There is power in setting the stage and setting the stage early.” She would like to see all teachers, including early years teachers, getting the respect and professionalism they deserve Her realisation of the importance of oral language. The “strive for five” framework, developed with Tricia Zucker. How do we help teachers have conversations with students that are meaningful and that expand students’ language in ways. Teacher asks an open-ended question (turn 1) Student responds Teacher can scaffold upwards and provide more challenge through another question or scaffolds downwards, and use an either/or question or similar. This third step is the most critical turn in the sequence. Student responds Teacher wraps it up Revoicing Phrase “Strive for Five” was coined by David Dickinson When implementing the CHAT programme (Children and Teachers together led by Laura Justice) When teachers tried to become conversationally responsive partners, teachers could change some aspects of their language use but the things that were more difficult to change were some of the most important aspects that needed to change. The Learning Language and Loving It program from The Hanen Center. Pre-K on My Way from Scholastic. When you give children and teachers something to talk about, you can build their language more easily. Science lends itself to disciplinary language and to meaningful ideas. Promotion of comprehension is all in children’s oral language skills. Both knowledge and comprehension strategies are important. Monitoring comprehension is also important. It is important for parents to read to children and to talk about what they’re reading and viewing things together. We learn language through warm and responsive relationship. This applies in the home and in school (especially in the early grades). Dr. Bob Pianta has studied this area. He created the classroom assessment scoring system. The interactions must be combined with explicit literacy teaching. How mothers’ impact on literacy has been studied more than the impact of fathers. Criteria she uses when selecting texts to read aloud in school: Begin with your purpose (e.g. building knowledge and language). Why she likes The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. How she carries out her (mostly quantitative) research: randomised control trials (Core knowledge language arts programme Tricia Zucker from the University of Texas), observational studies, and survey research. How she organises a randomised control trial in education. Her research is funded by the Institute of Education Sciences. Other sources of funding in the United States include the National Institutes of Health and the National Science foundation. Who educational research is for and how it helps. Research in early years literacy today needs to go beyond what works to why it works and who it works for. A researcher shouldn’t be trying to prove themselves right but to prove themselves wrong. Shayne Piasta, Ohio State University suggests having a journal of null effects. Writing is central to what she does. She feels like she has not worked for a day until she has pushed forward a manuscript for publication. If it’s about finding time to write, it will never happen! She is a writer as part of what she does and she builds around that. She stacks meetings and schedules no meetings before noon. She was influenced by the work of Linnea Ehri and Susan Neuman. This article about the impact of a content rich literacy curriculum is now available freely online.

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney. This week on the podcast I speak again to Dr. Siobhán Keenan Fitzgerald whose book Listen: How Child and Student Voice Can Change the World has just been published by Routledge. Among the topics we discussed are: Among the topics were discussed were: Connecting to a network of Changemaker schools Getting interested in outdoor education inspired by a colleague who did Forest school training. Travelling as part of the Erasmus+ programme. Learning about peer mediation and the Student Council in Donabate Educate Together National School. The process of becoming recognised as a changemaker school. Studying for a doctorate on public speaking in primary school (focusing on self-efficacy and vocabulary development). She used the work of Albert Bandura. The paucity of research on public speaking in primary schools. The connection between children expressing their voices and public speaking Children have opportunities to practise public speaking in team sports settings, in church and in school-related events (e.g. science fair). How teachers already recognise student voice in their classrooms (e.g. taking children’s interests and likes into account, in discussions, circle-time activities, rotating class-captain roles, and in choosing pedagogies to promote learning). How Siobhán’s school developed the role of play leader, that rotates weekly. Play leaders keep an eye out for younger children, to bring out equipment at break times and ensure it is distributed fairly, push younger children on the swings, and helping children sort out issues themselves without involving adults. That which is most personal is most universal – why storytelling is a form of public speaking. Matthew Dicks and his ideas of “homework for life” and how this might help children find their personal voice. Limits on children expressing their voice. Creating a safe space for children speaking in public and involving students in co-creating the rules around it. Who the book Listen: How child and student voice can change the world is written for. How those who get to speak publicly tend to be the privileged in society Shy or reluctant speakers may need additional scaffolding to be encouraged to speak in public. This may include children with speech and language delays or difficulties, children with other additional needs and children for whom English is not their first language. What she learned from writing the book:  finding two extra hours in each day between 6 and 8 a.m. Teachers who want to write a book: If not you, then who? If not now, then when? Reach out! The Comfort Crisis, a book by Michael Easter was mentioned. She mentioned podcasts she likes including The Rethinking Education podcast by James Mannion; The Teach Middle East podcast with Christina Morris; and the Lead the Way podcast with Ann Byrne was mentioned. School 21 in London Her YouTube Channel.

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney. On this week's programme I am delighted to be joined by Dr. Patrick Burke from Dublin City University's School of Language, Literacy and Early Childhood Education. Among the topics discussed were: Differences between the primary school he attended and the school where he began his teaching career. How he became interested in the teaching of literacy. Being awarded a fellowship to study at Frostburg State University in 2013-2014. Working in the Children’s Literature Centre at Frostburg State-wide bans on children’s books in the United States. Choosing literature for children (Quirkiness, visuals of picture books, morals (not moralising) and thoughts on the importance of writing quality in children’s literature. Science of reading about how you research reading and the components and guidance that come from that. Why the science of reading can inform some, not all, of our decisions about teaching reading. The influence of the science of reading on initial teacher education. The importance of basing decision on research evidence (where it is available). How teachers develop their professional knowledge: the difference between mandated webinars and those chosen by teachers; allowing for diversity and pluralism in the professional development in-service teachers engage in; social media and professional development; individual versus collaborative approaches to professional development. Ways to accredit continuous professional development for teachers. Curriculum integration is influenced by factors such as the subject you’re integrating, whether you start with the subject or with a question. The pre-cursor question concerns what we want children to learn and whether some form of integration will benefit that. Depending on the answer to that question, curriculum integration may or may not be a good thing. Publications: https://ncca.ie/media/6370/conceptualising-curriculum-integration.pdf (Report) and the annexes summarising studies are here: https://ncca.ie/media/6368/annex-1-conceptualising-curriculum-integration.pdf and https://ncca.ie/media/6369/annex-2-weaving-the-literature-on-integration-pedagogy-and-assessment.pdf. Find out more about the negotiated curriculum in this article and about Beane’s work in the NCCA report. Balancing a disciplinary approach with a curriculum approach. Patrick’s doctoral dissertation about disciplinary writing. The overall message of the dissertation is “Literacy integration is important but not easily achieved…if you want to do it well.” He mentions the work of Sam Wineburg and the credibility of online content. The importance of partnerships between schools, teachers and teacher educators in conducting and implementing education research. This raises questions around where research is done and who it’s done for and how teachers are involved in it The importance of conducting and sharing small-scale action research done by teachers in their classrooms. Student teachers need to be introduced to diverse forms of educational research in their undergraduate education. A (rare) randomised controlled trial conducted in primary education in Ireland on the topic of Minecraft and spatial awareness. Being a DCU Co-Principal Investigator (with Dr Eithne Kennedy) for the exploratory Erasmus+ funded Artificial Intelligence in Literacy (AILIT) project. Scholarly engagement with social media and traditional media. Gert Biesta’s purposes of education: Qualification, socialisation, subjectification. Learning about kindness in teacher-student relationships from Dr. William Bingman Nell Duke is his go-to expert on literacy education. His profile page in DCU: https://www.dcu.ie/languageliteracyandearlychildhoodeducation/people/dr-patrick-burke.

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney. On this week's podcast my guest is Perry Share, who is Head of Student Success at Atlantic Technological University. Among the topics we discuss are: The impact of taking a module with Hilary Tovey on rural sociology and a module with Brian Torode and Barbara Bradby on language, discourse and French theory. Perry’s belief that artificial intelligence is a catalyst that helps us better understand and question contemporary practices around teaching, learning and assessment. Artificial intelligence forces us to ask questions like "What does it mean to assess students?" "How can we teach in ways that are engaging and productive for students?" In education, the arts and the humanities, we take text as a representation of what is in students’ heads and tend to make assumptions about the knowledge, understanding or learning held by the student. The foundation is taken out of this when we don’t know where the text comes from. Problems are outlined with the take-home assignment, oral assessments and standard written exams but the “unsolvable” problems may constitute a productive space for educators. The likes of ChatGPT can be used effectively in fields where you have knowledge. An area of concern in higher education is in relation to fields where people are just beginning to acquire knowledge and understanding. In addition, artificial intelligence threatens opportunities to learn on internships in professional placements. Perhaps the role of “learned” knowledge becomes increasingly important for novices in a field whereas in recent years the importance of critical thinking has been lauded. It is likely that resources will need to shift from activities we currently value to new – yet-to-be-determined – resources at secondary and higher education levels. What prompt engineering is. Ethan Mollick’s book Co-Intelligence.  Examples of good and not-so-good prompts. How Perry is using ChatGPT in his own work: summarising large documents; combining documents; Brainstorming; Outlining a proposed structure of a document or presentation. It has been used for computer programming and other tasks. Data protection implications may need to be considered in relation to some uses. In the future it may be used to grade and provide feedback for public exams. Various kinds of data on the results would be available almost immediately. Decline in language learning in many countries due to the dominance of English and due to the availability of translation tools. The days of the academic essay may be numbered. Simulations may be a future direction of assessment in professional settings but these too are not without complications. Can we avoid interacting with artificial intelligence? Impact on equity in education. If students can teach themselves, where does that leave the teacher? There is a job of imagination for teachers to start thinking about how they will work alongside artificial intelligence. The impact of artificial intelligence on what (and who) we can trust. People Perry respects on the topic of artificial intelligence: Anna Mills, a lecturer in academic writing in the United States; Charles Knight who works for Advance HE; Maha Bali at the America University of Cairo on critical artificial intelligence (environmental, commercial and ethical impacts). The purpose of school. Daryl Nation Raewyn Connell’s book The Good University. Perry's own expanding list of resources on artificial intelligence is available here.

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney. The format of this podcast differs a bit from the usual one in that I am joined by my colleague in Marino Institute of Education, Dr. Gene Mehigan to discuss a book that influenced him on his journey as a teacher and teacher educator. The Book is The Master by Bryan MacMahon, published by Poolbeg Press in 1992. Among the topics we discuss are the following: How a book about teaching in Rural Ireland from the 1930s to the 1970s could speak to a teacher in a DEIS band 1 school in Darndale in the 1980s and 1990s. The consequences of poverty on children in schools. The “stain” of large classes (and their impact on children with language difficulties in particular). The importance of reading How Bryan MacMahon encouraged children to collect words (red notebook) and Gene Mehigan’s variation of it (jar on teacher’s desk). Stages in a reading lesson as outlined by Bryan MacMahon (who noted that they are not rigid and may need modern modification): Arousal of interest (day before) Introduction (before lesson begins to heighten interest in the text) Examination of matter expressed in the text (Comprehension) Examination of matter implied in the text (Comprehension) Write difficult words on blackboard (Tier 1, 2 and 3 words today) Teacher models reading Children read aloud or silently Isolate phrases for composition usage Informed organic chat (in style of everyday conversation) Dramatisation of the text (Reader’s theatre today) Committal to rote “not to be scorned on special occasions” Why a teacher needs to back down in a confrontational situation with a pupil Characteristics of a good teacher; Dedication Sense of humour Clear penetration in the timbre of the teacher’s speaking voice A love of learning Versatility of approach to a lesson A congenial monotony (that can be departed from) Occasional informal language Good blackboard use and being able to sketch Act in harmony with the traditions and culture of the school area Bringing the extraordinary into your teaching. The teacher’s job is to help each child find their special gift. Bryan MacMahon: “I realised that each child had a gift, and that the ‘leading out’ of that gift was the proper goal of teaching. To me a great teacher was simply a great person teaching.” Thoughts on a school library, access to books and encouraging children to read. Trying to entice children to read by tidying books. Buddy reading – to help beginning or reluctant readers but also helping older children consolidate their interest it reading. Helping a teacher narrow down who in a class might have dyslexia How Brian MacMahon practised an early version of “home-school liaison” Contemporary resonances – children from Germany fostered by local families during World War II. How Bryan MacMahon recruited children to look after other children who were vulnerable in some way Resonances with Johathan Haidt’s book The Coddling of the American Mind (preparing the child for the road and not the road for the child). How learning tables enthusiastically helped a pupil later excel as an emigrant “A school is nothing if it is not a place of laughter and song.” Sources of creativity in education The importance of a teacher being a philomath.

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney. In this episode I interview Hugh Catts from the Florida State University about reading comprehension, dyslexia and more. People interviewed on previous Inside Education podcasts are mentioned in this episode: Jerome Kagan, Daniel T. Willingham and Tim Shanahan. Among the topics raised on the podcast are: How his interest in educational research grew from problems members of his family, including himself, had in learning to read. The benefits of having knowledge of phonetics and linguistics in studying reading difficulties His thoughts on whether someone with reading difficulties can teach reading well How he became interested in comprehension Why thinking about comprehension as a skill is unhelpful in teaching reading Comprehension is a complex set of behaviours or cognitive processes that is more like listening. It is the interaction between the reader and the text they’re reading to construct meaning between what is written in the text and what the reader already knows about the topic. Comprehension needs to be taught within the context of the subject matter we want the reader to understand. Quote from Daniel Willingham: “Memory is the residue of thought.” “Comprehension is essentially changing your understanding of the topic based upon the text.” “The more you learn about a topic, the more interested you are in learning more about the topic because you feel comfortable with it.” The “simple view of reading” claims that reading comprehension is a two-stage process where you decode/recognise the word and thereby turn print into language; this is followed by turning the meaning of words into the larger meaning of the text. Decoding can be learned over a number of years whereas the language comprehension part is learned over a lifetime. The view has advantages and disadvantages. We’re missing a good curriculum “in some cases by focusing in early reading on reading rather than focusing on subject matters to where you can gain the knowledge at the same time as you’re gaining knowledge about reading.” Questions teachers can ask to help develop children’s comprehension. (E.g. what are you thinking about? How does this relate to what you already know? What experiences have you had that are related to this? Assessing comprehension. It’s not easy to measure! “You cannot reduce comprehension down to a single score because it’s not a single thing.” Comprehension should be tested within texts on the subject matter upon which children have been provided with instruction. Benefits and shortcomings of cloze procedure to test comprehension Evaluating psychologist Jerome Kagan’s stance on dyslexia. Comparing the neurological basis of dyslexia with someone who has little musical ability. There is no consistent brain-based marker for dyslexia. The difference between someone who has dyslexia and who does not have dyslexia is evident in how much you struggle to read when provided with quality instruction. How dyslexia and comprehension difficulties could co-occur or could occur independently Consequences of having dyslexia The causes of dyslexia are multi-factorial, some relate to risk and some to resilience The probability that a child might have reading problems can be determined before a child has reading problems. Dyslexia cannot be diagnosed until the end of first class/beginning of second class. Intensive, systematic, supportive and scaffolded instruction from an early stage can help students who are at risk of having dyslexia. Having dyslexia is not a categorical phenomenon – it exists on a continuum. How he finds time to write. He likes the work of Daniel T. Willingham, Tim Shanahan, and Natalie Wexler  

On this week's podcast I speak to Professor Etta Hollins from the University of Missouri-Kansas City about teacher education and the role of the teacher. Among the topics we discussed are: Why observation is key to good teaching practice and learning to teach The need to be observing, documenting and analysing classroom practice from early in a student teacher’s course How the influence of theorists like Jerome Bruner and John Dewey can be seen in classroom practice Directed observation – how the subject you're studying narrows your focus of observation She gives an example of how a student teacher might learn to teach with reference to learning to teach aspects of early literacy. She illustrates her point with reference to the book Brown Bear Brown Bear by Bill Martin and Eric Carle. As the teacher educator, she engages in epistemic practices (practices related to knowledge) with student teachers including focused inquiry (studying something specific that you’re going to be able to observe or apply). Knowing when it’s time to redesign a teacher education programme. How to solicit feedback on a teacher education programme’s impact and outcomes. (Do peers trust graduates’ knowledge? How do school leaders evaluate performance of our graduates?) Using generic versus subject-specific instruments to evaluate student teachers’ teaching. A student is ready to graduate from their teacher education programme when they can consistently apply academic knowledge to practice and make adjustments as needed for differences among children and get the learning outcomes that are expected for the child’s age, grade and subject matter. How students can progressively demonstrate their development of teacher knowledge throughout their programme. Why she believes assessing students in particular contexts does not mean that their competence is confined to those contexts: responding to students is a habit of mind that can be transferred to wherever you are teaching. She draws a parallel between how teachers respond to children in classrooms and how she responds to teacher educators when reviewing teacher education programmes. Why teachers need not just academic knowledge but to be aware of why they’re teaching. Teachers need a bigger purpose for their work. How children responded to her as a middle-school history teacher “Every teacher, whether they do it intentionally or not, influences children’s perception, their relationships, their values and who they become.” How extreme events such as school shootings can be traced to children being isolated, excluded by their peers in school. A teacher’s role is to help every child find a place of comfort in the school, learn to build relationships with peers, and help peers become more accepting of difference. Bank Street in New York is an example of how teachers can help transform schools and communities serving students from socially and economically backgrounds. Schools founded by John Dewey. At the centre of such schools was the study of children. He conceptualised how learning takes place and he had a conception of diversity. The spirit has been maintained because of a sense of clarity and commitment to John Dewey’s principles. The Lab school in Chicago was founded by John Dewey and takes children from low-income environments. Culture influences cognition, values and practices. She compares how children learn to think with how they learn a language from caregivers. She gives an example of how student teachers trusted their own experience over theory. She gave them an experience to help them understand difference. She is inspired by the awesome responsibility of being a professional educator.

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney On this podcast I spoke to Professor Mark Windschitl from the University of Washington about teaching science and especially the science of climate change. As usual with these podcasts we covered a wide range of topics, including the following: What core practices are in teacher education (e.g. teachers need to elicit ideas students already have about the topic being taught). Why, although important, there is much more to teaching than core practices, such as developing respectful and trusting relationships with students. As teachers gain experience, they add nuance and flexibility to the core practices. What ambitious science teaching is: willingness to constantly improve one’s practice, to take risks to improve their practice and to base changes on students’ response to their teaching. The need for a teacher pursuing ambitious science teaching to understand topics (e.g. the greenhouse effect) in great depth, with flexibility, and connected to children’s everyday lives. The biggest ideas in biology that can be taught in a second-level school setting (e.g. how ecosystems function in the world). Trees extend their roots out to other trees and can cause chemical changes in other trees. Selecting candidates for teaching science and engaging in ambitious science teaching How the impact of testing in schools shapes the curriculum. The importance of academically productive discourse in the classroom about science ideas. Productive talk in a classroom is a process of sense-making and meaning making. The need for teachers to have models of ambitious science teaching that is relevant to the setting in which they teach. How to teach children the science of climate change without elevating eco-anxiety. Why solutions need to be threaded into the teaching of climate change The importance of understanding the greenhouse effect and why understanding that is not enough (the need to know about ecosystems, the oceans, the cryosphere – the frozen parts of the earth, and tipping points) The scale of climate change phenomena The idea of “carbon footprint” was introduced by a petroleum company (BP) What schools can do to mitigate the effects of climate change (e.g. making Prom night – the Debs – greener) Plastics pollution is different to climate change but both are connected in many students’ minds Students being exposed to sceptical points of view in some areas. Although such perspectives need to be managed carefully, sceptical views might not be as big a problem as we would expect. It may help to focus on the science of the greenhouse effect. The challenge of beef production as part of the climate change discussion The difficulty of conveying the scale of climate change Finding and evaluating climate change data – the challenge of media literacy. Among the known reputable outlets he identifies are: NASA, NOAA, WHO, and the UN. The importance of having a reason when sharing data about climate change. Assessing students’ knowledge of climate change How he became interested in education research How he conducts his research to find out how novice teachers become “well-started beginners” Helping novice teachers use agency to move beyond reproducing someone else’s teaching How he finds time to write – bringing a notebook with him when going out for a stroll and doing 14 versions of an article before it’s ready for publication Who research in education is for and how does it influence practice in education? Is it through instructional coaches? School leaders? Having children do well-structured work in small groups (that is equitable and rigorous) in class, at least part of the time, is hugely beneficial for their learning. Productive academic discourse in science is difficult to find in classrooms in the Unites States. Another research question is why technology failed to deliver for education during COVID Why schools and the communities around them should have porous boundaries The value of a teacher sharing (a) the kind of science they’re interested in (b) something about their family and (c) a hobby they have with their class in order to decrease the psychological difference between the teacher and their students. He refers to the book Teaching and its predicaments by David Cohen.

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney. On this podcast I discussed social and emotional learning with Professor Sara Rimm-Kaufman from the University of Virginia School of Education and Human Development. Among the topics discussed were: What social and emotional learning is The implicit and explicit process of learning social and emotional skills How children can learn empathy Her book for teachers: SEL from the Start From listening to respectful communication to respecting others’ perspectives Where social emotional learning fits in the regular school curriculum What service learning is and examples of it in practice Three possible categories of service learning solutions: Educate others, change a policy or take direct action. The relationship between service learning and project-based learning How Sara Rimm-Kaufman and her colleagues (including Tracy Harkins and Eileen Merritt) developed Connect Science, a scheme that uses the service learning approach to combine social emotional learning and academic content Applying service learning in different curriculum subject areas The notion of “fidelity of implementation” in education research (and an “intent to treat” analysis) The theme that characterises her research interests: the centrality of social emotional learning (e.g. for racial equity) and the widespread practices in school that have never been studied but would benefit from research into their effectiveness or lack of effectiveness The source of her research interests Her early research on primates and working with Professor Jerry Kagan to subsequently working in schools with children in first grade. Why she likes conducting research in schools, despite the challenges such research brings Relational trust – what it is and why it is important among the adults in a school Who has responsibility for building relational trust among the adult community in a school? Building relational trust with and among children in a school The relation between a teacher’s beliefs and their practice – a bidirectional process. She loves the work of Dan Willingham, a former guest on this podcast.

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney. In this episode I speak to Professor Art Baroody from the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign about matters related to counting and early mathematical development. Professor Baroody shares insights from his extensive research in children's early mathematical learning with anecdotes from his life and work. Among the topics we discuss are: The word “count” is ambiguous; he prefers the terms verbal counting and object counting. Along with subitising, these are foundational for children’s sense of number. The rote portion of numbers (up to 12 in English) and the rule-governed portion of numbers (13 onwards in English) Being able to meaningfully count objects means understanding the cardinality principle How a teacher can assess a child’s competence in object counting. The “hidden stars” game. The importance of subitising (easily recognising, without counting, the number in a set). If a child can subitise small sets of objects and connect it to their verbal counting knowledge, the child can get insights into the structure of the count sequence and into our number system. The importance of children understanding the “increasing magnitude” principle of numbers. Subitising and learning addition and subtraction concepts The value of playing dice games. The successor principle: Each step in the counting sequence means you added one more. A child who starts out behind in kindergarten, typically gets further behind as school goes on, indicating the importance of informal mathematical knowledge for school readiness. Three components of a hypothetical learning trajectory: a goal, a learning progression, instructional activities that help children move from one level to the next. The relevance of a hypothetical learning trajectory for a teacher’s work: questions and instruction need to be developmentally appropriate for children. What number comes after 9? Whether you need to start at 1 or can answer this directly depends on your current level of understanding numbers. How schools typically target instruction at a level that is too low or too high for students. There are many published learning progressions and hypothetical learning trajectories available to teachers now, especially in number, arithmetic and counting development. A child’s mathematical power, routine expertise (learning something by rote – hard to apply it to a new problem and easy to forget) and adaptive expertise (learning something with understanding) Mathematical power comes from understanding, engaging in mathematical inquiry, to reason mathematically, to solve problems, having an interest in mathematics and using it. In short, conceptual understanding, mathematical thinking skills, and a positive disposition towards mathematics Example of applying knowledge to finding the area of a parallelogram Why memorising mathematics by rote is crazy. All children, even those with learning disabilities, can develop mathematical power up to lower secondary school level, if properly taught. Teaching mathematics by rote is cheating children. Things that can be discovered are the additive commutativity principle (3+5 = 5+3) Children are capable of much more than we give them credit for. Why getting children to learn off tables of number facts is cheating children. The importance of seeing patterns and relationships in the number tables – make it a thinking exercise and make mathematics learning fun. Working with his mentor Herb Ginsburg The use of manipulatives in teaching mathematics, even to college-level students. The value of children inventing procedures themselves. To understand fraction multiplication, the analogy of multiplication as repeated addition does not suffice. You need a more powerful analogy. A “groups of” analogy is more helpful. And it helps you understand why multiplication doesn’t always make something bigger. How to make sense of fraction division. How he conducts his research (Case study; random controlled trials) Substitution errors in reading John Holt’s books John Dewey’s book, Experience and Education  Why parents and teachers need to be patient The power of examples and non-examples when teaching mathematics.

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney. In this episode I speak to Professor David T. Hansen from Teachers' College, Columbia University about the philosophy of education and the practice of teaching. Among the topics we discuss are the following: What it means to see teaching as an art, as a political activity and as a moral endeavour. Direct lessons about morality/values/ethics versus the continuous enactment of moral values. What hand-raising and turn-taking reveals about classroom culture and establishing dialogue among students (teachers and their students coming closer and closer apart and further and further together). Teaching as a profession? Teaching as vocation, calling, practice, craft? The attraction of teaching for people who want to live a meaningful life. Reworking his original book, The Call to Teach in 2021 as Reimagining the Call to Teach in response to (a) Accountability movement in the United States, linked to No Child Left Behind; and (b) Having learned more about the practice of teaching. How the implementation of No Child Left Behind in the United States was tone-deaf to classroom life. Huge resources benefited private testing companies rather than professional development for teachers. A poetics of teaching: What poetics means (comes from Aristotle trying to figure out why drama on a stage has the kind of effects it has on the spectators long after the play has ended). In this article, Hansen tries to understand the impact of teaching. Recognising the poetics of teaching; teaching is a rhythmic practice where poetics can be found alongside its drudgery/frustration/failure. How we all fail regularly in teaching but we rarely discuss it. What he means when he says that anyone interviewing a teacher for a job wants to know if the teacher loves life. Finding meaningfulness in teaching Programmes for veteran teachers to rejuvenate, reinspire, renew and refresh themselves. One example of such a programme is a “descriptive review” of a child. The importance of working on craft with initial student candidates; more can be done on the art of teaching – draw out a sense of their own humanity, possibly through story, poetry, film or a painting. How teaching is saturated with “why” questions – invitations to philosophy. Philosophy as theory and as an art of living (wisdom tradition) Cosmopolitanism: being reflectively loyal and reflectively open Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke. Plato and John Dewey.  

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney. Theme tune composed by David Vesey. On this episode of Inside Education, engineer Patricia Scanlon of Soapbox Labs discusses how improving how well software can recognise children's voices can support how teachers teach, assess and give feedback on reading and enhance equity in the classroom. Among the topics discussed are: How children’s voices differ to adult voices How voice recognition software has been found to be biased in favour of some populations over others How she became interested in applying speech recognition technology to education after watching her daughter experience the limits of educational software when she was learning to read and do mathematics Applying speech recognition technology to teaching reading – the software acts like a helpful adult who “listens” to and “assesses” the child’s reading. The software is used in dyslexia screeners, reading practice products, fluency assessment products, speech therapy. Use of the software at home and in classrooms The use of rapid naming as one of a suite of tasks in a screening tool that aims to predict dyslexia in pre-literate children, thus making earlier intervention possible The promise of voice recognition software for making school more inclusive for children of all abilities Applying the voice recognition software to languages other than English How practising reading can be formatively assessed using voice recognition software Feedback to encourage the student, to correct a child’s pronunciation of a sound, or to identify errors for the teacher Why Soapbox Labs’s niche is with children’s voice recognition software How they worked alongside teachers to develop the software Collecting data and looking at data privacy Future plans for developing the software

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney Theme tune composed by David Vesey On this week's podcast I speak to cognitive scientist, Professor Daniel T Willingham from the University of Virginia. We discuss learning to read, learning styles, multiple intelligences, education research and more. The full range of topics includes: Applying the science of learning in school and at home Paradigms of cognitive psychology (reasonable assumptions) How cognitive science replaced behaviourism How cognitive science might inform the teaching of different subjects across the curriculum The relationship between basic science and applied science for teachers Why an opportunity exists for teacher organisations to review science and provide periodic updates for teachers to critique ideas (such as say, grit). Initial teacher education should provide a grounding in the science of learning and subsequently teachers’ knowledge needs to be updated as the science evolves (and why the onus for such updating should not be on individual teachers) Among the few reliable publications for teachers he'd recommend are American Educator, and Phi Delta Kappan. Evaluating the relative importance of technical competence (decoding) and motivation in learning to read. The difference between reading a book and listening to an audio book (How prosody helps comprehension in audio books and how regressions help us in comprehending text) and why textbooks are different. Can audiobooks help a child who is having difficulties learning to decode? Criticism of the learning styles theory of the mind – there’s no scientific basis to pedagogies based on learning styles. Why style differs to memory and ability and the importance of meaning in learning. Learning styles may offer a different ways for a teacher to think about topics they’re going to teach. The construct of mental ability and multiple intelligences. Is intelligence one single construct or is it several independent constructs? Can critical thinking be taught? Can being a good critical thinker in one domain help you think critically in other domains? The importance of seeing the same underlying structure in various guises when practising critical thinking. How he evaluates the value or potential contribution of a research article in education. Contradictions in educational research – parallels with COVID-19 research. Why professional organisations need to tease out research implications for teachers. Why he reads very broadly in education. Daniel Willingham’s “2002-style” website. He’s on Facebook and Twitter @dtwillingham. His most recent books are Why don’t students like school (2nd out now) and Outsmart your brain (August 2022).

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney. Theme tune by David Vesey. On podcast 420, I welcome back Stanford University School of Education Professor William (Bill) Damon who was one of the first guests on this year's schedule to discuss his new book, A round of golf with my father: The new psychology of exploring your past to make peace with your present. Among the topics  we discuss on this bonus episode are the following: Different interpretations of what a life story is Life Studies by Robert Lowell Your intention for telling a life story What a life review is and why it can be done at any stage of life How William Damon adapted Robert Butler’s life review idea for his purpose. How to go about doing a life review Talk to people who remember your past Records (school and others, ancestry searches) Memory search Putting it all together – focusing on what gave you satisfaction and fulfillment Why he never met his father How school records have changed since the 1950s. How his father’s character developed over time, possibly through the demands and experiences of military service in World War II. What he learned about his own character from doing the life review Why character is a movie and not a snapshot Why he believes that psychological theories such as some of Freud’s work and the “big five personality traits” are wrong How he went about making a personal story interesting for an audience beyond his immediate circle of family and friends How a life review can help you find a purpose in your life How someone not looking for a purpose can find one His mother’s role in his life review His definition of purpose His memories of being taught by some of the pioneering psychologists of the twentieth century, including Erik Erikson and Jerome Kagan who was a guest on Inside Education a few years ago: Podcast 1 and Podcast 2  and who passed away in May 2021. Some of his earlier books: Some do care (with his wife, Anne Colby), Noble Purpose, The Moral Child and Greater Expectations. Why he called the book A Round of Golf with my Father when he never met his father!  

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney On this week's podcast I speak to Deirdre Hodson who works in the European Commission’s department for Education, Youth, Sports and Culture in Brussels. She provides a European Union policy perspective on technology and sustainability in education. Among the topics we discuss are: How she came to work in the area of digital education policy and her studies in the area Ben Williamson Neil Selwyn How her studies contributed to her work as a policymaker How the pandemic is likely to impact on policy and practice The need for schools to have digital strategies The importance of the school as a whole being the unit of change and of hearing the student voice The difference between emergency remote teaching and online learning How countries reaped the benefits of investment in digital resources in education during the pandemic Asking what we can learn from remote teaching and learning as a result of the pandemic Broadening the education infrastructure to include collaboration with libraries and museums The origin, purpose and launch of the SELFIE diagnostic/planning tool she was involved in developing How SELFIE has been used and a new SELFIE tool for teachers to be launched in October 2021. Report on Artificial Intelligence in Education Examples of interesting practices in digital education across Europe An account of a visit to a school in Finland and the phenomenon-based learning and to one in Austria Sustainability, digital technologies, accessibility and inclusion Risks and threats of technology alongside opportunities (e.g. data protection; student and teacher agency) Differences between aspects of a teacher’s job that are routine (e.g. marking) and those that are human (e.g. coaching and mentoring) Neil Selwyn Should robots replace teachers? Challenges of not being able to hold the regular Leaving Certificate examinations in 2020. The value of learning languages Erasmus and E-Twinning: Léargas Neil Selwyn’s book Distrusting Educational Technology: Critical Questions for Changing Times

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney. In this podcast I explore the topic of education and autism by speaking to a classroom teacher, Graham Manning from Cork, and a university researcher, Professor Steffie van der Steen from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. Among the topics we discuss are: How Graham became coordinator of classes for autistic students in school The organisation with which Graham undertook training on helping students develop good sleeping habits. How Steffie became interested in researching autism and the education of students with autism in the Netherlands. The Salamanca Statement on special needs education: Graham’s class arrangements from a student’s perspective Different needs of autistic students from primary to secondary school Graham’s problem with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and Inclusive Education in New Brunswick and that province's views on inclusion versus segregation Excellence in practice: visiting homes of students who apply for the special class and managing transitions from primary to secondary school and from secondary to third level. Graham referred to a quote widely attributed to Dr. Stephen Shore that “when you meet one person with autism, you’ve met one person with autism.” Steffie’s research findings that are relevant for teachers: assessing young children on science concepts (Marble task and air pressure task); four categories of teachers’ needs in relation to teaching students with special needs: cooperation, academic tools, social aspects, reassurance for insecure newly qualified teachers; her hypothesis about the need to ask students both higher- and lower- order questions. Students learned from years of experience with students with autism and getting to know them. Lessons teachers can take from her experience of assessing young students with special education needs: variation in questions and hands-on tasks. Classroom interactions in Graham’s class for autistic students (Building relationships, subject planning, spending time outdoors, making meals together in the “home room,” creating a safe space) Steffie’s research (with her doctoral student, Lisette de Jonge-Hoekstra) on the relationship between children’s speech and their gestures when working on a task (including “gesture-speech mismatch) Steffie on animal-assisted therapy for students with autism Graham on why there are insufficient special classes in post-primary schools Steffie recommends: https://scholar.google.com/. Graham recommends The Reason I Jump by Naoki Higashida.  

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney. This week my guest on the podcast is expert on assessment, feedback and academic integrity, Professor Phillip Dawson from Deakin University. Among the topics we discuss on the podcast are the following: How academic integrity is learned throughout our lives – and how even Peppa Pig has been known to flout academic integrity. What a secondary school teacher needs to know about academic integrity – values and technical skills Academic integrity travels with us: Medical students who have more academic integrity problems have more professional integrity problems as doctors Acknowledging student work that is original Scalable feedback practices at feedbackforlearning.org. Text matching software (e.g. Turn-it-in) can help provide feedback at scale. Recognising patterns in errors legitimately made by students on a module Estimated instances of cheating among university students, by “outsourcing” their work, range from 6% to 16% When the student signals that an assignment is tough, the temptation to cheat appears, literally. Intellectual streaking and intellectual candour (Margaret Bearman and Elizabeth Molloy. The importance of faculty sharing their own experiences of receiving feedback with students. Contract cheating and blackmail. Lesley Sefcik and Jon Yorke. University faculty are more likely to spot contract cheating when they are looking out for it. Initial suspicion versus investigation of contract cheating Resources to combat contract cheating from the Australian Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency. Cheating and Assessment Project The difference between referencing blunders and contract cheating Where students are more/less likely to cheat: types of work, disciplines The work of Tracey Bretag and colleagues Designing assessments to minimise the likelihood of contract cheating Authentic assessments Benefits of few, enforceable authentic restrictions Review of authentic assessments by Villarroel et al (2020) Article on authentic assessment and authentic feedback by Dawson, Carless and Lee (2021). Assessment rubrics Article by Dawson Article 1 and Article 2 on assessment by James Popham: and Analytical, holistic and co-constructed rubrics Alfie Kohn podcast Winstone and Bowd (2020): the need to disentangle assessment and feedback in higher education Pitt & Norton (2017) Student Responses to feedback Sustainable assessment and evaluative judgment One person who inspires Phillip is his boss, David Boud: https://www.deakin.edu.au/about-deakin/people/david-boud. One of David Boud’s articles on sustainable assessment.

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney. On this week's podcast I speak to Professor Gregory Cajete from Santa Clara Pueblo and the University of New Mexico about indigenous education and what contemporary western education can learn from such rich traditions. Among the topics we discuss are: Belonging to the Tewa tribe and what is particular about that tribe. Numbers in different tribes such as the Navajo, Cherokee, the Hopi and the Tewa. Being the first member of his family to attend public school Previously native Americans would have attended federal boarding schools (created by Pratt), with a basic academic curriculum Professor Cajete refers to “Charles Pratt” but this may be a mistaken reference to Richard Henry Pratt, to whom the expression “Kill the Indian, save the man” was attributed. Tribal College Union established in the 1970s (36 colleges – like first and second year of colleges; giving 2-year degrees) Defining indigenous education: Distinction between native American students attending US public schools (including the Bureau of Indian affair schools and religious denominational schools) – education as assimilation versus traditional indigenous education including stories, history, customs and language of the people. Relationality as the basis of indigenous education – developing a relationship to the place in which we live In indigenous education people ask the question, “how am I related to this?” versus the predominant “western” question “What is this?” Currently attempts are being made to introduce native American language, culture and traditions into US public schools Epistemology (how we come to know what we know) of indigenous education involves storytelling, ceremony, participation in community, rhythm and dance. Axiology (what is the focus of/what has value in?) of indigenous education is about establishing a balanced relationship with your environment, including human and other-than-human entities; a place-based world view (based on where you live). Logic of indigenous education is ecological and is one of balanced interdependence. It is part of an understanding that everything you do impacts everything around you. The Lakota people say “We are all related.” The “intractable conflict” between indigenous education and public school education in the United States Why the curriculum focused on subject-matter is object-focused and parts-oriented whereas native education is ecological, sustainable and holistic. Shortcomings of the subject-based curriculum include that it doesn’t teach for relationality or about the ecological mandate, the pre-requisite for sustainability; these are “specialised fields” whereas in indigenous education, you learn these from the day you’re born and reinforced consistently throughout one’s lifetime. Consequently you acquire a life-centred focus. Many native artists are entrepreneurial while maintaining a traditional viewpoint. An economic focus is on benefiting the community, not just oneself. Gary Nabhan is not native American but he writes about native forms of agriculture. Enrique Salmón too has written on this topic. Books Greg Cajete has written: Look to the Mountain Igniting the Sparkle: An Indigenous Science Education Model. Native Science: Natural Laws of Interdependence  Spirit of the Game. Indigenous Community: Rekindling the teachings of the seventh fire. Native Minds Rising: Exploring Transformative Indigenous Education Sacred Journeys: Personal visions of indigenous transformation Values that underpin indigenous education O. Wilson’s biophilic sensibility – caring and empathy for each other, caring and empathy for the natural world and caring and empathy for your soul The indigenous stages of developmental learning; finding the essence of your soul. Question: What does it mean to become a full human being? Chant: One must first find one’s face (you identity), one must then find one’s heart, finally one must find one’s foundation (what you stand on) in the context of relationship, responsibility, respect and resonance, with one’s self, one’s community, one’s place, then with one’s world, within the context of your relationship with the cosmos.

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney. On this week's episode I interview my long-time colleague and fellow vice-president of Marino Institute of Education on the topics of literacy and disadvantage and more. Among the topics we discuss during the podcast are the following: What constitutes a struggling reader Identifying a struggling reader in a class setting Why it is important to move on from focusing on individual sounds and words to help students become fluent readers. The article referred to in the programme can be downloaded here: Effects of Fluency Oriented Instruction on Motivation for Reading of Struggling Readers Fluency oriented instruction and the work of Stephen Stahl, Kathleen Heubach and Bonnie Cramond. The value of repeatedly reading the same text Why fluency oriented instruction is particularly important around first class The value of teachers and parents reading to children, modelling the reading process Why choral reading is helpful in developing fluency – communicatively choral reading Echo reading, antiphonal reading, Why motivation may be the most important factor in learning to read Louise Rosenblatt and the efferent/aesthetic continuum. Story of “Jason” a non-reader who loved Buddy Holly songs How teachers believe that fluency comes after mastery of more cognitive skills of reading and that motivation is important for beginning readers Conducting research in schools serving disadvantaged areas in Dublin Looking at motivation for reading: Self-efficacy for reading Orientation towards reading Perceived difficulty of reading The value for teachers of knowing the science of reading. Read Daniel Willingham’s The Reading Mind Our brains are not wired for reading (alphabet principle; decoding) How parents can promote motivation among children – reading to children and reading with children What it means for a child to be alliterate The role of education in a disadvantaged setting The “network gap” that children in disadvantaged settings experience The extent to which education can ameliorate disadvantage The value of teachers collaborating, especially in a disadvantaged setting (and in planting allotments and solving crossword puzzles and in teacher education too) Role of a principal in a disadvantaged school Derek Sivers’s book notes Ken Robinson Science of reading podcast and blogs (http://textproject.org/teacher-educators/science-of-reading/, https://understandingreading.home.blog/) Timothy Shanahan blog. Autobiographies: John Major, Arnold Schwarzenegger & André Agassi Derek Sivers's book notes and podcast interview

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney. On this week's podcast I am joined by Professor Stefan Ward from Central Washington University who is currently a Fulbright Scholar in Dublin City University Institute of Education. Among the topics we discuss are: His interest in positive youth development How he became involved in Project Fun Direction and why it is important for young girls What is physical literacy and how is it developed? Physical education in schools in the United States Why games such as Dodge Ball and relay races need to be removed from PE class Specialist physical educators in the United States The Irish physical education curriculum What an effective PE lesson looks like (Moderate to vigorous activity; differentiated instruction; choice; reflection time) Assessment in PE (physical, cognitive, affective) Teaching physical education with minimal equipment (including planning for activities that require minimal equipment such as hiking, soccer). Skill themes in primary and post-primary PE classes Reducing risk of physical injury in PE class Modifying games Teaching physical education in all weathers or with limited facilities Generic and sport-specific strategies for differentiating a physical education lesson, such as tennis: cooperative practice, modify game to make goal easier, award points for attempts, use different equipment – e.g. foam ball, different racquet, give choices for students to be successful at different levels. Duties associated with his university role in the United States Shape America Positive Youth Development – self-determination theory (relatedness, competence and autonomy) Bringing Student PE teachers to volunteer in sports camps abroad in Guam and in Ireland Selecting candidates for a physical education teaching programme Impactful teacher: Tom Martinek Missy Parker Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility Book: Youth Development and Physical Activity

Presented and produced by  Seán Delaney. In this episode my guest is Emeritus Professor John Hattie from the University of Melbourne. Among many other contributions to education, he has developed the idea of visible learning. Among the topics we discuss in the podcast are the following: What Professor Hattie means by visible learning How children don’t have the language to talk about their learning Students learning from each other The importance of asking students two questions: What does it mean to be a good learner in this class? What do you do when you don’t know what to do? Impact of a student’s age on making learning visible Three ways of making learning visible: student voice, student artefacts, test scores. He is interested in triangulating across these three sources, in how the teacher interprets that information, and how the teacher decides where to go next with a student’s learning. The same information from a student’s perspective is also important. The love of learning follows, rather than precedes, learning. Every curriculum subject has three parts (i) content, skills (knowing that…), (ii) relationships (knowing how…) and (iii) Transfer. Understanding all three parts is important. Typically 90% of learning is focused on content/skills. John Hattie believes it’s the balance across all three that matters. However, you can’t rush to the deep parts too quickly. His views on learning styles The missing piece of teacher education – looking at students’ learning Research he did to develop the concept of “visible learning” Changing the research question on teaching from “What works?” to “What works best?” Why how teachers think matters more than what teachers do Many teachers deny their expertise When students do a test, the teacher should ask “What did I teach well and what did I not teach well?” What did I learn about which students gained from the teaching and which didn’t? What did I learn about how much I taught? Answering those questions helps teachers decide “where to” next. Ask students to predict how they’ll do in a test? From age 8 on, they’re good at answering this question. His research on feedback. Its impact on students can be variable, even from one day to the next. What is important to look at is the feedback that is received by students (is it heard, understood and actionable?) Why children after age 8 don’t like talking about their errors or what they don’t know…and why they might be more likely to do it through technology The need to learn in groups The value of asking a student how someone got something wrong If you’re not getting things wrong, the work’s too easy Why he dislikes a constructivist approach to teaching and its cousins (problem-based learning, and discovery learning). It’s all about timing and being deliberate. He refers a few times to the card game Canasta. The lack of support available to newly qualified teachers. Evaluative thinking (diagnosis, intervention, implementation, evaluate) as the essence of the teaching profession The difference between teacher as facilitator and teacher as activator (i.e. active listeners, active in the process about how students are going about their learning, intervening at the right time) and why he prefers the latter. Why students need experts. Homework and student achievement. The nature of the homework matters. We can’t assume that students know how to learn. He mentions other researchers in the podcast including: Gert Biesta, Shirley Clarke, Guy Claxton, and Graham Nuthall.

On this week's podcast I address the topic of academic integrity, a concern at all levels of the education system. My guest is Professor Diane Pecorari from the City University of Hong Kong, who is an expert in this area. Among the topics we discuss on the episode are the following: Intertextuality – borrowing from earlier texts Plagiarism involves deception Plagiarism inside and outside education settings Accidental “plagiarism” and the need to differentiate it from deliberate deception Advocating a pedagogical response to plagiarism (punishing versus coaching and supporting) How widespread plagiarism is in higher education settings Causes of plagiarism Students may feel inadequate to a task facing them because of the expansion of access to university education and increasingly educating students through a language that is not their own leading to plagiarism Preventing plagiarism – rules, detection mechanisms, penalties; admitting students with proficiency in the language of instruction and with sufficient academic preparation for studying the subject they’re going to study; giving students the skills they need to use quotations and to develop their voices as writers. Text-matching software such as Turnitin and Urkund. Risk of false positives and false negatives. Deterring plagiarism through penalties Patch writing (coined by Rebecca Howard) as a particular kind of plagiarism Essay mills and contract cheating – challenges to detect. Risk of students being blackmailed or ripped off. Predatory publishing and predatory conferences: no quality control mechanisms and whose sole purpose is to make a profit. Avoid them by looking for journals in which authors you respect publish, look at who is on the editorial board, consider the proportionality of any fee that is requested and consider the time taken to have an article published. Use this website to identify reputable journals. How her interest in this area was sparked English for Academic Purposes versus English as an additional language Content of an English for Academic Purposes course Hot topics in research on English for Academic Purposes What schools are for Academic Tribes and Territories by Tony Becher and Paul R. Trowler. Methodical, patient clear teachers are what we all need.

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney. In this episode I speak to two experts on curriculum integration from Brock University in Ontario, Canada, Professor Susan Drake and Dr. Joanne Reid. Among the topics we discuss are the following: Multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary connections among subjects SAMPLE TOPICS FOR INTEGRATION: War, water, homelessness, food waste in the cafeteria, traffic patterns in a school, sustainability, patterns, change, conflict, trace origin of everyday item (Coffee, chocolate etc.), medieval fair. Finnish requirement that students do a phenomenon-based learning unit each year based around transversal competencies (21st century) Project-based learning examples Students present their work to an authentic audience Finding themes for integration (look out your window!) Project-based learning on Edutopia Buck Institute and Project-based learning Benefits of integration: more fun, students are engaged, fewer behaviour problems, social and emotional development, wellbeing, relevance, focus on whole person. Teachers who collaborate are more energised and creative OECD Report: Curriculum Overload: A Way Forward. Student achievement and integrated curricula Obstacles to integration: textbooks, timetabling, subject-specific responsibilities, Origin of Integrated teaching and its relation to constructivism which is relevant, interactive, real-world, choice, inquiry-based. The Eight Year Study with Ralph Tyler, Hilda Taba and others. It was written up by Aikin. Balancing integration and disciplinary integrity Cross-curricular and teaching to the big ideas compared to integrated curriculum Explanation of their curriculum framework: KDB: Know, Do, Be Twenty-first century competencies: Communication (reading, writing, oral communication, listening, media literacy), critical thinking, creative thinking, collaboration, global competency, design thinking, digital skills, data literacy, financial literacy. How they conduct research on integrated curriculum Gordon Vars and research on integrated curriculum. Bluewater study What happened when standards/accountability model arrived in schools in the 1990s. How the pandemic has impacted on assessment Assessment and integration. Benefits of students seeing the value of their work in the wider world (having an audience outside the classroom). Finding out more about integrated curriculum and its history. John Dewey and William Heard Kilpatrick and The Project Method. James Beane. Twenty-first century life skills High Tech High Getting started with integration : Genius Hour. More here. Student-led teaching How integrated curriculum is for students of all ages. bell hooks Inside the Black Box by Paul Black and Dylan William In addition, Susan and Joanne compiled a list of resources with additional information about curriculum integration: Drake, S. M. & Reid, J. L. (2020). How education can shape a new story in a post-pandemic world. Brock Education, 29(2), 6-12  Drake, S. M. & Reid, J. L. (2020). 21st Century competencies in light of the history of integrated curriculum. In “Rethinking what has been rethought consistently over the millennia: A global perspective on the future of education”. Frontiers in Education Journal, 5(122), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2020.00122 Drake, S.M. & Reid, J.L. (in press). Integrated curriculum In J. Flinders & P, Hiebowitsh (Eds.) Routledge Encyclopedia of Education. New York: Routledge Drake, S.M. & Reid, J. L. (2018). Integrated curriculum as an effective way to teach 21st Century capabilities. Asia Pacific Journal of Educational Research, 1(1), https://doi.org/10.0000/APJER.2018.1.1.031 Drake, S.M. & Reid, J. L. (2018). Integrated curriculum for the 21st Century. In J. Miller, M. Binder, S. Crowell, K. Nigh and B. Novak (Eds). International handbook in holistic education (pp.118-128) New York: Routledge. Drake, S.M. & Reid, J. L. (2017). Interdisciplinary assessment in the 21st Century.                   file:///Users/sdrake/Desktop/IEJEE_57fa80bd928bb_last_article_57fa813187fad.pdfIn Steve Pec (Ed). Scholarship of teaching and learning Part 3 (pp. 1-8) Stuyvesant Falls, NY: Rapid Intellect Group. http://www.rapidintellect.com/AE/ec5771v14.pdf Savage, M. & Drake, S. (2016). Living transdisciplinarity: Teachers’ experiences with the International Baccalaurete Primary years Programme. International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education. (19), 1-19, file:///Users/sdrake/Desktop/IEJEE_57fa80bd928bb_last_article_57fa813187fad.pdf Drake, S.M. & Savage, M. (2016). Negotiating accountability and integrated curriculum in a global context. International Journal of Learning, Teaching, and Educational Research, 15, 6. http://www.ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter/article/view/639 Drake, S.M. (2015).  Designing across the curriculum for “sustainable well-being”: A 21st Century approach. In F. Deer, T. Falkenberg, B. McMillan & L. Simms (Eds.). Sustainable Well-Being: Concepts, Issues, and Educational Practice (pp. 57-77). Winnipeg, MB: EWSB Press. http://www.eswb-press.org/uploads/1/2/8/9/12899389/sustainable_well-being_2014.pdf.  Drake. S. M., Reid, J. L., & Kolohon, W. (2014). Interweaving curriculum and classroom assessment Engaging students for the 21st century. Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press. Drake S & Burns R. (2004). Meeting standards with integrated curriculum. Alexandria, VA:ASCD. Susan says “it is the easiest "how to" book” and Joanne agrees. It is almost like a manual. Very good even if it seems old now. Project-based learning – sites for ideas https://www.pblworks.org/what-is-pbl https://www.prodigygame.com/main-en/blog/project-based-learning/ https://www.edutopia.org/project-based-learning https://iearn.org  (collaborative international projects)  

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney. On this week's podcast Education Historian Dr. Thomas Walsh applies a historical perspective to analyse cotemporary policy and practice in curriculum, early childhood education and more. Among the topics we discuss are: The career trajectory that brought him to working in the Education Department of Maynooth University. Working in the Centre for Early Childhood Development and Education Influence of nationalism and Catholicism on the curriculum of the 1920s The Commission on Manual and Practical Instruction and its influence on the 1900 curriculum Removing subjects to focus on the Irish language in the 1920s Becoming interested in the study of curriculum and curriculum change over most of a century Influence of John Coolahan on Tom’s work How a historical perspective on curriculum enriches our understanding of curriculum today The Stanley Letter from 1831. The importance of context in curriculum development Policy as text and policy as discourse (Ball). Curriculum implementation – dance between policy and practice Influences on curriculum change in Ireland – timing and context affect the influences Immigrant, internationally educated teachers and controlling who can become a teacher Migrant Teacher Project and Turn to Teaching Project (Maynooth) Team teaching: when it happens; what needs to happen for it to be successful? Planning for team teaching. Policy and practice in relation to team teaching Resources for team teaching (PDST and Maynooth websites) Early Childhood Education in Ireland today Legacy of Professor John Coolahan. He featured on two episodes of Inside Education, here and here. School placement: from supervisor to placement tutor. What’s in a name change? Gert Biesta article, Resisting the seduction of the global measurement industry: notes on the social psychology of PISA and book, The Beautiful Risk of Education.

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney On this week's podcast I interview the editors of a book titled Challenging perceptions of Africa in schools: Critical approaches to global justice education. They are my colleague Dr. Barbara O'Toole, from the Marino Institute of Education and Dr. Ebun Joseph and Dr. David Nyaluke from University College Dublin. Among the topics we discussed on the programme are the following: How our education system is focused on a Eurocentric view of people from Africa Chimamanda and the Danger of a single story What teachers are doing well when presenting Africa to their students How history is taught impacts on the past and on life today The need to hear the story of Africa from a different perspective How our system encourages us to perform racism The benefits of reading African authors to see how they represent Africa The need to present a balanced story of Africa Why discussing Africa with a deficit perspective needs to be balanced with a discussion of its strengths Negative portrayal of Africa in Irish primary school textbooks The need for unlearning: self-questioning and reflection What critical race theory is (a theoretical framework and an analytical framework) White Teacher by Vivian Gussin Paley Knowledge justice The River Between by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o Things fall apart by Chinua Achebe Books by Ali Mazrui. How Europe is portrayed in African education Decolonising education and Alice Feldman How this affects every subject across the curriculum Just Connections, Just Trade resource for teachers The importance to develop a race consciousness and how race impacts on people’s experiences There is a stereotype in all our work – we need to think about how we can erase them Being in a crisis of knowledge and a crisis of solutions Moving to a mindset of social justice can permeate every aspect of a teacher’s teaching Relative size of Africa compared to Europe and the United States

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney. On this week's programme I am delighted to interview my colleague, Dr. Jennifer O'Sullivan on the topic of teaching reading. Specifically, we explore the areas of phonemic awareness, phonological awareness and picture books. Jennifer also recommends several useful resources for teaching reading. Among the topics we discuss and the resources mentioned are the following: Jennifer's route to becoming a teacher The joys and challenges of teaching in a junior school that had disadvantaged status Doing a master’s degree in literacy. Specific challenges teachers experience in their first year of teaching The research base for how children learn to read The path to learning to read: alphabetic principle, apply sounds of language to print on page, decoding, comprehending meaning The importance of teacher content knowledge in diagnosing what a child needs to work on when learning to read The importance of phonological awareness and what phonemic awareness is Why not to introduce phonics to children too soon; start with speech and then move to print (rather than working from print to sounds). The need to teach children how to separate sounds in words and to blend them back together. The need to explicitly teach that, for example, a word like “eight” has only two sounds but five letters and that this makes the subsequent introduction of phonics easier for children. The App she’s developing to assess phonological awareness Why dyslexia is caused by a phonological deficit Visual literacy and close reading Reading a picture Picture books to use in primary school: Anthony Browne Jon Klassen I want my hat back The Arrival by Shaun Tan. The Paperbag Princess by Robert Munsch. How to use picture books in school: discussing difficult topics, developing empathy, developing vocabulary, springboard for writing, visual literacy, challenging stereotypes. What parents can do at home to help their child read better Literacy in the kitchen video with Clara Fiortentini. Model reading for children Choose books children enjoy: e.g. David Walliams. A billboard message for all teachers Jan Hasbrouck. Mark Seidenberg: Language at the Speed of Sight Louisa Moats (What do we need to know as teachers to teach reading?). Book, Speech to Print. Clara Fiorentini’s Little Miss Teacher blog. Here is a link to the interview I did with Clara Fiortentin. The Literacy Channel on YouTube.  

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney. My guest on the podcast this week is Dr. Pam Moran who is the Executive Director of the Virginia School Consortium for Learning and is a former superintendent of Albemarle County Public Schools. Among the points we discussed in the podcast were the following: The role of a superintendent in US education Desmos software that is used to teach mathematics. The reintroduction of maker skills into US education in response to narrow testing and the benefits of it MAKER LEARNING Students who take making courses Safety in maker learning Involving the wider family in maker learning How maker learning is reflected in the school curriculum PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR TEACHERS Her thoughts on professional development that works best for teachers Professional development to help teachers teach online Flipgrid EDUCATION FOR THE 21ST CENTURY What schools need to do to be more relevant to the twenty-first century (automation, climate change, working from home, demographic changes, superficial learning for tests) Edward Hess books: Learn or Die, Humility is the New Smart and Hyper Learning: Learning at the speed of change) How she would reform the mathematics and science curriculum to make it more relevant for students The book she co-authored, Timeless Learning: How Imagination, Observation, and Zero-Based Thinking Change Schools. Reimagining education using zero-based thinking Ira Socol. Yong Zhao episode on Inside Education. Catherine Cronin's interview on Inside Education. Pam O’Brien, Mags Almond, John Heffernan. Maya Angelou, Séamus Heaney Stories from the Pandemic. Website of Pam Moran and Ira Socol

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney. On this week's podcast I discuss drama and theatre in education with Madeline Michel, a teacher in Monticello High School in Charlottesville Virginia. Madeline was the 2019 winner of the Tony award for excellence in theatre education. Among the topics we discuss in the course of the podcast are the following: How she approaches theatre education How a sports –competitive – paradigm is mistakenly applied to the arts Theatre in education versus drama in education How she tried to make her class more diverse Teaching multiple grades in her classes Letting students know that their stories and their talents are important Her credo: art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable How she became interested in theatre in education What she reads How education is a microcosm of the wider world Stimulating teenagers to write plays The first day in her drama class and building community Collaborating with other teachers Staging a school production The importance of dance and movement in a production The shortcomings of drama on Zoom What students learn through drama Assessing drama Winning the Tony Award for Theatre in Education She recommends the Nice White Parents podcast: (about school segregation in New York City) Thanks to John Heffernan who suggested Madeline as a guest for the podcast.

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney. On this week's podcast my guest is Professor William (Bill) Damon from Stanford University Graduate School of Education where he directs the Stanford Center on Adolescence. He is the author of many books, including The Path to Purpose. We discuss how students can be helped to find purpose in life. Among the topics discussed on this week's programme are: Many young people looking for something to believe in - about a quarter of them “drifting” Responses to being adrift: hedonism, anxiety. Being adrift originates in not finding something that is a positive direction for themselves. Profile of young people who are drifting How young people have found purpose in previous eras (national, economic…) Difference between seeking a purpose and seeking a meaning in life How having a sense of purpose can help you have a psychological balance Any activity can be purposeful if you believe in it, do it well and give it your all How teachers can model a purposeful life for their students Profiles in purpose A teacher’s role in helping students find their purpose When parents dislike the purpose chosen by their daughter or son Most of us have multiple purposes in life The link between purpose and entrepreneurship Atul Gawande’s book Being Mortal The relationship between mission, commitment and purpose Where people find purpose The importance of “why” questions for teachers How exams could be purposeful Barriers students encounter in trying to find their purpose in life How he conducts his research Questions to help people find their purpose Diane Ravitch

On this week's programme I speak to Paddy Madden about teaching and learning outdoors. Among the topics we discuss are: How weather engages the senses when we learn outdoors Benefits of teaching outdoors Forest bathing Noticing Nature Cloud watching, listening to the sound of birds, smelling flowers. Daily 15-minute walkabout Teaching outdoors across the curriculum Book: Sue Waite Children Learning Outside the classroom A silly symphony Preparing for outdoor learning Learning outcomes Ways of Knowing by John Quinn A spiral curriculum – revisiting topics at a more complex level Teaching outdoors in September What to do when a wasp enters your classroom Spiders Planting a square metre of wheat Integration across the curriculum using topic of wheat Painting – called The Gleaners (I mistakenly called it “The Garners” in the recording) Places to visit at this time of year Fruit and seed walk: Dry fruit (e.g. helicopters, nuts) and succulent fruit (blackberries, rowan berries, sloes) How school grounds can sometimes be barren Paddy’s vision of ideal school grounds Creating raised beds in a school grounds Furniture for outdoors learning Making a pond safe for a school setting Making clipboards from recycled corroboard How to position a bird box correctly The value of a compass in school for showing directions Why he dislikes terms such as a “bug hotel” or a “bug viewer” Working outdoors in an urban environment Using window boxes to grow food Using binoculars with early finishers The “Engage with Nature” website Nature as a stage The value of unstructured play Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv John Feehan’s books Richard Louv: "The more high-tech we become, the more nature we need." Sacha Hamilton, the Duchess of Abercorn and activities of the Pushkin Trust

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney. This week on the programme I interview five colleagues who participated recently in an Erasmus+ project titled EDUCATE. This project involved developing materials for teachers, providing providing professional development, and conducting research on how to combine challenge and differentiated instruction in the teaching of mathematics at pre-primary, primary and post-primary levels. Project materials are available here. The guests on the programme are Charalambos Charalambous from the University of Cyprus, Ann Marie Gurhy from the Marino Institute of Education, Despina Potari from the University of Athens, João Pedro da Ponte from the University of Lisbon, and Evridiki Kasapi from the University of Cyprus. Among the topics we discuss are: Realising that mathematics is more than memorisation and drill and practice. How the study of differentiated instruction and challenge in mathematics came about What it means to introduce challenge to mathematics tasks An overview of differentiated instruction Using enablers and extenders to promote differentiated instruction Why a teacher needs to know a student’s cognitive, social and affective needs in order to differentiate Observing teachers’ needs in differentiating and providing challenge through reading research and observing lessons Developing materials to support teachers Using video clubs as a model of teacher professional development Challenges teacher encounter when working with challenging tasks The difference between video clubs and lesson study Overview of the modules created as part of the project (each module is based around a number of cases of practice)

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney. This week on the podcast my guest is Derek Sivers, a musician who founded the CD company CD Baby before leaving it to write and practise philosophy. His website is well worth checking out. Among the topics we discuss on the podcast are: We all have the ability to be smart or to be stupid and how some environments reward stupidity and others reward being smart Thriving educationally in and out of school: being engaged and receiving direct feedback The power of finding the intersection between students’ interests and a nudge from parents’ towards learning/growing experiences Why being smart (critical thinking, challenge assumptions, look past the obvious, to question the world) is more impressive than being educated (you’ve done the assignments) Naval Ravikant is an example of someone he thinks is smart. Smart is something you do, not something you are A list of books Derek Sivers has read and the notes he made on them. A great teacher or educator interrupts expectations: teaching a mindset (questioning assumptions, interrupting expectations) rather than delivering information. Teaching students how to carry on or learn on their own, to be smart out in the world). You don’t have to copy the teacher's example all the time; as long as you get the gist of an idea, you can get creative within it. Impact of Kimo Williams on Derek. Why the typical school curriculum goes way too slowly Being in awe at the patience of public school teachers Intrinsic interest in music following an initial foundation in music Moving from being passive in the education system to taking control of his own education: from mediocrity to excelling. His love of learning came after school The importance of having something to pursue, something you want, something you’re driven towards – whatever it is. By learning to be great at that one thing, you learn everything else (how to learn, improve, practise, mastery) as a side effect. How well his education prepared him for being an entrepreneur Why he things entrepreneurship cannot be taught successfully (it’s very holistic, about psychology, thinking about things from the customer’s, client’s, partner’s point of view), being out in the world staying at the forefront of people’s minds, bring flexible. Seeing learning as a key to his success; loving having his brain tickled – learning new ways of looking at things The need to have a focus for what you want in life. His current focus is on being a great writer, programmer and dad. Recognising that sometimes we just stumble into things (e.g. circumstance or a recommendation from someone we admire) or deliberately spreading out in other directions. Audio version of The Odyssey translated by Emily Wilson:(listened to after hearing a podcast between Tyler Cowen and Emily Wilson) Avoiding distraction by finding work that is not so easy that it’s boring and not so difficult that it’s overwhelming as described in Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Maintaining focus by hating having something unfinished Learning for the sake of creating something Pain and anger as sources of ideas. Things he wants to create (build a house from scratch; a company that will host websites after you die); a forum on which to highlight the next generation of musicians (BMajor); build a 100-acre forest over 15 years; create an app to connect people who like talking on the phone; and Cloud Free a service to teach people technical independence Finding something that is endlessly interesting (computer programming for him) Learning from different media and perspectives: reading diverse books, listening, multi-media videos, courses that give assignments Mastery School (with coaches) sivers.org/masch: Pick something to do and make it happen The Flipped Classroom He recommends the following books, article and pieces of music in the course of the interview: Total recall Arnold Schwarzenegger’s autobiography Guns, germs and steel by Jared Diamond Cows, pigs, wars and witches by Marvin Harris. Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari Charlie Tips on How to Raise Your Kids as Billionaires Black Sabbath Iron Man Buffalo Soldier by Bob Marley

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney. On this week's programme school librarian from the Albemarle School System in the State of Virginia in the United States, Ida Mae Craddock (Mae) makes the case for having a school librarian in every school. We discuss her work as a school librarian. Among the topics covered are: A description of the school she teaches in Allocation of librarians to schools in Virigina The job of school librarian Describing the library and the services offered Doing a masters in library science (Old Dominion University) Content of masters course The challenge and importance of locating resources that are relevant and used Developing the library collection The library of things “Being stuck at home is no fun, being stuck at home with no books is tragic.” Cataloguing library materials The kind of literature that is popular among the students in the school she works in Loss of library stock Value of having a librarian in a school The history of school libraries The future of school libraries – innovation hubs Writing regularly for School Librarian Connection and School Library Journal The Maker Educator Collective Laser cutting and 3-D printing CRICKETS – Computer Aided Cutting Teaching as a subversive activity by Neil Postman Walden by Thoreau

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney. On this 400th episode of Inside Education I am delighted to be joined by the co-presenter of my favourite podcast, Speak-up Storytelling. Matthew Dicks is also an elementary school teacher and the author of Storyworthy: Engage, teach, persuade, and change your life through the power of storytelling. He blogs and shares other resources at his website. Matthew shares a story with listeners to this week's podcast and among the other topics we discuss are: Becoming a teacher Studying in a community college while working in McDonalds before winning scholarships to university Manipulating his dream to fit his reality instead of manipulating his reality to fit his dream What he likes and dislikes about teaching Teaching children writing like an editor treats a writer (giving them time, choice, audience, purpose) The importance of letting a child share their writing and how to respond to the child’s writing Providing feedback for students on their writing Why he writes The kind of stories he tells on stage The idea he developed called “homework for life” How he uses storytelling in his elementary school teaching Improvisational story telling games The consequence of storytelling and story-writing being acts “of courage” Sharing writing as a celebratory moment Having a stage, curtains, lighting and a sound system in his class Teaching Shakespeare to fifth grade students “Whatever your passion is, bring it to the classroom” Albert Cullum Shakespeare in the classroom A typical day in his classroom Disliking school as a student Why he teaches to the students who don’t want to be in class; not assuming that any student wants to be in school on any given day How his approach to planning has changed He is a problem-solving, big-picture person – not someone who likes to write a unit of work or draft a school plan Managing behaviour in the classroom Why he dislikes homework: children should read every day and learn to study. He prefers long-term assignments over short-term ones Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath Using competence in storytelling to be a better interviewee when you go for a job Telling a story  

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney On this week's podcast my guest is website entrepreneur, bestselling author and performance nutritionist, Daniel Davey. Daniel Davey is the senior performance nutritionist with Leinster Rugby and with the Dublin Senior Football team. The focus of our conversation is nutrition and education. Among the topics we discuss are the following: What made him decide to study nutrition Memories of preparing food and cooking at home from a young age Studying home economics at school and agricultural science at college Making the connection between nutrition and sport Importance of a positive relationship with food His message for students when he visits schools Challenges in applying principles of healthy nutrition in our lives How he sees his role in promoting nutrition as that of a coach Why he does not prepare meal plans for the athletes he works with Questions he is asked by students in schools Attempts to use schools in the fight against childhood obesity Why he prefers the healthy plates to that of the food pyramid Taking responsibility for the food you eat Why it’s good to raise your own awareness and curiosity about food Making the classroom a safe space to talk about food The power of questions when talking about nutrition Work of a nutritionist is to facilitate and empower Relationship between nutrition and physical exercise How coaches of school sports teams can promote good nutrition with their members Elite school sports performance and nutrition – place of supplements Advice for parents around school lunches Positive and negative impacts of teachers on him His continuing professional development How our nutrition practices have set us up to fail in school What inspires him

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney. On this week's episode I speak to Professor Yong Zhao from the School of Education at the University of Kansas. Among the topics we discuss on the episode are the following: We currently have the opportunity to reimagine education without schools: Do we have to do these subjects? Do we have to teach this much? A good time to teach global understanding, empathy and competency Innovation in education The importance of having an entrepreneurial mindset The Digital Pencil Alternative ways of organising the education of young people Difficulty of finding like-minded people in a small school Globalisation as the “death of physical distance” Globalisation is localisation of global forces Implications of globalisation for teachers Why everyone should have a local identity and affirm the identities of others Your uniqueness can only become valuable when it’s valuable to others Why schools encourage people to be independent and selfish rather than interdependent Schools as a place to bring about a better society Students as job creators versus job hunters Enhancing entrepreneurship in students Unintended consequences of education policies PISA test scores and the illusions of excellence, science, progress. His experience of being educated in China The impact of technology on education To compete with a machine, a person must avoid becoming one! Be unique and great in your own way; understand yourself, your talents and virtues. "Creative" means identifying problems worth solving Empty creativity versus good creativity – the need to have a domain to excel in What schools should be for: a place to equalise community resources David Berliner and Bruce J. Biddle The Manufactured Crisis. David Berliner as a former guest on the podcast Diane Ravitch’s blog: https://dianeravitch.net/ If we want a better life in the future, we need to help our children create a better life for us

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney On this week's podcast I bring you my interview with Alfie Kohn, who writes and speaks about education, especially in areas such as homework, standardised testing and punishments and rewards. Among the items we discuss on the podcast are the following: Fostering students’ curiosity and encouraging them to think deeply Teachers participating with children in an exploration of ideas to move beyond factual knowledge How teachers can teach to promote students’ thinking The inverse relationship between teacher control and student learning Why learning starts with a question John Dewey, Jean Piaget, Ed Deci and Richard Ryan (Self-determination theory) Why rewards and punishment don’t help children learn Why saying “Good job” to your students is the equivalent of a “verbal doggy biscuit” Children who are frequently praised are less generous than their peers How children know when they’re being controlled and how they respond to it How teachers can respond to students’ work and respect the child’s autonomy Implementing a no-homework policy in a school Why he believes that giving homework to children constitutes malpractice. Excitement (about learning) drives excellence Standardised tests and teacher accountability; Authentic assessments – tap into projects done by students over time Why standardised teaching tells you only two things: (i) how much time was given to teaching test taking and (ii) how big the houses are near the school. Differences between role of parent and teacher: Unconditional parenting and unconditional teaching Punished by Rewards Unconditional Parenting

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney. One thing that often surprises me is how difficult it is for teachers to have an impact on students' health. It's not as if there aren't enough efforts through the curriculum and through various commercial ventures to promote health in schools. This week I look at some interesting research articles about education, health and nutrition and I identify six lessons that teachers might keep in mind if they want to think about educating children about health and nutrition in a way that will stick. The programme is based on research articles that are listed below. The main points raised are:   Health and nutrition in the primary and post-primary school curricula in Ireland Why a teacher’s example matters: Perikkou, A., Gavrieli, A., Kougioufa, M-M., Tzirkali, M., Yannakoulia, M. (2013). A novel approach for increasing fruit consumption in children. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 113: 1188-1193. Promoting cooking competence after school: Jarpe-Ratner, E., Folkens, S., Sharma, S., Daro, D., & Edens, N.K. (2016). An experiential cooking and nutrition education program increases cooking self-efficacy and vegetable consumption in children in grades 3-8. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 48(10), 697 – 705. Boost students’ academic performance through sleep education: Gruber, R., Somerville, G., Bergmame, L., Fontil, L., & Paguin, S. (2016). School-based sleep education program improves sleep and academic performance of school-age children. Sleep Medicine, 21, 93-100. Alienation from and hiding in physical education class: Carlson, T.B. (1995). We hate gym: Student alienation from physical education. Journal of Teaching in Physical Education. 14: 467-477 and Lyngstad, I., Hagen, P-M., Aune, O. (2016). Understanding pupils’ hiding techniques in physical education. Sport, Education and Society, 21(8): 1127-1143. Eliminate or change treats: Shan, L.C., McCafferty, C., Tatlow-Golden, M., O’Rourke, C., Mooney, R., Livingstone, M.B.E., Pourshahidi, L.K., Corish, C., Kearney, J.M., Wall, P., & Murrin, C. Is it still a real treat? Adults’ treat provision to children. Appetite. 2018; 130: 228-235. Changing food habits consistently in multiple dimensions over a sustained period of time. Merrotsy, A., McCarthy, A.L., Flack, J., Lacey, S., & Coppinger, T. Project Spraoi: A two-year longitudinal study on the effectiveness of a school-based nutrition and physical activity intervention on dietary intake, nutritional knowledge and markers of health of Irish schoolchildren. Public Health Nutr. 2019; 22(13), 2489-2499.

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney. On this week's programme I speak to Lorna Tormey and Pauline O'Reilly from the Home Education Network. Both Lorna and Pauline have decided to educate their children at home and the share the experience for the benefit of listeners who might be interested in doing the same, in the immediate term or in the future. Among the various topics we discuss are: Why they began home educating their children A typical day of home educating Unschooling Autonomous Education John Holt Not following a specific curriculum A weekly routine that constantly changes Giving up a career to home educate Choices about secondary schooling and going to university Learning algebra How different families approach home education Helpful sources of information for home education Steiner Education (bringing together hands, heart and head) Dealing with challenge Dealing with boredom How active parents are as home educators as children grow older Difficult days and creating space for parents’ own projects Support of the Home Education Network Opportunities for children to socialise with other children Play-based learning World schooling Advice for parents who are currently involved in involuntary home education Deschooling

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney. On this week's podcast I speak to my colleague in Marino Institute of Education, Ciara Reilly, about ideas for teaching online and offline while schools are closed. The initial impetus for our discussion was a padlet wall that Ciara developed to support teachers and which is available here. But our conversation covered many additional topics including the following: Where to start in online teaching and learning at primary school in particular. Digital Learning Framework. The value of having children work as a group rather than individually Use a timetable with children Singapore experience Acceptable Use Policies What teachers expect from students Planning for the future and online learning Risk of children spending too much time on screen The value of children being bored Use of iPads and use of textbooks Exam preparation for post-primary students Things you can do offline Hashtag for teachers to use on Twitter: #edshareie And Ciara discusses many resources available to teachers and their students including the following: Padlet Google Classroom Skype Classroom Zoom Google hangouts Aladdin Classdojo G-Suite for Education Microsoft Teams Google Docs Cúla4 Quiver 3D Gonoodle RTE 10 at 10 Body Coach, PE with Joe Bebras Khan Academy Epic Reading App Teach your monster to read Geoguessr Science Foundation Ireland Active School Flag and Run around Ireland challenge Seesaw Edmodo Webwise TikTok Net Nanny Apple Classroom Watchkin Twinkl CJ Fallon EdCo Folens PDST Distance Learning Resources

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney. On this week's programme I'm delighted to speak to Professor Kathy Hall from University College Cork. In a wide-ranging discussion about teaching, teacher education, research and policy, the topics raised include the following: Becoming a primary teacher in Carysfort College Doing a Bachelor in Arts degree in University College Dublin, with many other primary teachers, followed by a H.Dip Returning to Carysfort to do a postgraduate diploma course in special educational needs Starting a Masters degree in Trinity College, transferring to complete and PhD and becoming a teacher educator in Christchurch Canterbury College Moving to Leeds Metropolitan University and subsequently to the Open University and two years later to University College Cork Her doctoral dissertation on the topic of discovery learning and first language learning Her book, Listening to Stephen Read and its implications for teaching reading Why some children leave school with limited literacy The relationship between policy and teaching literacy How the market influences education in Ireland Assessing student teachers’ preparedness to teach literacy Summative and formative Assessment – Black and William Important Review on Formative Assessment Can anyone teach? The relationship between skills, practice and reflection in teaching School and University roles in teacher education The unifying theme across all her research Discourse analysis as a research method and what you can learn about classrooms from using this method. In this framework she refers to the IRF – initiation, response and feedback – pattern of classroom interaction. Doctoral research topics How different opportunities to learn can exist within the same classroom Problems with competitive classrooms Advice she would give the Minister for Education Etienne Wenger Communities of Practice book Tara Westover Educated

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney This week's podcast is a collaborative one with Darren Ralston from The Ed Narrative podcast. Darren was in Ireland to present a workshop at the annual conference of the Computers in Education Society of Ireland (CESI), which was held in Athlone on Saturday last. Among the topics we discuss on the podcast are the following:   Integrating technology into one’s teaching The difference between an instructional coach and a learning technology integrator Using virtual reality in the classroom, using Google Expeditions How instructional coaches are organised in US schools Becoming, and working as, an instructional coach Managing his workload as a coach Comparing mentoring and coaching as interpreted in his setting How he got into teaching How he teaches literature How he chooses literature to teach Teaching drama – using comedic improvisation Brave New World 1984 by George Orwell Starting The Ed Narrative Podcast Equipment used for podcasting Selecting guests for podcats Neil Postman

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney. On this week's podcast I interview Finbarr Hurley about his experience teaching in some European Schools and about his thoughts on leadership. He is currently working as a Coordinator with the Centre for School Leadership. Among the topics we discuss on the podcast are the following: Wanting to teach from a young age His experience in Mary Immaculate College Proving yourself as a teacher when you begin in a school The importance of changing career post every 5-6 years The importance of figuring out what makes children tick Teaching in Cork and Teaching in Brussels Designing a classroom of the future A synopsis of the European Schools system Learning from working alongside teachers from other countries Moving to an International School in Qatar Working with teaching coaches Involving children in parent-teacher meetings Teaching without textbooks Bringing members of a circus in to work with his students in Germany Identifying what is valued in a school, across the school community Challenges of being a principal in Ireland Providing continuous professional development (CPD) for principals and principals’ needs for CPD Why it’s okay for principals to fail (the first attempt at learning) One of his own principals Simon Senek (Be the last to speak) Andy Hargreaves Book: Wholesome Leadership Luke Jefferson Day, editor of GQ Magazine in London. Simone Marchetti – creativity outside of education The value of sofas in classsrooms

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney. On this week's programme I speak to Dr. Liz Dunphy, Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education in Dublin City University's Institute of Education about her work. Among the topics we discuss are the following:   Choosing a career in teaching over one in law Becoming interested in early childhood education Childcare and the growth of love by John Bowlby Her first teaching job Doing a Masters degree in education in Trinity College Dublin Offering professional development for teachers through the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation Children’s early experience of number as seen through a socio-cultural lens Looking at how the work of educational researchers complement each other rather than adopting a more polarised approach. Her research on early childhood education: mathematics, curriculum, and assessment How the area of early childhood education has evolved nationally and internationally over Liz’s career in education to date Play, Playful pedagogy, and playfulness James McGarrigle – psychologist and a student of Margaret Donaldson Why international models of early childhood education cannot be imported directly to Ireland Jerome Bruner Reggio Emilia model of early childhood education Why developments in the last five years have been positive for early childhood education and care Choosing a pre-school for your child The transition from non-compulsory to compulsory education The qualities she looks for in early childhood education practice The Katie Morag books with Mairi Hedderwick How teachers and children can establish a “shared world” Understanding the child from the perspective of their family Mathematics with reason: The emergent approach to primary mathematics by Sue Atkinson:  Assessment and record keeping in early childhood education settings Vivian Gussin Paley Mollie is Three. The Boy Who Would be a Helicopter. White Teacher was also mentioned: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/88364.White_Teacher The Erikson Institute Herb Ginsburg  

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney. On this week's podcast I speak to Dr. Karen Edge who is a Reader in Educational Leadership at the University College London Institute of Education. Karen Edge was a keynote speaker at the 2020 annual conference of the Irish Primary Principals' Network, the IPPN. Among the topics we discussed were the following: Helping principals make their job meaningful Constraints on principals working on teaching and learning and working with students and teachers include: to be accountable, to share information, manage data, manage external relations How principals can live a full life outside of work and be a leader in their work Helping principals align their professional priorities with what students, teachers and parents expect of them Supporting a new generation of principals from Generation X (born from 1965 to 1980) in schools designed for Baby Boomer principals who have now retired or who are retiring (those born from 1946 to 1964) Collaborative decision making and Generation X leaders How leadership in education differs across countries and continents and how this is influenced by being an adult in the wider society (and why borrowing policies from other countries may not work in the same way here). Rewards of being principal Why “being busy” is not a badge of honour How schools can productively partner with schools in other countries Among the people she mentioned on the podcast were the following: Dan Freedman- book series Jamie Johnson Judy Goldberg and Wondershift Viv Grant

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney. On this week's podcast I speak to Viv Grant who is Executive Coach and Director of Integrity Coaching. She was a keynote speaker at the 2020 annual conference of the Irish Primary Principals' Network. Among the topics we discuss are the following: Identifying your stories as a school leader: why are you in the profession? What motivates you? What inspires you? What brings you joy? Her story and how she began to articulate it for herself The importance for principals of recognising and articulating their inner, subconscious narrative How underlying thoughts and experiences can affect a principal’s ability to have difficult conversations Becoming aware of when the old narratives no longer serve us Getting our back stage narratives aligned with our front stage performance The role of the Centre for School Leadership What coaching for principals involves Just like social workers and psychologists get “supervision” in their work as a matter of course, so should school principals because as well as being leaders of curriculum and instruction, many of them are practising aspects of psychology and social work. Why school development and human growth and development go hand in hand and why offering coaching to principals is a way of appreciating their taking on this important role. Is coaching something that is needed on an ongoing or on a needs-only basis? How coaching for a principal works Qualities a coach needs to have in order to work with principals How coaching differs from mentoring Why supporting coaching for principals is a good investment for a school Why coaching is the norm in several other sectors How she turned around “failing” primary school How to bring about change at school level The source of a school’s vision Her book called Staying a head: The stress management secrets of successful school leaders The challenge of creating time to develop the inner work of school leadership Pauline Lysaght Jones and Mary Fuller David Whyte’s poetry John O’Donohue