Episodes
Friday Apr 09, 2021
Podcast 415, Gene Mehigan on Literacy & Disadvantage (9-4-21)
Friday Apr 09, 2021
Friday Apr 09, 2021
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
Wednesday May 08, 2019
Programme 365, Barbara Schneider on the Sociology of Education (8-5-19)
Wednesday May 08, 2019
Wednesday May 08, 2019
Presented and produced by Seán Delaney
Theme tune by David Vesey
This week on the programme my guest is Professor Barbara Schneider from Michigan State University. She uses sociology and psychology in her work and talks about how that works. She discusses optimal learning moments in science teaching and learning and about helping students make transitions from middle school to high school. Here are my notes on some of the topics discussed:
- How sociology has always about equal educational opportunity, access and social justice
- The development of adolescence in context
- How relationships created in school affect the inequality students experience in schools
- Why relational trust in school is so important
- The importance of student welfare
- How they studied flow in the classroom
- Converting flow into “optimal learning moments”
- The “in it to win it” app and the College Ambition Program
- How teachers can prepare for “optimal learning moments”
- Why it’s important for children to learn science at school
- A hybrid model of professional development for teachers
- Problems with poorly-equipped science labs in schools
Find out more about driving questions and project-based learning here.
Wednesday Oct 25, 2017
Programme 302, Bernstein and Disadvantage; Teaching in England (25-10-17)
Wednesday Oct 25, 2017
Wednesday Oct 25, 2017
Presented and produced by Seán Delaney.
On this week's programme I speak to a young researcher, Craig Skerritt, who works in the Centre for Evaluation, Quality and Inspection, Dublin City University. We discuss how the work of Basil Bernstein can shed a light on educating students in schools serving areas designated as disadvantaged. We also learn about Craig's experience of teaching in England.
Wednesday Mar 29, 2017
Programme 286, Cherishing All the Children? (29-3-17)
Wednesday Mar 29, 2017
Wednesday Mar 29, 2017
Presented and produced by Seán Delaney.
This week I speak to Dr. Brian Fleming, a retired school principal and author of Irish Education 1922 - 2007: Cherishing all the Children? Among the topics discussed during our conversation were the following:
- Who he spoke to in writing the book
- Where the power lies in education today
- What can be done to reduce inequality in education
- How the insertion of a single word, “for” in the Irish Constitution shaped the government’s role in education
- Provision for reducing disadvantage in the 1998 Education Act
Wednesday Jan 13, 2016
Programme 238, Ken Zeichner on Teacher Education, Pt. 1 (13-1-16)
Wednesday Jan 13, 2016
Wednesday Jan 13, 2016
Presented and produced by Seán Delaney
On this week's programme I speak to highly respected teacher educator and professor of teacher education, Ken Zeichner from the University of Washington. He was in Ireland to address attendees at the annual conference of the Standing Conference on Teacher Education North and South (SCoTENS).
Wednesday Jun 03, 2015
Programme 220, Rob Evans on Teacher Congeniality & Collegiality (3-6-15)
Wednesday Jun 03, 2015
Wednesday Jun 03, 2015
Presented and produced by Seán Delaney
On this week's programme, Rob Evans, who was a keynote speaker at the 2015 annual conference of the Irish Primary Principals' Network (IPPN) discusses whether staff rooms in schools are congenial or collegial places and more.
Sunday Apr 14, 2013
Programme 171, Education in and to Avoid Prison (14-4-13)
Sunday Apr 14, 2013
Sunday Apr 14, 2013
Presented and produced by Seán Delaney. On this week's programme former governor of Mountjoy Prison, John Lonergan, discusses what the education system could do to help keep people out of prison and he discusses education within prisons. This programme coincides with the screening of the television documentary on RTÉ 1, John Lonergan's Circus.
Tuesday Jun 12, 2012
Tuesday Jun 12, 2012
Presented and produced by Seán Delaney. On this week's programme Mark Candon, who is currently on study leave from his position as principal of St. Laurence O'Toole's CBS in Dublin, discusses the targets he set himself on appointment to the position and the successes he has had and the challenges he has faced along the way. Mark is currently studying for a doctorate at Trinity College Dublin where he is studying the school.
Sunday May 06, 2012
Programme 138, Lisa Delpit on Educating Minority Learners (6-5-12)
Sunday May 06, 2012
Sunday May 06, 2012
Presented and produced by Seán Delaney On this week's programme, Professor Lisa Delpit from Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and author of Multiplication is for White People: Raising Expectations for Other People's Children talks about her thoughts on raising expectations for students of colour in the United States in light of how they may help Irish educators think about educating traveller children, children from disadvantaged areas, and children whose parents were not born in Ireland.
Sunday Dec 18, 2011
Programme 120, Deaf Education in Ireland (18-12-11)
Sunday Dec 18, 2011
Sunday Dec 18, 2011
Presented and produced by Seán Delaney Budget analysis by Barry Hennessy The guest on this programme was Dr. Elizabeth Mathews, the coordinator of the newly established Deaf Education Centre on the Marian campus in Cabra. Here is a transcript of the programme that was provided so that anyone who is deaf or hard of hearing can have access to the programme.