Episodes
Monday Mar 29, 2021
Monday Mar 29, 2021
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
Friday May 01, 2020
Programme 399, Daniel Davey on Nutrition and Education (1-5-20)
Friday May 01, 2020
Friday May 01, 2020
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
Wednesday Apr 08, 2020
Programme 396, Education about Health and Nutrition (8-4-20)
Wednesday Apr 08, 2020
Wednesday Apr 08, 2020
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.
Wednesday Jun 19, 2019
Programme 370, School Tours - Practitioners' Perspectives (19-6-19)
Wednesday Jun 19, 2019
Wednesday Jun 19, 2019
Presented and produced by Seán Delaney
Theme tune by David Vesey
This week I follow up on last week's programme where I shared some of my own ideas about school tours by talking to two practitioners who have lots of experience of organising school tours and field trips - as teacher and as principal. Caitriona Cosgrave teaches second class in Scoil Áine Girls School in Raheny and Martin Kennedy is principal of Scoil Cholmcille in Skryne, Co. Meath.
Among the topics discussed on the programme are:
- School Tour venues and activities
- Choosing a school-wide theme for school tours; variety and continuity in tours
- Bringing parents on a school tour with children
- Creating memories on school tours
- Learning on school tours
- Going abroad for primary school tours
- Preparing for school tours
Wednesday Mar 20, 2019
Programme 358, 2019 Conference of Irish Primary PE Association (20-3-19)
Wednesday Mar 20, 2019
Wednesday Mar 20, 2019
Presented and produced by Seán Delaney
Theme tune by David Vesey
On this week's programme I bring you some interviews I recorded at the 2019 annual conference of the Irish Primary PE Association which was held in the Watershed, Kilkenny on 9 March. First I spoke to Dr. Liam Clohessy, who is chair of the Association and Cameron Stewart who is a member of the Scottish Association of Teachers of Physical Education. Among the topics we covered were
- Adapting games for use in PE
- Using PE to develop leadership, resilience and fair play
- Why physical education is more than physical activity
- Time allocated to teaching physical education
- The place of physical education in Scotland
- Motivating children who are reluctant to engage in physical education class
- Benefits and drawbacks of specialist teachers for physical education
Cameron recommended Joey Feith's website and Liam recommended the websites Move Well and Move Often and the PE section of the PDST website.
Next I spoke to Dr. Frances Murphy from Dublin City University. The topics we discussed included:
- Evaluating the Irish Primary PE Association today
- Strengths and challenges of PE in Ireland today
- The benefits of integrating physical education with other school subjects
- How physical education can contribute to addressing obesity among children
Frances recommended checking out the Primary Schools’ Sports Initiative resource.
Wednesday May 23, 2018
Programme 329, Mike Vacanti on Education for Fitness & Strength (23-5-18)
Wednesday May 23, 2018
Wednesday May 23, 2018
Presented and produced by Seán Delaney.
On this week's programme I speak to online strength and fitness coach Mike Vacanti who runs the On the Regimen website. He also has his own YouTube Channel, which contains hundreds of vlogs and videos about health and fitness. I speak to Mike about his own physical education and about his participation in the Ultimate Sweat Challenge. Among the topics discussed are:
- His own physical and health education
- What would he prioritise in a physical education curriculum
- What kept him motivated to continue with sport through his teen years and beyond
- What would he say to a child who works hard at sport but who is never picked for the team
- His thoughts on motivating people who are not interested in physical education to be more participative in the subject
- How he plans videos on his website to make them educational
- His role as mentor for the Ultimate Sweat endeavour
- What he learned as mentor for the Ultimate Sweat
- Why consistency trumps perfection
Mike referred to websites he finds helpful in the areas of nutrition, fitness and strength. They include:
- Lyle MacDonald’s website
- Brad Schoenfeld's website
- Eric Helms's website
- Rhonda Patrick's website
- Mike Matthews's website
Wednesday Nov 08, 2017
Programme 304, Ciarán Gray on Dance Education & Primary Teaching (8-11-17)
Wednesday Nov 08, 2017
Wednesday Nov 08, 2017
Presented and produced by Seán Delaney.
On this week's programme Ciarán Gray from North Bay Educate Together National School and Company B talks about his own interest in dance and shares some of his thoughts on primary teaching.
Wednesday Nov 01, 2017
Programme 303, Ciarán Gray on Dance Education (1-11-17)
Wednesday Nov 01, 2017
Wednesday Nov 01, 2017
Presented and produced by Seán Delaney.
On this week's programme primary school teacher Ciarán Gray talks about dance education and about Company B, the dance company he set up for young males. Ciarán teaches in North Bay Educate Together National School.
Wednesday Feb 18, 2015
Programme 205, Assessment in Education & Fitness Testing in PE (18-2-15)
Wednesday Feb 18, 2015
Wednesday Feb 18, 2015
Presented and produced by Seán Delaney.
On this week's programme I bring you the second part of my interview with Dr. Michael O'Leary from St. Patrick's College on the topic of assessment. I also speak to Susan Marron from St. Patrick's College about the topic of fitness testing of children. Susan Marron is Chairperson of the Irish Primary PE Association.
Wednesday Oct 29, 2014
Programme 193, Autism, IMTA & Movement (29-10-14)
Wednesday Oct 29, 2014
Wednesday Oct 29, 2014
Presented and produced by Seán Delaney.
For this programme I spoke to Michelle Shiels, a graduate of Stranmillis University College, who gave a workshop input on autism at the annual SCoTENS conference. I spoke to Neil Hallinan, a retired teacher and current member of the Irish Mathematics Teachers Association (IMTA) on the fiftieth anniversary of the organisation's founding and about the 2014 Maths Fest. Finally, I spoke to Dr Deborah Tannehill, emeritus faculty UL on the topic of fundamental movement in physical education, a topic she is presenting a workshop on in St. Patrick's College on 12 November.