Episodes
Saturday Oct 30, 2021
Inside Education 422, How Voice Recognition Software is Changing Teaching (30-10-21)
Saturday Oct 30, 2021
Saturday Oct 30, 2021
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
Saturday Oct 16, 2021
Saturday Oct 16, 2021
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).
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
Saturday Mar 06, 2021
Saturday Mar 06, 2021
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.
Saturday Nov 14, 2020
Podcast 408, Jennifer O'Sullivan on Teaching Reading (14-11-20)
Saturday Nov 14, 2020
Saturday Nov 14, 2020
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.
Friday May 15, 2020
Programme 401, The Case for a librarian in every school (15-5-20)
Friday May 15, 2020
Friday May 15, 2020
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
Saturday May 09, 2020
Programme 400, Matthew Dicks on Storytelling and Teaching (9-5-20)
Saturday May 09, 2020
Saturday May 09, 2020
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
Wednesday Mar 11, 2020
Podcast 393, Professor Kathy Hall (11-3-20)
Wednesday Mar 11, 2020
Wednesday Mar 11, 2020
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
Wednesday Dec 11, 2019
Programme 383, Dave Rudden on Writing and Teaching Writing (11-12-19)
Wednesday Dec 11, 2019
Wednesday Dec 11, 2019
Presented and produced by Seán Delaney
On this week's podcast I am joined by author Dave Rudden who created the Knights of the Borrowed Dark trilogy. Dave talks about his own writing, about teaching writing to adults and children and he discusses the bullying that was a feature of his life in post-primary school. The specific topics discussed on the podcast are:
- How he began writing Knights of the Borrowed Dark as a college assignment
- The premise of the series
- Who the audience for the books is
- His experience in the classroom and what attracts him to writing
- His school visits
- His writing practice
- How he learned to write and what teachers can do to help children learn to write
- Getting into drama and theatre to overcome shyness
- Getting into live storytelling in Dublin and moving onto writing short stories and then to a Masters in Creative Writing
- Why Terry Pratchett is a role model
- He also likes Irish authors Sarah Maria Griffin, Deirdre Sullivan, Catherine Doyle.
- The benefits of doing a masters course in creative writing
- Why you don’t have to do a masters course to be a successful writer
- Differences in teaching writing to children and adults
- How teachers can teach children to write
- Explaining why words are weapons, writing is a muscle, and you don’t have to get it right first time
- The recipe for a character
- The recipe for a plot
- Stretch Goals
- What schools are for
- How teachers can support children who experience bullying
- A teacher who had a significant impact on him
- Who or what inspires him
- A favourite book or writer or blog about writing: Chuck Wendig, On Writing by Stephen King
- Neil Gaiman’s Commencement Speech: Make Good Art
Wednesday Nov 13, 2019
Programme 379, Nell Duke on Literacy Education (13-11-19)
Wednesday Nov 13, 2019
Wednesday Nov 13, 2019
Presented and produced by Seán Delaney
On this week's podcast I speak to Professor Nell Duke from the University of Michigan School of Education about literacy education and project-based instruction. Professor Duke was a keynote speaker at the 43rd Annual Conference of the Literacy Association of Ireland. Among the wide range of topics we discuss on the podcast and the resources mentioned are the following:
- The role of project-based literacy in promoting reading and writing development
- The importance of purpose and audience for children’s writing
- Sources of project ideas: Edutopia, PBL works, Nell’s website
- Identifying sources of project in local communities
- Incorporating student voice and choice into projects
- Teacher preparation to design the flow of a project work with students
- Nell’s website – Inside Information Downloadables
- The importance of audience beyond teachers, parents and grandparents
- Working alone versus working in groups on projects
- At what age can children begin to work on project-based literacy?
- The ideal duration of a project
- The balance of literacy goals and cross-curricular goals in project-based literacy instruction
- Educating children from an early age about trustworthy sources. The use of the mnemonic WWWDOT (Who? Why? When? Does it meet my needs? Organisation of site/text? To Do List for future)
- Molly of Denali
- Helping students move beyond bland responses to peers’ work
- Various templates mentioned available here.
- Why reading is so hard for many students to master
- The DRIVE model of reading (Deploying Reading in Varied Environments)
- The value of teaching sound-letter relationships; deliberately teaching phonics, morphology and text structure
- Gaps between research on reading instruction and the practice of reading instruction
- Reliable sources of research evidence for teachers: Institute of Education Sciences What Works Clearinghouse; Practice guides.
- Michigan Association of Intermediate School Administrators General Education Leadership Network Early Literacy Task Force and Literacy Essentials.
- International Literacy Association.
- Literacy Association of Ireland.
- Responding to differences among students in a literacy classroom: small group literacy instruction
- Why it’s important to teach reading and writing together. See work by Gram and Hebert (2010).
- What parents can do in the home to promote literacy achievement
- What a typical working day is like for her and how she manages her time
- Knowing what not to do in teaching
- Not this but that book series.
- What schools are for
- She loves reading: Reading Research Quarterly (Journal of the International Literacy Association), Scientific Studies of Reading, Review of Educational Research.
In her keynote address Nell referred to the following websites, which were not mentioned in the podcast. I'm listing them here because they may be of help to some listeners.
High Quality Project Based Learning
She also referred to this article which was a meta-analysis of process writing.