Inside Education - a podcast for educators interested in teaching

Programme 156, Comparing Performance on Reading, Maths & Science (16-12-12)

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney On this week's programme I spoke to Dr. Eemer Eivers, research fellow, and Aidan Clerkin, research associate, at the Educational Research Centre at St. Patrick's College about the performance of Irish fourth class children on the PIRLS and TIMSS tests. In the tests Irish children's performance on reading, maths and science was compared with the performance of children in up to 50 other countries. The guests authored the Irish report, which can be viewed here.

Programme 155, Deborah Ball on Teacher Education, Mathematics Education and U.S. Education (9-12-12)

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney On this week's programme Professor Deborah Loewenberg Ball, who is Dean of the School of Education at the University of Michigan and Director of Teaching Works talks about her research on teacher education. She also shares her impression of Irish education and tells us what the current hot topics are in U.S. education. She was in Ireland as a guest of the Marino Institute of Education and the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment. You can watch a podcast of her talks to Irish educators here.

Programme 150, Jo Boaler on Teaching Mathematics (4-11-12)

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney In this week's programme Professor Jo Boaler from Stanford University discusses the teaching of mathematics. She was in Ireland earlier this year as a guest of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment. She recommended the NRICH website as a source of maths problems.

Programme 149, Paddy Madden on Teaching in & about Autumn (28-10-12)

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney On this programme I continued my seasonal coverage of teaching social, environmental and scientific education in the primary school with teacher, teacher educator and environmentalist, Paddy Madden. During the interview Paddy referred to the section about "Paddy's School Garden" on the Blackrock Education Centre website.

Programme 147, How Parents can Help Children with Maths, & Lefthandedness (14-10-12)

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney On this week's programme Valerie O'Dowd from the Marino Institute of Education talks about the videos she made with the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment showing how parents can help their child with mathematics. You can view the videos and tip-sheets here and here. Professor Margaret Clark, from Newman University College, Birmingham, who was a guest at the Reading Association of Ireland's annual conference speaks about lefthandedness.

Programme 141, Paddy Madden on Teaching in & about Summer (3-6-'12)

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney On this week's programme Paddy Madden from the Marino Institute of Education talks about what teachers can do in summer time to teach with the season. He refers to harvesting from the school garden, maintaining the school garden over the summer, possible nature walks, and how to learn about mini-beasts and butterflies. You can view videos by Paddy in the Paddy's School Garden section of the Blackrock Education Centre.

Programme 135, Ron Tzur on Mathematics Teaching and Learning (15-4-12)

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney Research Centre report by Barry Hennessy On this programme Professor Ron Tzur from the University of Colorado Denver talks about teaching and learning maths, and discusses the importance and difficulty of counting on and multiplicative reasoning.

Programme 129, Paddy Madden on teaching spring, and Chinese (4-3-12)

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney Report on introducing Chinese to Irish schools by Barry Hennessy On this programme environmentalist and educator Paddy Madden discusses how teachers can mark springtime in their classes. He also bemoans the lack of biodiversity in the landscaping of newly built schools. Paddy's book, Go Wild at School has just been republished and is available directly from him. The licence for teachers to use frogspawn in their classrooms, mentioned  by Paddy, is available here.

Programme 123, Young Scientists & Guidance Counselling (22-1-12)

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney Guidance interview by Barry Hennessy In this programme young scientists who studied education topics describe their studies. The students include Aisling Lawson from Hartstown Community School, Greg Bauer and Ben Morris from Donabate Community College, and Eva Wallace, Elizabeth Foley Landers and Sarah Shanahan from Presentation Secondary School in Ballyphehane in Cork. I also spoke to Lisa Curran, a teacher in Donabate Community College and to Mícheál Martin, leader of Fianna Fáil who was visiting the BT Young Scientists Exhibition.

Programme 116, PISA, Science Week & Plagiarism, pt 2 (20-11-11)

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney PISA series by Barry Hennessy Reporter: Sinéad Burke Barry Hennessy concludes his series about the PISA test by drawing together some of the voices who have been heard during the series. To mark Science Week 2012 Sinéad Burke spoke about science teaching and learning to Dr. Paul van Kampen who lectures in physics education in DCU. On this programme you will hear the second part of the interview with Professor Thomas S. Dee from the University of Virginia. In it he discussed the research he conducted with Professor Brian Jacob from the University of Michigan on the topic of student plagiarism at college level. He describes what students and lecturers can do to avoid plagiarism.