Inside Education - a podcast for educators interested in teaching

Programme 364, Lin Goodwin on Teacher Education (Part 2)

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney

Theme tune by David Vesey

On this week's programme I bring you the second part of my interview with Professor Lin Goodwin from the Faculty of Education at the University of Hong Kong. We continue the discussion we began on last week's programme about mentoring and progress onto other topics. Among the matters discussed this week are:

• How to recognise when the moment is right for mentor input
• What trends she perceives in the future of mentoring
• Rounds as a practice in teacher education
• Her work as Dean
• How she uses her teaching skills in her work as Dean
• Looking at education and teaching across cultures
• Ruth Wong
• Who and what inspires her

When I asked A. Lin Goodwin for her favourite book about education, she nominated, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, a book that was also recommended by Karen Hammerness when I spoke to her.

Programme 363, Lin Goodwin on Mentoring

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney

Theme tune by David Vesey

On this week's programme I interview Professor A. Lin Goodwin, Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Hong Kong and formerly of Teachers College, Columbia University about mentoring and teaching. Among the topics we discuss are the following:

• What mentoring is and is not
• Everyone can be a mentor but people need to learn to mentor
• Her experiences of being mentored by Celia Genishi
• The kind of honesty that mentors need to have
• The kind of feedback that is helpful
• Skills and behaviours of mentors
• Mentoring future researchers
• Mentoring future teachers
• Mentors learning from mentees
• Letting mentees make mistakes
• Problems if a mentor is reluctant to give candid feedback
• Why having a framework or a mindset is better than having a formula for giving feedback
• Getting away from looking at teaching dichotomously
• Mentors for different occasions
• Reluctant mentees
• Some moments are more productive for mentoring than others

Programme 362, Education in Cambodia (17-4-19)

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney

Theme tune by David Vesey

This week on the programme I speak to Colm Byrne who graduated as a primary teacher from Marino Institute of Education in 2003 and two colleagues Sophen and Sowuen from Cambodia about education in Cambodia. They all work for the non governmental organisation See Beyond Borders. Among the topics we discuss are the following:

• How Colm Byrne went to live and work in Cambodia
• The state of education in Cambodia
• Why teachers matter more than buildings at this time
• Learning English in Cambodia
• Children dropping out of school after second class
• Support from the INTO, Irish Aid and Horseware
• Horseware

Programm 361, Tasks, Mathematics, Questioning and Research

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney

Theme tune by David Vesey

This week I am joined on the programme by Professor David Clarke and Dr. Man Ching Esther Chan from the Graduate School of Education at the University of Melbourne. We discussed many aspects of research and teaching, with a focus on mathematics, tasks, questioning and language. Among the topics discussed were:

• Why a laboratory classroom was set up at the University of Melbourne
• The social unit of learning research project
• The layout of the laboratory classroom
• Negotiating of meaning in mathematics tasks (e.g. meaning of average)
• Using open ended tasks in teaching mathematics
• Marking answers to open ended mathematical tasks
• Involving students in assessing
• Sources of open-ended tasks
  • If the area of an apartment is 60 square metres, what might the five-room apartment look like?
  • Picture a bar graph where all you have are the bars and the axes but no labels of any sort. What might this be a bar graph of? Label the bar graph and explain what information is contained in the graph.
  • The average age of a family of five people is 25 and one of them is the same age as you. Who might the people be? What are their ages? And how are they related to one another?
  • The average of five numbers is 17.2. What might the five numbers be?
  • A number is rounded off to 5.3. What might the number be?
• The difference between good questions and good questioning
• Asking the question, “what is your utility function?” (i.e. that which is maximised by a system)
• Recognising the learning potential of student voice and cultural differences in how student voice is promoted and elicited
• Finding tasks that link to the curriculum
• The Lexicon project

Among the collaborators named by David and Esther were Peter Sullivan, and Neil Mercer. He also mentioned this paper on "initiating and Eliciting in Teaching: A reformulation of Telling" by Joanne Lobato, David Clarke and Amy Burns Ellis.

Programme 360, Choosing Postgraduate Courses in Education (3-4-19)

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney

Theme tune by David Vesey

This week on the programme I explore the area of postgraduate study in education. Why do a postgraduate accredited course? Where to do it? When is a good time to do it? How to choose it and ways to do it? Who to study with?

Such courses are addressed to the extent that they can be within a 30-minute course. To respond to any of the ideas raised, leave an idea on the programme's website or on Twitter using the handle, @insideed.

One website mentioned on the programme is the MOOC, Coursera.

Programme 359, Thomas Moore on Spirituality Education (27-3-19)

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney

Theme tune by David Vesey

This week my guest is Thomas Moore who gave a talk on "The Inner Landscape of the Educator in Difficult Times" in Marino Institute of Education earlier this year. Among the topics we discussed are:

• How as a culture we prefer training to education and the differences between them
• Where he would like education to take place
• Why the colours, sounds, images and textures around you matter when you learn
• Source of curriculum: What does it mean to be an educated person?
• What it requires of each of us to be human, to be good citizens
• The spiritual nature of humans in our search for meaning
• Having students go on a “pilgrimage” back to their childhood to get in touch with their essential selves
• Aspects of spirituality religions have traditionally ignored in their emphases on dogmatism and moralism
• Exploring basic questions through literature and the arts

He referred to Homer’s Odyssey, Horton Foote's play The Trip to Bountiful, and the poets Emily Dickinson, Wallace Stevens and John Keats.

Programme 358, 2019 Conference of Irish Primary PE Association (20-3-19)

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.

Programme 357, Gert Biesta part 2 (13-3-19)

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney

Theme tune by David Vesey

On this week's programme I bring you more from my interview with Professor Gert Biesta, who is Professor of Public Education at Maynooth University. What comes through in everything he says is the respect and love he has for teaching. Among the wide range of topics we discuss are the following:

• Who he writes for when he writes about education
• Speaking and thinking about education in an educational way
• How philosophy can inform the practice of teachers
• Designing and teaching a module on philosophy for future teachers
• The importance of asking good questions
• The relevance of Kierkegaard and “Double truth giving” in teaching
• Teaching for the possibility of being taught
• John Dewey’s critique of the modern scientific world view
• PE teachers who had a significant impact on him
• Why schools should surprise
• What inspires him

The book he is currently reading is in German and it is Allgemeine Pädagogik by Dietrich Benner. He also referred to the work of Homer Lane, whose most famous book is Talks to Parents and Teachers. He also referred to the book, Beyond the Present and the Particular by Charles H. Bailey.

Programme 356, Gert Biesta, part 1 (6-3-19)

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney

Theme tune by David Vesey

On this week's programme I speak to Gert Biesta who is Professor of Public Education at Maynooth University. Among the topics we discuss on the programme are:

• Why he took up a position in Ireland
• The work of the Centre for Public Education and Pedagogy at Maynooth University
• How he’ll get to know the Irish education system
• How teacher education in Ireland differs from teacher education in England
• The emergence of a competitive mindset in education across countries
• What good education is in an age of measurement
• Balancing three purposes of education
• The place of equity, diversity and social justice in education
• Implications of the disappearance of teaching and the rise of learning over the last 25 years
• The gift of teaching

Programme 355, IPPN Deputy President and Aquaculture Remote Classroom (27-2-19)

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney

Theme music by David Vesey

This week I bring you my third and final episode from the 2019 annual conference of the Irish Primary Principals' Network. First of all I step inside the Aquaculture Remote Classroom to find out what's in store for schools when the mobile classroom visits and I speak to John Hurley of H2 Learning who was involved in designing the experience.

I also speak to Damian White who is Deputy President of the Irish Primary Principals' Network. Among the topics we discuss are:

• The highlight of the conference for him
• Prioritising initiatives for schools
• The role of a school in a community
• How the IPPN has encouraged cooperation across schools
• Teachers who taught him
• How he’d like to be perceived by students in his school