Emma & Tom Talk Teaching (Emma O'Dubhchair & Tom Breeze)

Confession time: quite a long time ago we were asked to provide a recommendation of something interesting from the EBSCO database of education literature for the Education Workforce Council's Meddwl Mawr book and journal club. Teachers registered in Wales can access anything in EBSCO for free, helping to bring education literature goodies to classroom practitioners all over the country.

Finally, we've got our act together and have a discussion for you about initial teacher education reform in Wales in the form of an article by Professor John Furlong and co-authors. Despite the apparently niche subject area, there's plenty in here for anyone in the education world to chew over, so we hope you'll stick with us for the ride!

If you want to read the article, look for Furlong, J., Griffiths, J., Hannigan-Davies, C., Harris, A. and Jones, M. (2021) ‘The reform of initial teacher education in Wales: from vision to reality.’ Oxford Review of Education 47(1) pp. 61-78

You can find the Meddwl Mawr book and journal club at https://www.ewc.wales/site/index.php/en/professional-development/ewc-book-and-journal-club.html

Thanks to our friends at the EWC for the opportunity!

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Recorded in studio B2.16 at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed Campus on 24th October 2022

In this small but perfectly formed episode, Emma and Tom are joined by two guests: Rachel George and Rhodri Jones from Ysgol Maes y Coed, a school for pupils with additional learning needs. Fresh from delivering a session with the PGCE students, Rachel and Rhodri talk about how the expressive arts form a central part of the learning experience for their pupils, whose additional learning needs (ALN) range from autism to physical health issues requiring specialist care and equipment. Rachel and Rhodri are experts at not taking no for an answer, and have pressed industry professionals and celebrities from the world of the expressive arts into service enriching the lives of their pupils!

There's plenty to think about in this track, from how we can use the arts to help pupils access a range of other subjects, to how we listen to the pupil voice to devise our lessons, and how the ALN learners were represented at the heart of the process to devise the new curriculum for Wales.

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Recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed campus on 4th February 2019

Emma and Tom are coming soon with their brand-new podcast! Subscribe on iTunes or anywhere else you get your podcast fix.

We're on twitter - @ethayer_cmu and @thomasbreeze

The second trailer for Emma & Tom's PGCE Podcast. Join us on September 7th for the very first episode.

In their first attempt at a podcast all about the wonderful world of the PGCE, Emma and Tom sit in a boiling hot hotel room in Bolton musing on the BESA2018 conference we have attended. There were talks on everything from equity in international education to school improvement strategies. The wellbeing slot is all about taking the time to do something to enhance your own work life, we shout out to a performance poet from the 2016-17 PGCE drama cohort, and Emma's calorie-free takeout (!) is called 'power walk'.

Spontaneous decisions to record using only the equipment you've brought to a conference don't always result in the best sound quality, so don't judge us on that yet! Normal service will be resumed once we're back in sunny Cardiff.

We're on twitter at @ethayer_cmu and @thomasbreeze so please do come and say hello.

If you want to know more about PISA, take a look here: https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pisa/

If you've not come across John Hattie's work, check out his website: https://visible-learning.org/

See you in a fortnight, when we'll be musing on the many roles played by the people who teach our student teachers.

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Recorded in Bolton on 29th June 2018

Emma and Tom try to get to the bottom of the difference between coaching and mentoring, and what's best for student teachers at different times in their course. The regular wellbeing slot explores an idea from David Allen's famous book 'Getting Things Done', we shout out to a multi-talented drama PGCE student from the 2017-18 cohort, and Tom finds a good use for an hour-long countdown timer in his lessons.

Join us again in a fortnight, when we'll have a guest with us to put the theory into practice and discuss with us how student teachers can get the best from their mentor. (and vice versa!)

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Recorded on 11th July 2018

Emma and Tom are joined this week by guest contributor Sally Bethell, Senior Lecturer in PGCE PE at Cardiff Met.

Sally's research specialism is the relationships between student teachers and their mentors on placement, so she has plenty of good advice for student teachers about how to make the best impression, as well as tips for school mentors about how to ensure the student/mentor relationship is a productive and happy one.

One of Sally's many claims to fame is that she teaches an enormous cohort of around 40 student PE teachers each year, and rarely loses a single student from the course. She shares her secrets to ensuring the wellbeing of her students, and celebrates a football specialist who tried her hand at teaching dance with spectacular results. Finally, in the 'something to try' slot, Sally suggest we all take a good look at the presentation of our resources.

Follow us on twitter: @BethellSally, @ethayer_cmu and @thomasbreeze

See you in a fortnight, when we'll be talking about all things digital!

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Recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed campus on 28th August 2018

Emma and Tom tackle all things digital in episode 4! The introduction of the Digital Competence Framework in Wales, and the rise of digital technology in general, means that teachers need to be able to use a variety of techie tools with confidence and panache. Where do we stand on the debate about technology in the classroom, and how should we approach the arguments on both sides?

The wellbeing slot takes a look at using social media to build a support community while on placement (though it works for serving teachers too!), Tom gives a shoutout to the PGCE Music class of 2018 with a montage created on their mobile phones, and Emma tells us about Finding Nemo round the back of a maths classroom in the Swiss Alps.

If you want to find the book chapter we used today, it's:

Anderson, M. (2011) ‘The Challenge of Technology’ in Masterclass in drama education : transforming teaching and learning. London: Continuum.

See you all in a fortnight, when we'll be taking a look at cross-curricular teaching and learning!

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Recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed campus on 29th August 2018

Episode 5 is all about the joys of working in a cross-curricular (or interdisciplinary) way. Tom makes his way upstairs from his decidedly humble ground-floor room to Emma's glorious penthouse corner office, and proceeds to be rude about the view from the window...

With that small misunderstanding ironed out, Emma and Tom describe a project they have been working on to bring drama and music together, and discuss how the proposed new education system in Wales encourages a breaking-down of the traditional dividing lines between subjects. What does effective cross-curricular teaching and learning look like?

The wellbeing slot focuses on the importance of being aware of your mood, being able to label your emotions, and making the right decisions about what to do when you feel a certain way. The calorie-free takeaway is a warm-up that'll get your classes focused and having fun whatever your subject. And we shout out to the PGCE students starting to take on their full teaching load next week and wish them good luck.

If you want to read more about Emma and Tom's cross-curricular project, Tom's article about it is here: https://www.cumbria.ac.uk/media/university-of-cumbria-website/content-assets/public/education/images/documents/research/tean/Breeze.pdf

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Recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed campus on 27th September 2018

In their longest episode yet (a massive 51 minutes, so settle in!) Emma and Tom discuss the work of Australian educationalist John Hattie, and look into his famous 'visible learning' ranking of factors affecting pupils' learning and progress. The main focus of the discussion is 'jigsaw technique' - a highly-ranked strategy for pupil-led learning of content.

The wellbeing slot takes a turn for the slightly bizarre, with an excellent tip from the world of outdoor survival that involves hot beverages. Our shoutout this time around goes to everyone at Teach First Cymru, and Tom gives us some ideas for thinking more systematically about how we put our pupils together to work in groups.

Join us again next time for a very exciting guest episode featuring Dr. Kate North, Chair of Literature Wales, who'll be talking to us about creative writing and its place in your life!

John Hattie's website is visible-learning.org

The Belbin website is belbin.com

Jigsaw technique is fully explained at jigsaw.org

Sections:

• Main discussion: 0:00 - 34:53
• Wellbeing: 34:53 - 40:24
• Shoutout: 40:24 - 43:03
• Something to Try: 43:03 - 50:30

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Recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed campus on 1st November 2018

Emma and Tom are joined by Dr. Kate North to discuss creative writing: its place as a creative art, its interdisciplinary nature, and the fact that everyone has the right to write!

Kate tells us how creative writing can be used as an innovative way of collecting research data, and how in the process of doing so it can gently break down language barriers, throw light on competing priorities and level the playing field between powerful professions and the public they serve.

In the wellbeing slot, Kate tells us how she keeps motivated to write when nobody's cracking the whip on her, she shouts out to a student for whom an unfortunate diagnosis was the stimulus for becoming a writer, and gives us a creative writing prompt that has us all cringing even while we acknowledge its genius.

Plus, as an added bonus, we didn't want to miss the opportunity of asking Kate to read one of her poems to us! We hope the one we asked for has something to say to all of you - we loved it.

We hope you'll be back next time, when we'll have another special guest who'll be telling us what it's like to be pioneering the new curriculum in Wales.

Kate's latest collection of poems is 'The Way Out' published by Parthian Books: https://www.parthianbooks.com/products/the-way-out

Barbara Stensland's blog is stumblinginflats.com

• Main discussion (Creative Writing as an Expressive Art): (2:05 - 28:50)
• Wellbeing Slot (motivating yourself to write): (28:50 - 32:30)
• Shoutout (Barbara Stensland): (32:30 - 34:55)
• Something to Try (Writing Prompt): (34:55 - 38:40)

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Recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed campus on 1st November 2018

Emma and Tom have taken the PGCE Podcast on the road again (and are hankering after their own PGCE tour bus) - this time to the brand new Ysgol Nantgwyn in Tonypandy. Nantgwyn is a 3-16 school that's a hotbed of innovation for the new curriculum in Wales. Its Head of Expressive Arts is Kath Lewis, a curriculum pioneer who's spent the last few years co-developing the new expressive arts Area of Learning and Experience (AoLE) for the new curriculum here in Wales.

Kath talks to Emma and Tom about what it's been like co-constructing a whole new expressive arts curriculum in heated debates with her fellow pioneers, how you keep school colleagues around you on board when selling major change to them, and brings her own wellbeing tips for us to take on board.

Kath has plenty of talented colleagues at Ysgol Nantgwyn, so the shoutout slot is no problem for her, and her 'something to try' is an approach to differentiation that gives us all food for thought.

Something for everyone in here, hopefully - not just those working in the expressive arts - as being a pioneer is something we might all find ourselves doing at some time in our careers.

Join us next time for a special podcast Christmas treat!

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Recorded at Ysgol Nantgwyn, Tonypandy on 23rd November 2018

It’s that weird bit between Christmas and New Year, and it’s time for a bumper PGCE podcast special!  Emma and Tom are here with a 68-minute epic that contains the absolute bare minimum of wholesome educational content, and an enormous number of self-indulgent treats.

In place of the usual slots, we recommend a few of our favourite podcasts, and Tom tells the story of how the PGCE Podcast came to be. We welcome our special guests, Becky and Amy from ‘And Then What? - the podcast all about stories’, and they bring us the hilarious tale of when a hotel stay went horribly wrong courtesy of a flock of seagulls.

Colleagues from the Department of Initial Teacher Education at Cardiff Met weigh in with their favourite teachers from fiction (in both English and Welsh!), and then it’s time to hear Emma and Tom’s biggest classroom disasters. Be prepared for two sorry tales involving floor polish, rainwater, an infamous Chilean dictator… and the inevitable trips to hospital.

To round off the episode, Becky and Amy return with a Brothers Grimm fairy tale that didn’t quite make it into the pantheon of classics.

You can follow us on twitter: @ethayer_cmu and @thomasbreeze - and our department is @itecardiffmet.

Please do leave us festive thoughts via ratings and reviews, as we haven't got any at the moment...

Thanks for listening, and see you next year!

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Recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed campus on 14th December 2018

Happy new year! The podcast is back with an extended episode featuring not one, but two special guests. Emma and Tom are joined by Dr Judith Kneen who runs the PGCE Secondary English course, and Sharne Watkins, Deputy Head of Initial Teacher Education, PGCE Primary literacy specialist... and Tom's line manager - gulp!

Emma, Tom, Judith and Sharne bring us a meaty 57 minutes in which they review a fairly controversial publication: Daisy Christodoulou's 'Seven Myths about Education' - a book that ruffled a fair few feathers on its publication in 2014, propelled its author to instant fame as a darling of the traditionalist wing of the education world, and had commentators even tipping her as the next head of Ofsted.

The book itself aims to set out seven 'myths' which are apparently dearly-held by 'progressives', and to demolish them with evidence and science. Focusing mainly on the first two myths for reasons of time ('facts prevent understanding' and 'teacher-led instruction is passive'), our intrepid podcast quartet interrogate Christodoulou's work and try to get to the bottom of whether this really is 'the most important book of the decade on teaching' (Dylan Wiliam).

Sharne then provides us with her wellbeing tip, which involves getting your trainers on and going for a walk, a shoutout to a student who changed careers to become a teacher and press-ganged her giant-vegetable-growing friend into participating in a memorable lesson, and looks at how to grab pupils with a memorable 'hook'.

See you in a fortnight, when we'll drag yet another guest into our studio, and provide some sage advice for anyone considering applying for a PGCE.

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Recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed campus on 14th December 2018

It's episode 11 of the podcast, and Emma and Tom are joined by June Hurcom, senior lecturer in early years education, for her first podcasting experience!

This episode is for anyone who's ever felt that they might like to embark on the journey to becoming a teacher, and is full of great advice for things to do (and not to do!) when preparing to apply for a programme that will get you that all-important teaching qualification. From the different routes into the profession to what to do when you get an interview, our podcasters have everything you need to know to help you take those first steps towards teaching.

We've also been back out to our excellent Cardiff Met colleagues who have each given their top tips for applicants - in both English and Welsh - so it's worth a listen in case you find one of them doing your interview...

It's become a PGCE Podcast tradition for our guests to provide their take on the regular slots at the end of the episode, and June has clearly done her homework, rattling through her wellbeing tip, shoutout and something-to-try like a pro. Canine companionship, a fantastic lesson set in space, and an evergreen teaching method to stretch your more able pupils - June's got it all covered!

If you'd like to find out more about how we can help you on your way to becoming a teacher, check out our range of courses here: https://www.cardiffmet.ac.uk/education/Pages/Department-of-Initial-Teacher-Education.aspx

We'll be back next time looking at physical literacy, health and wellbeing - see you soon!

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Recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed campus on 15th January 2019

For episode 12 of the podcast, we're joined by Fiona Heath-Diffey, Programme Leader for PGCE Secondary PE at Cardiff Met. Fiona is doing her PhD research on the concept of physical literacy, and has come in to talk to us about how we can transform the way people think about being physically active, their motivation and the way they view the interface between mind and body through physical literacy. This has big implications for the way subjects such as PE are delivered in school in order to have the most positive effect, and we take a deep dive into what this looks like and how the philosophy translates into good teaching - and how a lifelong love of being physically active is vital for our health and wellbeing.

If you want to read more about physical literacy, check out the work of Professor Margaret Whitehead, and indeed the research being carried out by Fiona and many of her fine colleagues from our very own Cardiff School of Sport & Health Sciences right here at Cardiff Met.

See you next time, when we'll be reviewing another book: Tom Sherrington's 'The Learning Rainforest' - why not get reading your copy now?

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Recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed campus on 29th January 2019

It's time for another book review! Emma and Tom are joined again by Dr Judith Kneen to look at Tom Sherrington's 'The Learning Rainforest', a book that Judith rightly describes as 'a thing' in the education community right now. What will Emma, Tom and Judith make of this book which promises to tell us about 'great teaching in real classrooms'?

After that. Judith brings her wellbeing tip, shoutout and idea to try - we hope you find them useful.

If you want to read more from Tom Sherrington, his blog is teacherhead.com - and if you like our podcast, please do send us a rating, review or tweet. Emma is @ethayer_cmu and Tom is @thomasbreeze.

We'll be back next time with more guests, and an episode all about how we can use the arts to enrich the learning of pupils with additional learning needs, and how everyone should give it a go. See you then!

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Recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed campus on 29th January 2019

Emma and Tom return to their roots with a podcast episode featuring just the two of them - it's been a while! Tom's also relieved to be back in the land of the living after recording the last three episodes back-to-back while suffering from terrible man-flu. With a two-weekly release cycle, that's over a month he's been missing in action on the podcast, occasionally croaking an intervention and then subsiding behind the controls and quaffing Lemsip... now he's sounding much perkier and ready to make a proper contribution!

Episode 15 is another episode discussing a learning strategy that we can all try out from time to time: the flipped classroom. Emma and Tom discuss how they used it to reduce the amount of 'death by powerpoint' in their very limited teaching time with the PGCE students, how to get round concerns about technical knowhow and planning workload, and what they've found in the literature about the strategy.

Tom's wellbeing tip turns into a fairly epic story, but with a useful message for us all about seeking out the people we think are better than us. Emma shouts out to the students who joined us to record episode 16 (definitely tune in for that one in a fortnight!) and also points out that most of us were never taught how to take notes in classes. Of course, she's found a handy idea to give us a much-needed system for capturing all that vital information from our teachers.

Please do rate or review us, and tell your friends about the podcast - we love getting new listeners!

Join us next time when we squeeze four students into Emma's cosy office to discuss the Minister for Education's vision for the future of education here in Wales.

The article about PowerPoint in the Guardian that Tom mentioned is here: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/sep/23/powerpoint-thought-students-bullet-points-information

The article about the teacher who gave up flipped learning is here: https://plpnetwork.com/2012/10/08/flip-love-affair/

The pupil who thinks flipped learning is just teachers slacking off is here: https://www.thewrangleronline.com/13877/opinion/the-flipped-classroom-doesnt-work/

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Recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed campus on 11th March 2019

Emma and Tom are joined by Sally Bethell, Senior Lecturer in PGCE Secondary PE, to discuss the five recommendations at the end of Lucy Crehan's book Cleverlands, in which the intrepid author gets on a plane to find out what lessons can be learned from five countries whose education systems are routinely held up as examples of excellent practice. The final chapter of the book distils everything Crehan learned on her travels into five principles that she feels underly excellent and equitable systems for the education of young people, and Emma, Tom and Sally have plenty to say about these - especially Tom, who is in particularly controversial mood and is now awaiting the arrival of his P45 in the post.

The three regular slots - wellbeing, shoutout and something to try - get a whole new level of challenge when Emma and Tom decide to try recording them remotely: Tom's in Cardiff Met and Emma's at home with her dog, meaning that the whole thing takes place without the benefit of eye contact - and with slightly lower sound quality than we've become used to!

Tom's got another good reason to go for tea with your colleagues: so you can make them your friends. Emma, meanwhile, combines the shoutout and something to try slots into a comprehensive explanation of live modelling as it applies to extended writing, and how Georgina Saunders, an English student teacher on the Teach First programme, used this to impressive effect in a lesson observation.

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This episode was recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed campus on 1st April 2019

It's a cosy recording session in Emma's office this time, as we manage to squeeze four student teachers around the table with us to discuss the future of education, focusing particularly on the curriculum reforms here in Wales.

After attending a talk by the Welsh Education MInister, Kirsty Williams, all four students felt they wanted to share their thoughts on the way things are moving, and the part they have to play as new members of the teaching profession.

With four guests, we get plenty of material for the regular slots, and as an extra bonus we ask them what advice they might have for someone applying to join them in teaching. Their answers are honest, perceptive and inspiring!

It's the middle of the Easter holidays, and Emma and Tom enjoyed recording the last holiday special for Christmas so much that they've decided to do another one!

This time there's a bit more of an educational theme, but a change to the format: Emma and Tom both bring a blog post, a tweet and a story about a teacher into the studio, and neither of them is letting the other have any advance warning of the content...

Emma has an uplifting blog post, a tweet that's a perfect summation of an accountability culture gone mad, and a story of pupil protest, quietly aided and abetted by subversive teachers. Tom plays true to form by starting off firmly on the rails with a blog post about dealing with work overload, and then veers off into the unexpected with a tweet about how to tell if someone is truly powerful, and a news story about an idea for a lesson that can only be described as insane. Emma hangs on for what she describes as a 'white-knuckle ride' of content, musing on whether Tom's about to get them both sacked - so a normal day at the podcast office, then!

If you'd like to take a look at the content that inspired today's episode (and many thanks to all the people responsible for writing it!), please do take a look at the links below:

Tom Sherrington: Overloaded? Out of Control? Press the Reset Button.

Martin Robinson: Cultural Mobility

Ed Morrish: Power

Annie Black: Horror Stamper

Fake Ambitious Assistant Head: Differentiation

The Telegraph: Crazy Lesson Idea

Zapataforever: Protests

Please do rate, review and tell your friends. You can find us on twitter at @ethayer_cmu and @thomasbreeze. Our department at Cardiff Met tweets at @ITECardiffMet.

See you next time!

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This episode was recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed campus on 8th April 2019

Well, this isn’t quite what we expected when we set up the podcast in summer 2018... shortly after the release of episode 16, in which our lovely students discussed a talk by the education minister, we received a message from the minister’s office suggesting that we might be able to get an interview with Kirsty Williams herself!

It’s a big moment for Welsh education, as the draft curriculum has been published and opened up for feedback from the education world at large. As part of launching the new draft curriculum into the world, the minister visited Cardiff Met with some of the orchestrators of the new curriculum to present and take questions.

This episode consists of Kirsty Williams’s speech, an exclusive interview by Emma and Tom with the minister, and a short reaction piece by four PGCE students who were present at the event.

Those of us present at the event also heard words of wisdom from Ty Golding, Head of Curriculum Design and Development at the Welsh Government, and Cat Kucia, headteacher of Jubilee Park Primary School in Newport, and we reference one or two of their points during the discussion. We hope to be speaking to one or both of them in future episodes.

If you enjoyed this episode, please rate, review and spread the word. We’ll be back in a fortnight, when we’ll be talking to our friends from Teach First Cymru.

• 04:10 - Kirsty Williams Speech
• 13:54 - Kirsty Williams Interview
• 31:57 - Student discussion
• 40:07 - Wellbeing, Something to Try, Shoutout

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This episode was recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed campus on 2nd May 2019

We’ve reached episode 20 of the podcast with a certain amount of amazement that we’re still here! After the excitement of episode 19, we’re back in Emma’s office to chat to our friends and colleagues from Teach First Cymru.

Dr Julia Jenkins and Rhian Davies-Jones (Damehood surely just a matter of time) have popped in to talk about one of the strategies that underpins the Teach First philosophy: deliberate practice. What is it? What isn’t it? And why would you want to run bits of lessons in a room with no pupils? Dame Rhian and Dr Julia explain all.

Plus: why it’s nice to have five minutes of quiet time in your car, and shoutouts to @impactwales, #TeamCymru2017 and #TeamCymru2018.

Join us next time for the last episode of the 2018-19 season, when we’ll be back on the road and dropping in on some colleagues from the primary sector to discuss the thorny question of teacher workload!

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This episode was recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed campus on 2nd May 2019

It's the end of the road for the 2018-19 PGCE cohort here at Cardiff Met, and that means it's time to put our last PGCE podcast episode out into the world. It's episode 21 and we've somehow managed to send our ramblings out into the world every fortnight since the start of September!

For our final episode we're back out on the road, visiting Katy Edwards and Sarah Cason, Headteacher and Deputy Head of Palmerston Primary School in Barry. Their passion is tackling the thorny problem of teacher workload, and they've spent years building up a culture in their school where they can keep working to ensure that their staff are doing the right things with the finite amount of time they have available.

The discussion ranges over three perennial trouble-spots: marking, planning and data. Katy and Sarah have a number of common-sense approaches to tell us about, and they reflect on the journey they've taken to get the school where it is now, and the mistakes they've made along the way.

Our regular slots are present and correct, and by the last five minutes, the end-of-season fever has fully taken hold and the recording becomes a fairly riotous affair - we hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we enjoyed making it!

We'd like to say a huge thank you to everyone who's humoured us and appeared on an episode, especially our academic colleagues, school colleagues and students - and not forgetting those unfortunate colleagues who were doorstepped in their offices to contribute to the pre-recorded packages we put out in episodes 9 and 11.

We'll be back in September with more from the PGCE Podcast, and we'll try to put at least one episode out over the summer, too. If you liked our ramblings this year, please do rate, review and tell your friends. We're @ethayer_cmu and @thomasbreeze on Twitter.

Thanks for listening!

All the best from

Emma & Tom

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This episode was recorded at Palmerston Primary School, Barry on 7th May 2019

We're coming back to your podcast feed very soon! Emma and Tom's PGCE Podcast will return for Season 2 on Friday 6th September. We'll have all the deep discussions about teaching that you need to see you through your Friday commute or the weekend, plus regular tips for wellbeing, things to try and pointers to interesting things we've read, heard or watched.

If you haven't subscribed already, you can catch us wherever you get your podcasts. Please rate, review and tell your friends. See you soon!

Emma and Tom are here to interrupt your summer holiday downtime with a public service announcement: there will definitely be a season 2 of Emma and Tom's PGCE Podcast! In the meantime, they've dusted off the microphones to bring you a quick reflection on season 1, some favourite moments from the series, and to look forward to what's coming up in season 2.

We'll be back with episode 1 of the new season on Friday 6th September, so make a date to download, listen and enjoy. And if you haven't subscribed yet, don't forget we're available in all the good podcast places, so please do add us to your feed to get our episodes on your device automatically.

See you again soon!

We're back! It's season 2, and we've decided that the best way to get over the fear of dusting off the microphones and recording a new episode is to call upon the ever-reassuring Dr. Judith Kneen, who is now approaching the status of regular guest and national podcast treasure.

Judith has stopped by to discuss her recent research into how primary and secondary schools are faring with their work to pioneer the new curriculum for Wales, and especially the expressive arts Area of Learning and Experience (AoLE), though plenty of what she says will be relevant to other subject areas too. 'Pioneer schools' were chosen by the Welsh Government to have a go at some aspects of the new curriculum, so they're interesting subjects for research as they get to grips with concepts such as making powerful connections between subject areas.

Judith has lots of interesting things to report about how differently things are going in the primary and secondary age phases, the opportunities and challenges presented, and where things are going next. This will segue smoothly into episode 2, in which we'll discuss with Dr Judith what we've been doing in terms of preparing student teachers for the challenges of teaching in a cross-curricular way.

We also get the chance to give our revamped regular slots a run-out, and Emma has a podcast that gives ample material for all three slots! If you want to check it out for yourself, it's The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish.

If you like what you hear, please rate, review, subscribe and tell your friends! You can find us on Twitter at @ethayer_cmu, @thomasbreeze and @judithkneen respectively. See you next time!

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This episode was recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed campus on 2nd July 2019

It's episode 2, and Dr Judith Kneen is still with us for the second half of this double-bill. We're discussing our ongoing research into how to combine subject disciplines in the expressive arts (though plenty of this will be relevant for those working in other subject areas too). In season 1 episode 5 we described how we jumped in with both feet, trying out some bright ideas with our students with mixed success, and came away with the strong impression that we needed to do some reading.

Fast-forward to this year, and we've done a systematic literature review of all things cross-curricular, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary in the expressive arts, and have come to some interesting conclusions about what creates those all-important 'powerful connections' that we need to make in order for our learning to be meaningful, and for the subject disciplines to be well-served.

In the course of today's deep discussion we explain what we found, present a taxonomy of cross-curricular approaches in the expressive arts, and give some concrete examples of what meaningful (and less meaningful) approaches might look like in the classroom.

For our regular slots, Emma has a quote from the mighty Albert Einstein himself, Tom wants us all to admit to being a bit of a shambles, and there's a suggestion about tracking your time to find out where it all goes.

If you want to read some of the articles that fed into our literature review, check out the references below. See you next time!

References

Barry, A. & Villeneuve, P. (1998) ‘Veni, Vidi, Vici: Interdisciplinary Learning in the Art Museum’, Art Education, 51(1), pp.16-24.

La Porte, A. (2016) ‘Efficacy of the Arts in a Transdisciplinary Learning Experience for Culturally Diverse Fourth Graders’, International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education, 8(3), pp.467-480.

Maria, K. (2015) ‘The Use of Project Method in Teaching Arts’, Review of European Studies, 7(11), pp.159-165.

Pruitt, L., Ingram, D. & Weiss, C. (2014) ‘Found in Translation: Interdisciplinary Arts Integration in Project AIM’, Journal for Learning through the Arts, 10(1).

Risner, D. (2015) ‘Interdisciplinary Teaching Artists: Moving Dialogue’, Journal of Dance Education, 15(1), pp. 33-38.

Roucher, N & Lovano-Kerr, J. (1995) ‘Can the Arts Maintain Integrity in Interdisciplinary Learning?’, Arts Education Policy Review, 96(4), pp. 20-25.

Stavrou, E., Chrysostomou, S. & Socratous, H. (2011) ‘Music Learning in the Early Years: Interdisciplinary Approaches Based on Multiple Intelligences’, Journal for Learning through the Arts, 7(1).

Wenner, G. (1976) ‘Interdisciplinary Approaches to Teaching and Learning: Where do the Arts Fit?’, Art Education, 29(7), pp. 4-8.

Wiggins, R (2001) ‘Interdisciplinary Curriculum: Music Educator Concerns’, Music Educators Journal, 87(5), pp. 40-44.

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This episode was recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed campus on 2nd July 2019

We're back on the road, and have finally got some pupils on the podcast! For this episode, recorded back in July (hence the frequent references to the summer holidays, now a distant memory), we popped down the road to Eastern High School in Cardiff, taking over a room in their shiny new building to interview four special guests.

Georgina Saunders was mentioned in one of the regular slots back in season 1, and now gets the chance to appear in person to tell us about how she pulled off the impressive feat of being the student teacher who took forty pupils to the Hay Festival to develop their love for all things to do with reading. She's joined by Eastern High's librarian, James Emery, who was a vital part of the team who brought it all together. They've got plenty of tips for anyone who can see the value for pupils of putting on something like this, but can't imagine how they'd survive the experience! For good measure, we've got two wonderful pupil guests who went on the trip, who tell us about everything from LGBTQIA+ literature to gothic fiction, the joys of tidying the library and the lovely smell of new books.

If you want to find out more about the Hay Festival, their website is at www.hayfestival.com. Huge thanks to Eastern High School (EasternHigh.org.uk) for hosting us for the recording of this episode and making our four guests available.

The books recommended in this episode were The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach, Circe by Madeline Miller and How to Teach English Literature: Overcoming Cultural Poverty by Jennifer Webb.

Please do let us know what you think with a rating or review in your favoured podcast app (why not subscribe while you're at it?) - or find us on Twitter @ethayer_cmu and @thomasbreeze. You can also find Georgina at @Saunders__G

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This episode was recorded at Eastern High School, Cardiff on 16th July 2019

We’re looking at literacy again today, and particularly what seems to be a perennial problem: the engagement of boys with reading. Our guest is Paul Warren, a former primary headteacher who now advises schools across a wide area of south Wales, and who is in the final stages of a PhD investigating this very area. His approach is to use comics to engage young pupils with stories, and he’s got plenty of interesting things to tell us about his findings, as well as about how rewarding it is to find things out for yourself through action research in the classroom.

Paul also brings us some nice ideas for the wellbeing slot, plus a book recommendation for anyone who wants educational research explained in clear terms (which is pretty much all of us!).

Paul’s book recommendations for this episode were:

Coe, R. et al., 2017. Research methods and methodologies in education 2nd ed. Los Angeles: Sage

McCloud, S. (1994). Understanding comics: [the invisible art]. New York: HarperPerennial.

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This episode was recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed campus on 22nd July 2019

Today we're joined by primary specialist Sian Davies-Barnes to consider a recent report by the Education Endowment Foundation entitled Improving Behaviour in Schools. We love the EEF because they crunch a lot of research, make it clear and accessible and give us several points of entry depending on how busy we are!

This episode is particularly aimed at our student teachers who are just starting their first placements as it goes out, but is equally useful for early career teachers, or anyone looking to distil the wide range of information around behaviour into something manageable.

Check out the EEF's report at https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/tools/guidance-reports/improving-behaviour-in-schools/ or follow them on Twitter at @EducEndowFoundn

Thanks to Sian for dropping by our studio. Don't forget to tune in next time, when we have an interview with a very special guest indeed...!

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This episode was recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed campus on 30th September 2019

We've got a very special treat for you this episode - an exclusive half hour interview with none other than Professor Graham Donaldson, author of the Successful Futures report in 2015 that made 68 recommendations for reform of the education system in Wales. His name is used as a shorthand for the new curriculum that was finally published in draft in the summer of 2019, and somehow, we're still not sure how, we managed to grab an extended interview with the man himself. In it, we discuss how the report came to be written, what it's like being the lightning-rod for endless Twitter debate, where our lovely student teachers fit into the picture, and - of course - how Professor Donaldson himself looks after his wellbeing.

The interview itself was recorded in a conference venue that was being packed away around us, so please forgive us for the background noise!

Huge thanks to Professor Donaldson for his generosity. Thanks also to the coffee shop employee who didn't throw us out when we turned our table into a temporary studio to record the opening and closing segments of this episode.

We'll be back for half term with something for the holidays. See you then!

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This episode was recorded at the Park Inn Hotel, Cardiff (and Starbucks, The Hayes, Cardiff!) on 3rd October 2019

Teachers should always practise what they preach, and we firmly believe that the holidays are a great opportunity to do just that! So we want everyone to make time for a break from whatever they do in the hard-working world of education. In true teacher style, we've provided you with a resource to assist!

It's a small but perfectly-formed episode following the 'blogs, tweets and stories' format that was so successful in the Easter break last year, and we'd like you to listen while doing something restorative - whether that's a walk, a bit of sofa time or a trip to the coffee shop, we don't mind!

On with the show, then: Tom has a piece from the Guardian which encourages us to use a Japanese technique to get real about how many things we should be doing at once. Emma has a tweet with something to try which gets the parents on board, and then we move on to the stories, givign Tom his customary opportunity to sail close to the wind. Grabbing the opportunity with both hands, Tom makes yet another attempt to get the podcast taken down permanently with a story about a rogue supply teacher. Please ensure any small, innocent children (or adults) are safely out of earshot! Emma, meanwhile, introduces a teacher-related tale from our friends at And Then What? The Podcast All About Stories which reminds us to laugh at ourselves.

You can find the original material here:

Overwhelmed with your to-do lists? Try this simple solution - Oliver Burkeman

What a lovely week - @MissKP10

Substitute teacher goes rogue - New York Post (apologies for crediting this as the Washington Post on the recording!)

And Then What? - The Podcast All About Stories

Have a wonderful half term break and we'll be back in a fortnight with a pair of episodes looking at literacy. See you then!

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This episode was recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed campus on 17th October 2019

For our final episode of the Christmas term, we welcome an award-winning researcher to our humble studio! Bethan Rowlands joined Cardiff Met from our friends at the University of South Wales at the start of this year, and promptly won a BERA award for a poster presentation on raising awareness fo dyscalculia. Dyscalculia is, as Bethan describes it, dyslexia with numbers, and is very much the poor relation of the much better-known condition of dyslexia.

Bethan explains to us the personal journey which led her to find out more about the condition, the dawning realisation that it was almost unheard of for a pupil to be diagnosed with it, and her work raising awareness in the student teachers that she works with.

If you think you might have dyscalculia, or as a teacher you want to know more about it, you can contact the British Dyslexia Society (yes, they do dyscalculia as well!), or check out the authors that Bethan names in the end credits.

We'll be back one more time in 2019 for our festive episode. See you then!

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This episode was recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed campus on 17th October 2019

Happy New Year / Blwyddyn Newydd Dda to you all! We've gone back on the road, battling through torrential rain to the town of Caerphilly, where we tracked down what can only be described as edu-twitter royalty! Yes, it's the mighty Impact Wales, aka Finola and Jane, who provide tailored support to schools. However, for those of us without a school budget to play with, Impact Wales are probably better known for filling Twitter with wonderful sketchnotes, each of them informed by a solid bed of research, and serving up the findings of that research in a single graphic.

We know lots of you are, like us, huge fans of their work, so we thought it was high time to get inside Impact Wales HQ and ask them how they ended up as a team, what they do, and how we can all be a bit more impact-focused in our working lives.

And while we were there, we couldn't resist asking Finola and Jane for their responses to our regular slots: wellbeing and something interesting - only letting them off 'something to try' because there was so much of that in the main discussion!

To see more from Sylvia Duckworth, who inspired Finola's sketchnoting in the first place, go to sylviaduckworth.com

For more from our lovely friends at Impact Wales, you need to go to impact.wales and sign up. Go on, you know you need their sketchnotes in your life!

We'll be back in a fortnight, returning to the question of how we effectively coach and mentor student teachers and colleagues in an educational setting. See you then!

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This episode was recorded at the offices of Impact Wales on 10th December 2019

If you've been with us since the start, you may remember our second-ever episode, in which we sat in Emma's house and discussed coaching and mentoring. We were inspired by a talk by a colleague from another university, Jordan Allers, to chew over the different ways we can help novice teachers (as well as more experienced colleagues) to improve their practice.

Well, now we can return to the discussion because the wonderful Jordan Allers has jumped ship and joined us here at Cardiff Met! We managed to track him down and bring him to the microphone to put some substance on the original discussion, and to give us some pointers about how we in the teaching profession can raise our mentoring game!

Tackling the regular slots, Jordan reveals himself as a lover of organisation, as well as providing us with some reading material and something to try that relates to today's topic.

We hope you enjoy what Jordan has to say. We'll be back in a fortnight, when we'll be discussing the role of educational research with Professor David James of Cardiff University.

References

Adair, J. (2006) Effective Leadership Development. London: Jaico Publishing House.

Campbell, J. (2016) ‘Coaching in Schools’, in Van Nieuwerburgh, C. (ed.) Coaching in Professional Contexts. London: SAGE Publications.

Colwell, J. et al. (2015) Reflective Teaching in Early Education. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.

Donaldson, G. (2015) Successful Futures: Independent Review of Curriculum and Assessment Arrangements in Wales. Available at: https://gov.wales/docs/dcells/publications/150225-successful-futures-en.pdf (Accessed 21 August 2018).

Estyn (2001) Good Practice in the Leadership and Management of Primary Schools in Wales. Cardiff: Estyn Publications.

Fletcher, S. and Mullen, C. (eds) (2012) The Sage Handbook of Mentoring and Coaching in Education. London: SAGE Publications.

Furlong, J. (2015) Teaching Tomorrow’s Teachers: Option for the future of initial teacher education in Wales [Online]. Available at: https://gov.wales/docs/dcells/publications/150309-teaching-tomorrows-teachers-final.pdf (Accessed: 22 August 2018

Harris, A. (2008) Distributed School Leadership, Developing Tomorrow's Leaders. Oxon: Routledge.

Harris, A. (2014) Distributed Leadership Matters. Perspectives, Practicalities, and Potential. London: SAGE Publications.

Hughes, M. (2013) Coaching and Mentoring Training Course (School-based CPD), October 2013.

Langdon, F. (2017) Learning to mentor: unravelling routine practice to develop adaptive mentoring expertise, Teacher Development. DOI: 10.1080/13664530.2016.1267036 (Accessed: 9 October 2019)

Langdon, F. and Ward, L. (2015) Educative Mentoring: a way forward, International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education. https://doi.org/10.1108/

IJMCE-03-2015-0006 (Accessed: 9 October 2019)

OECD (2018b) The Future of Education and Skills: Education 2030. Available at: https://www.oecd.org/education/2030/E2030%20Position%20Paper%20(05.04.2018).pdf (Accessed 21 December 2018

Pask, R. and Joy, B. (2007) Mentoring-coaching, a guide for education professionals. Berkshire: Open University Press.

Rhodes, C., Stokes, M. and Hampton, G. (2004) A Practical Guide to Mentoring, Coaching and Peer-networking. Teacher Professional Development in Schools and Colleges. London: RoutledgeFalmer.

Spence, G. (2016) ‘Coaching for Optimal Functioning’, in Van Nieuwerburgh, C. (ed.) Coaching in Professional Contexts. London: SAGE Publications.

Thomson, B. (2014) First Steps in Coaching. London: SAGE.

Warwick, J. and Wolpert, M A. (2014) ‘Making the Most of Your Placements’, in Cremin, T. and Arthur, J. (eds) Learning to Teach in the Primary School. Oxon: Routledge.

Welsh Government (2014) Principles of Mentoring and Coaching [Online]. Available at: http://learning.gov.wales/docs/learningwales/publications/140214-curee-leaflet-en.pdf (Accessed: 11 December 2018).

Welsh Government (2017) Professional standards for teaching and leadership. [Online]. Available at: http://learning.gov.wales/docs/learningwales/publications/170901-professional-standards-for-teaching-and-leadership-en.pdf (Accessed 20 August 2018).

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This episode was recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed campus on 26th November 2019

Merry Christmas from us both! For your festive pleasure, we present the 12 days of Christmas in the form of 12 items drawn from our regular topics of 'wellbeing', 'something interesting' and 'something to try' - four of each.

It's a slightly more wholesome Christmas special than last year, but hopefully there's something in here for everyone, from substantial academic text recommendations to wellbeing tips and a vintage Tom item in the form of 'the bus factor'.

Please do rate and review us if you have a moment. We'll be back on January 10th, when we'll be talking to edu-twitter royalty in the form of Finola and Jane from Impact Wales. See you then!

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This episode was recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed campus on 19th December 2019

In an episode recorded in the final hours before we staggered into the sunset for our Christmas break (indeed, just a few hours before we recorded the Christmas special episode!), we travelled the short distance to the other university in Cardiff: the mighty Cardiff University, member of the Russell Group and now officially part of the Cardiff Partnership for Initial Teacher Education.

While not involved in the training of school teachers, Cardiff University has an education department staffed with top-flight, internationally-renowned researchers, so we wanted to have a chat with one of them about the various knotty questions around how we can work to close a perceived gap between academic research and classroom practice.

Professor David James kindly invited us to his office for a conversation which ranged widely across some really interesting questions in this important area, and we hope you find the discussion as thought-provoking as we did.

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This episode was recorded at the Glamorgan Building, Cardiff University on 19th December 2019

A slightly different episode for February half term - this is our reflection on a talk we attended in September which was presented by the Singaporean ITE specialist Professor Pak Tee Ng. An adviser to the Scottish government on their education reforms, the professor was making a quick trip to Wales to deliver a 'masterclass' entitled 'The Singapore Story'. Singapore is the world's highest-ranking education system according to the international PISA tests (with Wales considerably further down the list!) so we were eager to hear what he had to say, and we weren't disappointed.

On returning from the talk back at the start of this academic year, we sat down and recorded a podcast episode with our thoughts, which was then promptly relegated to the 'we have no idea when to put this out' folder, and then became our unofficial 'emergency episode', to fill a gap if something went disastrously wrong with something else!

More than four months later, with no sign of a podcast disaster, we decided that if we didn't release the episode soon it would be too old to use, so we hope you enjoy our belated reflections on the force of nature that is Professor Pak Tee Ng.

If you'd like to read the Professor's book, it's 'Learning from Singapore: The Power of Paradoxes' published by Routledge. Enjoy!

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This episode was recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed campus on 30th September 2019

Today, we’re gatecrashing one of the lecture theatres at Cardiff Metropolitan University to join our student teachers as they grapple with some of the big issues in education today. In a special (very) extended edition of the podcast, recorded live in front of an audience of PGCE primary and secondary students, we’ve gathered together a panel of speakers who represent school senior leadership, government, the regional consortia and academia to present and discuss on the topic of curriculum design.

Speaking just three days after the publication of the final version of the Curriculum for Wales, due to be implemented in schools from 2022, our panellists are generous with their thoughts and advice to the next generation of the profession, making it clear that we need to become curriculum designers as well as classroom practitioners.

Our panel consists of:

• Dr. Kevin Smith from Cardiff University
• Gareth Rein from St Joseph’s Roman Catholic Primary School in Penarth
• Barry Crompton from Stanwell School in Penarth
• Nicky Hagendyk from the Education Achievement Service regional consortium
• Sonny Singh from the Welsh Government

Following their presentations, the panel answer questions posed by the audience.

This event took place twice (as we have a lot of student teachers!), and you can hear the audience Q&A from the other session (featuring a slightly different lineup of panellists) in a bonus episode also released today.

If you’ve been inspired to ‘read, read, read’, the book recommendations from Kevin and Gareth are listed below to get you started.

Dr. Kevin Smith

Dewey, J. (1938) Experience and Education. New York, Macmillan.

Eisner, E. W. (1979) The educational imagination: on the design and evaluation of school programs. New York: Macmillan

Freire, P. (2014). Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 30th Anniversary Edition. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing.

Hooks, B. (1994) Teaching to transgress : education as the practice of freedom. New York/London: Routledge.

Illich, I.D. (1996) Deschooling society. London: Marion Boyars

March, C. J., & Willis, G. (2007) Curriculum: alternative approaches, ongoing issues. Upper Saddle River, NJ: University of Rhode Island

Tyler, R.W. (1949) Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction. London: The University of Chicago Press.

Gareth Rein

Hirsch, E. D. (1989). Cultural literacy. Melbourne: Schwartz

Willingham, D.T. (2009) Why don't students like school? a cognitive scientist answers questions about how the mind works and what it means for your classroom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

Christodoulou, D. (2014) Seven myths about education. London: Routledge

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This episode was recorded live at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed campus on 31st January 2020.

While anyone who knows anything about education (and especially primary education) will know that literacy is a Very Big Deal, our guests this episode want to talk about something very specific and slightly different: reading for pleasure. Could it be that such a strong focus on literacy skills might mean that the simple pleasure of reading things for fun might be getting squeezed out? How can we as teachers help our pupils to be motivated to read for pleasure?

In the last of our suite of episodes this year on the theme of literacy (the others being episodes 6 and 7), we're joined by Jo Bowers from Cardiff Metropolitan University, Claire Douglas from Clytha Primary School in Newport and Lucy Matthews from Llanedeyrn Primary School in Cardiff to discuss how they have set up a 'reading for pleasure' group for teachers to support them in knowing what books are out there and how to get pupils reading.

If you're inspired by this episode to investigate what support is out there to get a reading for pleasure culture going  in your school, you can email Jo directly at jbowers@cardiffmet.ac.uk. You can read the report on ethnic diversity in childrens' books that Claire mentions in the episode here.

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Recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed campus on 20th January 2020

Our curriculum design panel mega-episode landed in your feed today, with nearly two hours of thought-provoking presentations and discussion about curriculum design and the new Curriculum for Wales. We actually ran this event twice on the day so that every one of our PGCE students could see it. The second run had a slightly different panel - Kathryn Lewis from Central South Consortium replaced Nicky Hagendyck and Lloyd Hopkin from the Welsh Government replaced Sonny Singh. We retained the services of Dr Kevin Smith, Gareth Rein and Barry Crompton.

The second batch of students also had some great questions for the panel, and we didn't want you to miss out on hearing these, so we hope you enjoy an additional 20 minutes with our experts.

In an episode which was bumped from its original position in the schedule by the global Coronavirus pandemic, we've gathered together two of our international student teachers - both from Canada - to talk about what it's like to train as a teacher in Wales when you've come to us from another country. From the practicalities of explaining to the pupils where you're from to the differences between education systems, Rachel and Ben have got first-hand advice for anyone looking to take the plunge and hop on a plane!

We certainly hope you'll consider coming to train in Wales soon!

Our regular slots this episode focus heavily on how to stay happy and well when you've come to a new country to do a challenging course, so keep listening to the end for some great advice.

If you're in Canada and want to teach abroad, you can check out canteach.net, and anyone outside the UK can contact our wonderful international office at cardiffmet.ac.uk/international

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Recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed campus on 7th February 2020

We’ve travelled a whole mile away from campus for this episode, for the very first ResearchED Cymru event. ResearchED is an organisation aimed at bringing educational research to teachers in a way they can use, promoting the idea that knowing about the clues to ‘what works’ that current research gives us as teachers can save us chasing myths or getting stuck in practice that’s not the best for our pupils.

ResearchED events happen on Saturdays, and this year the organisation came to Wales for the first time. There was a star-studded list of speakers for teachers to choose from… and us!

While we waited to give our presentation on cross-curricular pedagogies in the expressive arts (see episode 2 of this season of the podcast for details of what we were talking about), we attended some interesting presentations, watched a video message from the mighty Dylan Wiliam, and grabbed some informal interviews with some of the big-name speakers.

Now we’ve glued it all together, along with an interview with Gareth Rein who organised the event, and our own musings on the day, to give a flavour of ResearchED to anyone who hasn’t managed to attend the real thing.

Our grateful thanks to everyone who contributed to this episode, and to ResearchED for inviting us to speak!

Our contributors this episode, in order of appearance:

• Gareth Rein (Headteacher of St Joseph’s RC Primary School, Penarth)
• Dylan Wiliam (Emeritus Professor of educational assessment at UCL, co-author of the seminal Inside the Black Box and AfL guru)
• Mary Myatt (author of The Curriculum: Gallimaufry to Coherence)
• David Didau (author of Making Kids Cleverer: A Manifesto for Closing the Advantage Gap and loads of other books)

We also feature a blog post by John Tomsett, headteacher of Huntington School in York, which you can find here.

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Recorded at Cardiff High School on 29th February 2020

In an unfortunate quirk of the episode schedule, we were originally going to put out a lovely episode about our community of international students who travel to Wales to train as teachers here. But that just seemed like adding insult to injury when we’re all confined to our homes by the global Covid-19 pandemic, so we’ve postponed the release of that episode and cobbled together a lockdown special for you to enjoy, if enjoy is the right word.

With Tom sitting in a deserted university campus and Emma speaking down-the-line from her house, we discuss the very sudden transition of educational institutions to remote learning approaches. What can we realistically expect to achieve as teachers in this new environment, and how do we keep a critical eye when investigating the huge flood of resources that have been kindly made available by individuals and institutions as a response to the global lockdown?

We’re assisted by a blog post from the mighty Tom Sherrington which gives lots of practical advice to those grappling with a new way of working.

With many of us wondering whether we might have more time to read, reflect and ponder the big educational questions, we also bring you a discussion of a chapter of Mary Myatt’s book The Curriculum: Gallimaufry to Coherence which started off as a remote-learning resource for our students before being repackaged for our podcast audience.

We’ll do our best to keep our normal service going as much as possible, and hope all our listeners and their families and friends are keeping safe and well.

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Recorded remotely on 20th March 2020

With the nation still in lockdown, and no prospect of normal life resuming, our intrepid podcasting pair have used all the ingenuity and bloody-mindedness that comes as standard with classroom teachers everywhere to bring you some light relief, despite our enforced separation now well into its third week (or fifth, by the time this hits your devices).

With Emma still speaking down the line from her house, and Tom’s car parked in his street doing sterling work as a recording studio (picking up the all-important WiFi signal through the front room window), we’ve scoured the internet to bring you our trademark mix of high-minded, substantial reflection on the world of education (Emma) and a load of bizarre ramblings from way out of left-field (Tom).

We flatter ourselves that the overall effect is something that will at least while away 40 minutes of lockdown time, so kick back, ignore your children trashing the house [or is that just mine? - Tom] and enjoy the audio equivalent of that meal you cooked from things you chipped from the ice encrusting the inside of your freezer when you were too scared to get fresh food from the shops.

As an added bonus, listen with a mixture of horror and pity as our flimsy masks of professionalism finally slip and we get an unstoppable case of the giggles courtesy of Tom’s final offering.

If you’ve been affected by any of the issues raised in this programme (basically, if you are a senior leader who wants to put the case for misunderstood SLT everywhere, or you have suggestions for crimes against education that are punishable through the medium of cake) please tweet us: @ethayer_cmu or @thomasbreeze

We’ll be back in a fortnight with an audio relic from a distant age, when ‘social distancing’ was that thing you did when you sat at the opposite end of the staff meeting from the person who asks all the awkward questions: namely, our episode from ResearchED Cymru. We’ve got exclusive interviews with Mary Myatt and David Didau, plus a talk from the almighty Dylan Wiliam (of ‘Inside the Black Box’ fame) himself.

Stay safe!

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Recorded remotely on 1st April 2020

Our recent mega-episode on curriculum design featured, amongst other stars, Dr Kevin Smith from Cardiff University. His presentation to our student teachers encouraged them to think about their values and beliefs, and question everything, while also giving them a rucksack-full of book recommendations.

We decided it would be good to invite Dr Kevin back for a longer discussion about curriculum theory and, undeterred by the Coronavirus lockdown, we got him on the line from his house to expand on his ideas.

We hope you enjoy our discussion! Dr Kevin Smith’s blog can be found here: https://blogs.cardiff.ac.uk/drkevinsmith/

Reading List

Curriculum Theorists:

• Elliot Eisner
• Paulo Freire
• Henry Giroux
• William Pinar
• Joseph Schwab
• Ralph Tyler

Books:

March, C. J., & Willis, G. (2007) Curriculum: alternative approaches, ongoing issues. Upper Saddle River, NJ: University of Rhode Island

Pinar, W., Reynolds, W., Slattery, P., & Taubman, P. (1995). Understanding curriculum: An introduction to the study of historical and contemporary curriculum discourses. New York: Peter Lang.

Tyler, R.W. (1949) Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction. London: The University of Chicago Press.

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Recorded remotely on 16th April 2020

It's the final episode for this season of the PGCE podcast, and we've got a fascinating discussion that gives our listeners plenty to chew over, whether you're a brand-new member of the profession or a high-powered senior leader.

We're joined again by Dr Judith Kneen to discuss an article she has lead-authored, entitled Pioneer teachers: how far can individual teachers achieve agency within curriculum development?

We hear a lot about the need for teachers to have more agency - the power to do things, essentially - and this is a major change in direction after decades in which teacher agency has been reduced by the introduction of a central National Curriculum and an increasingly challenging accountability culture. Here in Wales, our pioneer teachers, who met to co-construct the new curriculum documents for the Curriculum for Wales were essentially also pioneers of a major shift in teacher agency. Judith was there during the process to see what it looked like.

Judith's article asks some powerful questions about the extent of teachers' agency at primary and secondary, and how the view changes if you look at the individual, school or national level.

The findings raise some challenging topics of conversation about where the potential sticking-points for teacher agency lie, and where we need to look to address potential obstacles to giving teachers the agency they need.

In a final run-out for the regular slots this year, Tom returns to the celebrated Daisy Christodoulou for a book recommendation (and is a lot more positive than last time), the team reflect on how we use our existing teacher skills to navigate the brave new world of coronavirus-lockdown remote teaching, and Emma's wellbeing recommendation is a stock-take of all the things we've stopped doing during the pandemic. Do we really need to start doing them all again once things are back to normal?

Judith's article will be published somewhere once the academic peer-review process reaches its slow and stately conclusion; we'll update these show-notes with a reference once publication is complete.

That's it for this academic year. Thanks for sticking with us, especially while we worked out how to keep recording while in separate locations - apologies for the lapses in sound quality. Our very best wishes to all our listeners, and especially the Initial Teacher Education students of Cardiff Metropolitan University (PGCE and BA) who have been loyal and supportive listeners this year, and many of whom had to deal with the shutdown of their schools mid-placement.

Once we've recovered from the insanity that is the end of the PGCE year, we'll record a few bits and bobs to see you through the summer, so keep an eye on your podcast feeds. Please do rate and review us, and tell your friends about the podcast. We'd love to hear your suggestions for topics for next year (we will be back!) so feel free to tweet us: @ethayer_cmu and @thomasbreeze.

Have a wonderful summer, keep well and we'll be back very soon!

All the best from Emma and Tom

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Recorded remotely on 27th May 2020

We're joined again by Dr Judith Kneen to discuss an article she has lead-authored, entitled Pioneer teachers: how far can individual teachers achieve agency within curriculum development?

We hear a lot about the need for teachers to have more agency - the power to do things, essentially - and this is a major change in direction after decades in which teacher agency has been reduced by the introduction of a central National Curriculum and an increasingly challenging accountability culture. Here in Wales, our pioneer teachers, who met to co-construct the new curriculum documents for the Curriculum for Wales were essentially also pioneers of a major shift in teacher agency. Judith was there during the process to see what it looked like.

Judith's article asks some powerful questions about the extent of teachers' agency at primary and secondary, and how the view changes if you look at the individual, school or national level.

The findings raise some challenging topics of conversation about where the potential sticking-points for teacher agency lie, and where we need to look to address potential obstacles to giving teachers the agency they need.

In a final run-out for the regular slots this year, Tom returns to the celebrated Daisy Christodoulou for a book recommendation (and is a lot more positive than last time), the team reflect on how we use our existing teacher skills to navigate the brave new world of coronavirus-lockdown remote teaching, and Emma's wellbeing recommendation is a stock-take of all the things we've stopped doing during the pandemic. Do we really need to start doing them all again once things are back to normal?

Judith's article will be published somewhere once the academic peer-review process reaches its slow and stately conclusion; we'll update these show-notes with a reference once publication is complete.

That's it for this academic year. Thanks for sticking with us, especially while we worked out how to keep recording while in separate locations - apologies for the lapses in sound quality. Our very best wishes to all our listeners, and especially the Initial Teacher Education students of Cardiff Metropolitan University (PGCE and BA) who have been loyal and supportive listeners this year, and many of whom had to deal with the shutdown of their schools mid-placement.

Once we've recovered from the insanity that is the end of the PGCE year, we'll record a few bits and bobs to see you through the summer, so keep an eye on your podcast feeds. Please do rate and review us, and tell your friends about the podcast. We'd love to hear your suggestions for topics for next year (we will be back!) so feel free to tweet us: @ethayer_cmu and @thomasbreeze.

Have a wonderful summer, keep well and we'll be back very soon!

All the best from Emma and Tom

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Recorded remotely on 27th May 2020

Do not adjust your set: there are some sound quality issues in the first half of this episode, as were recording in three different locations over the Internet. Sorry!

This episode was recorded while we were in full-on coronavirus lockdown, and on the line linking Emma and Tom we also have Elizabeth MacGregor. Currently a doctoral student at the University of Sheffield, Elizabeth was described by Cambridge University's John Finney as 'a British philosopher of music education' in the wake of the publication of her article Justifying Music in the National Curriculum. The article is certainly a gripping read and has plenty to say to all of us in education, regardless of whether we're music specialists.

Elizabeth has also had a second article published recently: Participatory performance in the secondary music classroom and the paradox of belonging, which is a great example of practitioner research.

Over the course of this episode you can hear us enjoy a wide-ranging conversation with Elizabeth. While much of it is rooted in music and the performing arts, the themes are sufficiently broad and important that everyone should get something useful out of it, whether it's questioning how we achieve social justice in our teaching, or taking on board Elizabeth's impassioned call for teachers to engage in classroom-based research. We hope you enjoy it!

Elizabeth's articles can be found at:

Bate, E. (2020) 'Justifying music in the national curriculum: The habit concept and the question of social justice and academic rigour', British Journal of Music Education, 37(1), pp. 3-15.

MacGregor, E. H. (2020) 'Participatory performance in the secondary music classroom and the paradox of belonging', Music Education Research, 22(2), pp. 229-241.

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Recorded remotely on 18th May 2020

Just a week to go until Emma & Tom's PGCE Podcast returns for its third season! Here's a little trailer to whet your appetite. Tune in on Friday 4th September for our first episode, in which we discuss philosophies of teaching and teacher education. See you soon!

In the first of a series of episodes this year on the loose theme of 'ethics in teaching', we're delighted to bring you an interview with Catrina Kirkland of the Holocaust Educational Trust. This episode is all about how we approach teaching difficult or sensitive subjects, and Cat has a wealth of strategies and thoughts to help us deal with one of the biggest, most sensitive and problematic subjects of them all - the Holocaust.

In a fascinating and wide-ranging discussion, Cat explains the importance of the human angle, how to avoid unconsciously reinforcing problematic ideologies and ideas, and gives us an insight into her pedagogical approaches when working with teachers and student teachers. She also reflects on how the new Curriculum for Wales gives us opportunities to make connections that allow subject specialists to support one another to create a rich and deep learning experience for pupils - though you can also try this if you're outside Wales, of course!

The Holocaust Educational Trust has a wealth of resources on its website: het.org.uk

This episode was recorded during the international Covid-19 pandemic, when travel was restricted, and so Cat joined us down the line from Reading. Apologies for the issues with the sound quality that we experienced during the recording!

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Recorded remotely on 2nd June 2020

It's a momentous day for the PGCE podcast! This week we managed to meet and record in person, which was the first time we'd seen each other outside of a screen for FIVE MONTHS. And it's doubly momentous because this is our first episode sound-edited by Emma!

Using some suitably social-distance-friendly long cables, we produced our first al fresco recording, to bring you a quick reflection and reminiscence on season 2 of the podcast, plus a look forward to some of the goodies we've got planned for you in season 3.

We hope everyone's having a wonderful summer, and are keeping well and safe. Enjoy the rest of it, and we'll be back with our first full episode of season 3 on Friday 4th September, bright and early as usual. Bye for now!

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Recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed campus on 11th August 2020

We're back! And to celebrate the start of season 3 we're back together in person, recording safely outdoors (complete with strange background noises) to bring you a bumper first episode to help you get thinking about your philosophy.

As teacher educators, we sit in a sometimes uncomfortable place outside the schools where our students undertake their placements, and it's important for all of us to understand what we're for, what we do and why we don't just point student teachers at a school and let them get on with it. The Universities' Council for the Education of Teachers recently published a position paper setting out the principles on which we work, so we start by chewing that over with our good friends Dr Judith Kneen and Jordan Allers.

After that, we respond to a comment by our student teachers themselves that they'd like to know more about our own philosophies as teachers - we've got a collection of short pieces from colleagues around campus, and we explain our own philosophies as teachers.

Hopefully this will give you a nice bit of food for thought for the new school year. As we all get to grips with going back to school, having had a lot of assumptions and norms challenged over the past six months, this is a great moment to pause and ask yourself: what's my philosophy?

You can find the UCET paper here: https://www.ucet.ac.uk/11675/intellectual-base-of-teacher-education-report-updated-february-2020

Thanks to our colleagues who contributed to today's episode: Jordan Allers, Fiona Heath-Diffey, Dr Judith Kneen and Julia Longville.

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Recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed campus on 11th August 2020

With some excitement we find ourselves recording back on our beloved university campus - but outdoors to avoid having too many lines on our risk assessment! With suitably long wires plugged in, our podcast duo tackle the very topical concept of resilience, with the aid of a number of sources that we've mashed up to help us. Having become something of a hot buzzword even before we all found ourselves battling the coronavirus, resilience is a tricky concept to nail down, but very relevant to those of us in an education profession that can test our resilience to the maximum, whether we're at the start of our careers or grizzled old pros.

This episode is illustrated with some carefully chosen snippets from the following sources, and we believe we're on the right side of the fair use copyright provisions, but are willing to stand corrected if either the BBC or Harvard want to tell us otherwise! Either way, we'd urge you to visit these sources to enjoy them in full:

BBC Radio 4: The Science of Resilience https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07cvhrs

Harvard University: The Science of Resilience https://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/inbrief-the-science-of-resilience/

Emma's book recommendation is:

Eddo-Lodge, Renni (2017), Why I'm no longer talking to white people about race. London: Bloomsbury

...and her radio recommendation is:

Desert Island Discs: Sinead Burke https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000j7q5

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Recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed campus on 11th August 2020

It's time for another addition to our new strand of episodes loosely entitled 'ethics in teaching', and for this we've called upon the expertise of Rachael Morgan-Jones. Rachael has had a very successful career teaching music in schools where an enormous number of cultures, languages, faiths and backgrounds come together. She's here to argue that there are exciting opportunities to make a difference and broaden our own minds as teachers, and gives us some specific examples of how this can work in her specialist subject.

We hope Rachael's specific experience serves as a great stimulus for all of us from our different subject specialisms to look at how we work with the many different cultures and backgrounds that our pupils bring to the classroom.

See you in a fortnight, and huge thanks again to Rachael for her time and expertise!

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Recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed Campus and remotely on 24th September 2020

Congratulations, fellow education specialists - we've made it to October half term! We're doing our bit for the Welsh lockdown and have fired up the remote recording gear to bring you our latest offering from our houses (so please accept our apologies for the odd glitch in the sound quality). Since we're at the half-time break in a very long and very strange term, we thought this would be another good time to model excellent practice by letting our hair down and putting something out that's a little lighter and looser than usual. As ever, Emma brings the substance, with a couple of book extracts and a tweet thread that muse on the nature of being a teacher. Tom brings us a blog, a heartwarming tweet about his previous life in the classroom, and the usual random news story with only the most tenuous link to education.

If you want to read any of the material from this episode, here are the links, in order of appearance:

Myatt, M. (2020) Should it stay or should it go? Available at: https://www.marymyatt.com/blog/should-it-stay-or-should-it-go (Accessed: 27/10/20)

Clanchy, K. (2019) Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me. London: Picador

Saunders, G. (2020) This year I have a lively Y9 class... [Twitter] 2 October. Available at https://twitter.com/Saunders__G/status/1312164724209938432 (Accessed: 27/10/20)

Saunders, G. (2020) ...late night musings continued... [Twitter] 3 October. Available at https://twitter.com/Saunders__G/status/1312165642166960128 (Accessed: 27/10/20)

Garrigan, M (2020) This memory popped up on Facebook... [Twitter] 16 October. Available at https://twitter.com/mandiegarrigan/status/1317027878358425603 (Accessed: 27/10/20)

Franklin, A (2020) Swearing parrots removed from public view at popular Lincolnshire attraction. Available at https://www.lincolnshirelive.co.uk/news/local-news/lincolnshire-wildlife-park-swearing-parrots-4554933 (Accessed: 27/10/20)

Mackesy, C. (2019) The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse. London: Ebury

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Recorded remotely on 21st October 2020

This week we've got a guest from our friends at the University of South Wales - it's Professor Brendan Cropley, who is a professor of sport coaching. The world of elite sports has plenty to tell those of us in education about reflecting on our performance, so we asked Brendan to join us on the line to chat about his work.

Brendan has a wealth of down-to-earth advice for any of us engaged in reflection, whether as an experienced teacher or someone who's new to the profession. We hope you'll find plenty to inspire and motivate you to take a step back from your practice in order to make those all-important steps forward.

As ever, our short slots provide us with some thought-provoking take-aways, including Brendan's secret musical talents, and a book review from the front line of the NHS.

Join us in a fortnight for more!

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Recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed Campus (with remote guest) on 7th October 2020

It's high time for another book review, and our podcast pair have reached for the latest work by Daisy Christodoulou. Tom still lives in a safe house under an assumed identity after being less than effusive about the famous Seven Myths About Education a while back, so here's hoping he can redeem himself with some much happier thoughts about Teachers vs. Tech, an amazingly timely book given the global pandemic that ensued shortly after its publication.

With help from some audio extracts from the famous Cardiff Met ITE staff book club, Emma and Tom explore some of the issues raised by Christodoulou as she presents a thought-provoking look at the vexed question of where education and technology could be a marriage made in heaven, and where the pitfalls lie for those who are too wedded to the shiny toys.

Our short slots all come from a single article - The Binge Breaker, published in the Atlantic. Check it out here: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/11/the-binge-breaker/501122/

Meanwhile, Tom's additional wellbeing tip is to ban all power tools from campus, as yet another recording is disrupted by the sound of distant pressure-washing by the seemingly ever-present hordes of people who are drawn to fire up their machinery as soon as a microphone is switched on. Check out Tom's possibly violent forthcoming publication Lecturers vs Power Tools, available soon.

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Recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed Campus on 22nd September 2020

Merry Christmas! In a quirk of the release schedule, this one's coming out on the big day itself, so we hope you enjoy the traditional spectacle of two lecturers in the last stages of complete exhaustion, wittering on about some random things that seemed interesting or amusing at the time.

We've got it all this year: from a pair of academic papers to a humorous twitter account; from book quotes to music. There are plenty of nods to the big story of 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic that changed the course of all our lives. But there are some tenuous links to education, plus some big news about the podcast for 2021.

We hope you've enjoyed our many and varied offerings this year, and there are plenty of interesting conversations already in the can for the rest of this season. Please do spread the word about the podcast, and do drop us a review on your favoured podcast platform if you get a moment.

Have a wonderful break, and we'll be back in January 2021 with a fresh new look. Thanks for listening and merry Christmas!

PS... if you want to see the video version of the out-takes that Tom shared towards the end, go here (sorry, Emma!): https://youtu.be/gvWcyiAJgiE

Best wishes from

Emma and Tom

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Recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed Campus on 17th December 2020

So here we are, the newly regenerated version of the PGCE Podcast!

We're now known as Emma and Tom Talk Teaching, and hope this will encourage more serving teachers to listen to us and realise that we're here for educators of all types! Hope you enjoy the snazzy new artwork and remixed podcast theme music too.

For this first episode of 2021, we're talking to two colleagues from Cardiff Met who specialise in supporting quiet, shy and anxious children in the classroom. Dr Susan Davis and Dr Rhiannon Packer tell us about a gloriously simple intervention that pays dividends with these children, and gives us an insight into how we can help them feel comfortable and safe in the learning environment.

The book reviews this episode are:

Criado-Perez, C (2020) Invisible Women. London: Vintage

Van Ness, J (2020) Over the Top. London: Simon and Schuster

Also, Rhiannon has a book out around about now! It's All Change! Best Practice for Educational Transitions, and it's published by Critical Publishing. Congratulations, Rhiannon!

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Recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed Campus and remotely on 10th November 2020

This week we've cast our net outside the world of schools to speak to two peer mentors from the homelessness charity, Shelter. Thanks to loyal friend of the podcast Becky Brynolf, we've got an interview with Colette Carter and Lee Demetriou, who are peer mentors with lived experience of homelessness and multiple complex needs.

We wanted to speak to Colette and Lee about their experiences of education, and their thoughts about how teachers can approach pupils who experience homelessness and other complex needs.

What follows is a powerful discussion, and you may find some of the content upsetting. Lee and Colette were keen to emphasise that they were happy for us to use all the content, and we hope it illustrates the need to approach our pupils as humans first and foremost.

If you'd like to hear more from Colette and Lee, the Shelter podcast Challenging is available on all good podcast platforms. If you'd like to find out more about the work of Shelter, you can visit their website. And if you're concerned about a pupil, remember that you have colleagues who can support you - and if you're a student teacher that includes your university staff.

We'll be back in two weeks!

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Recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed campus and remotely on 16th September 2020

It's always good when a previous podcast guest comes back for more, so we're delighted to welcome Fiona Heath-Diffey back to our studio! Fiona is the programme leader for PGCE Secondary PE here at Cardiff Met, and you may remember her from our interesting discussion about physical literacy way back in season 1.

Fiona's back to talk about the new Health and Wellbeing Area of Learning and Experience in the new curriculum for Wales, and where the subject domain of PE fits in that much bigger and more complex picture.

Whether you're listening from Wales or not, there's loads to take away from this discussion about the interface between physical education and wellbeing more generally, and how schools can join the dots to give our pupils the best chance of being healthy, confident individuals with a positive relationship with their physical and mental selves.

The document Emma mentions (The Journey to 2022) is here: https://hwb.gov.wales/api/storage/cbe5e2c9-16cf-4eb7-87a1-c1a64fc598d8/the-journey-to-2022.pdf

...and you can find the Health and Wellbeing curriculum documents from the new curriculum for Wales here: https://hwb.gov.wales/curriculum-for-wales/health-and-well-being/

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Recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed Campus, and remotely, on 7th December 2020

For this episode we welcome three special guests to our podcast! Dr Fiona Chambers is the head of the School of Education at University College Cork, and she has co-authored a book with our very own Dr Anna Bryant and Dr David Aldous. The book, entitled Threshold Concepts in Physical Education covers an enormous amount of fascinating ground, and isn't just for PE specialists. With curriculum design a hot topic, and many of us revisiting some of our most fundamental assumptions about our subject disciplines, this book is a timely addition to anyone's reading list.

In the course of our discussion, Fiona, Anna and David explain what threshold concepts are, and what we mean by a design thinking approach. The book itself outlines a collaboration between the three authors and a number of school practitioners.

Finally, with three guests, we've got a bumper crop of wellbeing tips, interesting things and ideas to try!

The book is Chambers, F. C, Aldous, D. & Bryant, A. (2020) Threshold Concepts in Physical Education: A Design Thinking Approach. London: Routledge.

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Recorded remotely on 18th January 2021

Our guest today is Cameron Stewart, who runs the PGCE secondary mathematics programme here at Cardiff Met. He's come to talk to us about research he's carried out into strategies for closing the gender gap in mathematics. Maths is a subject that can sometimes feel like it needs an image makeover - why, we ask Cameron, is it so socially acceptable to say you're bad at it?! And how do we try and dispel the genuine fear that very intelligent people often experience when faced with maths?

Cameron's got a number of practical strategies for us, and outlines his thoughts about the subject more widely. For anyone who wants more maths content, there's a big shoutout to the Mr Barton Maths podcast and his other online resources.

We hope you enjoy the discussion, and even if you're not a maths specialist, there's plenty here to get you thinking about gender differences and how to create the right ethos in your classroom.

And if you want to experience Cameron's musical side, you can find his band, Session, at www.sessionuk.com, on Twitter @sessionuk and on Instagram @Session.UK!

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Recorded remotely on 11th January 2021

It's time for us to turn our gaze up to the dizzy heights of educational leadership! Whether you're a student teacher or a hard-bitten old cynic like Tom, let's pause and consider the challenges and delights of being in charge. Lisa is Director of Initial Teacher Education at our friends the University of South Wales, another teacher education institution from just down the road. She's been a listener to the podcast for quite a while, and has answered the call we put out in our Easter special 2020 for anyone from senior leadership in education to come and tell us what makes them tick.

In a wide-ranging conversation, we explore the difference between leadership and management, how to keep hold of our core moral purpose in the challenging world of education, and how to lead collaboratively. Plus, has the research-informed revolution reached the world of educational leadership, and how should a brand-new entrant to the profession set their sights on leading?

Many thanks to Lisa for coming on, and do take a look at her reading recommendations below.

• Adair, J. (2009). Effective Leadership: How to be a successful leader (New ed.). London: Pan
• Cochran-Smith, M. and Lytle, S. l. (1999). ‘The teacher research movement; A decade later’, Educational Research 28 (7); 15-25
• Fullan, M. (2020). Leading in a Culture of Change. New Jersey, USA. Jossey-Bass.
• Fullan, M. (1993). Why Teachers Must Become Change Agents. Educational Leadership, 50 (6), pp.12-17.
• McDermott, I., Hall, L. (2016). The Collaborative Leader. Ceredigion. Gomer Press.
• Pollard, A. (2019) Reflective Teaching in Schools. London. Bloomsbury.

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Recorded remotely on 2nd February 2021

We're starting to hear more and more about cognitive science when discussing research-informed approaches to teaching. It can seem an intimidating field, and can also come across as quite 'black and white' - especially when co-opted as an argument-winner in some of the less friendly contributions to edu-Twitter!

So we thought it was high time to sit down for a discussion with someone who can throw some light on cognitive neuroscience - and just a few doors down the corridor we have Dr Louise Allen-Walker, Programme Director for the MSc Psychology in Education programme! Of course, we haven't seen Louise in person for quite some time, so we posted her some kit to allow us to hook up remotely, and got down to a deep discussion.

Along the way, we define cognitive neuroscience, get some honest answers about what it can and can't tell us, as well as showing which of the current big themes of teaching and learning have their roots in Louise's field of specialism. There are plenty of useful, practical strategies for us to follow as teachers based around growth mindset and how and what to praise.

Of course, we couldn't talk about cognitive neuroscience without inviting Louise to bust a few persistent neuromyths, and hopefully we can play a small part in putting some of these highly resilient, and occasionally quite damaging, tall tales to bed once and for all. And towards the end we even get a cameo appearance from Lousie's local Neuromyth Van, which apparently drives the streets around her house inviting residents to dispose of any old neuromyths so they can be crushed into cubes and buried deep below ground.

If you're interested in studying on any of the programmes Louise runs, do drop her an email: LAllen-Walker@cardiffmet.ac.uk

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Recorded remotely on 27th January 2021

Welcome to the first in a new podcast venture! From the team behind Emma and Tom Talk Teaching we present PGCE Research Bites!

Every year our PGCE students produce high-quality research work that informs their own philosophy and practice, and benefits the schools they work with. We've decided to make use of the 'in between' Fridays to share some of the very best of that work with you.

We've got one PGCE student each time, who has 30 minutes to talk through their work and what they found. You'll hear details about the academic literature they discovered, the conclusions they drew from it, and the recommendations they came up with for their own practice and their placement school.

This week, Ellis Seddon from PGCE Secondary Religious Education talks about the work she did to better understand how to support pupils with ADHD while working in a blended learning environment. With Ellis's kind permission, you can click here to take a look at the visual summary of her research!

Ellis's six pieces of academic literature that she discussed in detail are below.

We'll be back with a regular podcast episode next week, and PGCE Research Bites will be back in a fortnight!

• Halverson, L.R. and Graham, C.R., (2019). Learner Engagement in Blended Learning Environment: A Conceptual Framework. Online Learning [online] 23(2). Available from: <https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1218398.pdf> [accessed 22nd December 2020], pp.145-178.
• Morsink, S., Sonuga-Barke, E., Mies, G., Glorie, N., Lemiere, J., Van der Oord, S and Danckaerts, M., (2017). What motivates individuals with ADHD? A qualitative analysis from the adolescent’s point of view. European Child & Adolescent Pyschiatry¸[online] 26(8). Available from: <https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28233072/> [accessed 22nd December 2020], pp.923-932.
• Guderjahn, L., Gold, A., Stadler, G. and Gawrilow, C., (2013). Self-regulation strategies support children with ADHD to overcome symptom-related behaviour in the classroom. ADHD Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorders [online] 5(4). Available from: <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/256985255> pp.397-407.
• Martin, A.J., (2013). Improving the Achievement, Motivation, and Engagement of Students with ADHD: The Role of Personal Best Goals and Other Growth-Based Approaches. Australian Journey of Guidance and Counselling [online] 23(1). Available from: <https://www.doe.virginia.gov/support/school-psychology-services/professional-development/2016/resources/adhd_article.pdf> [accessed 22nd December 2020], pp. 143-155.
• Driggs, C. and Brillante, J., (2020). Culture of Attention and Engagement. In: Lemov, D. ed. Teaching in the Online Classroom: Surviving and Thriving in the New Normal. Hoboken: Jossey-Bass, pp. 57-80.
• Cross, S., (2019). Using VLEs to Offer Higher Education Students Choice and Differentiation in Learning Activities: Micro-Pathway Learning Design Implementation and Opportunities. In: Orngreen, R., Buhl, M., Meyer, B. 18th European Conference on e-Learning (ECEL 2019). Copenhagen, 7-8 November. Sonning Common: Academic Conferences and Publishing International Limited, pp. 137-144.

Welcome to another edition of PGCE Research Bites! Once again, we've given a PGCE student 30 minutes to tell us about some research that's benefited his own practice and informed the work of his placement school.

This week, Matthew Green from PGCE music talks about feedback in music. Always a knotty subject, he's looking specifically at how this can be done in a blended learning environment. Matthew discusses six academic sources in detail and explains how they informed his conclusions and recommendations.

Matthew has very kindly made his infographic available if you'd like to view it - just click here!

Matthew's six pieces of academic literature are:

• Hattie, J. and Timperley, H. (2007) 'The Power of Feedback', Review of Educational Research, 77(1), pp. 81-112.

• Wiliam, D. (2016) 'The secret of effective feedback', Educational Leadership, 73(7), pp. 10-17.

• Christodoulou, D. (2020) Teachers vs Tech? The case for an ed tech revolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

• Clark, R., Mayer, R. (2016) 'Does Practice Make Perfect?', in E-Learning and the Science of Instruction: Proven Guidelines for Consumers and Designers of Multimedia Learning, Fourth edition, Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, pp. 284-310.

• Philpott, C., Evans, K. (2016) 'Assessment in music education', in Cooke, C., Evans, K., Philpott, C., Spruce, G. (ed.) Learning to Teach Music in the Secondary School, Third Edition, Abingdon: Oxon: Routledge, pp. 194-209.

• Hatch, E. (2020) 'Going Beyond “It Sounds Good”: Developing Student Capacity to Give Meaningful Feedback', General Music Today, 33(3), pp. 29-35. doi:10.1177/1048371319892241 (Accessed: 16 November 2020).

We're back with another edition of PGCE Research Bites, and this week we've got Cameron Corsi, who's a student on our PGCE Secondary PE programme. Cameron was, like many of our other students this year, given the topic of blended learning to research for his Lead Partnership School. There are some specific considerations for practical subject domains like PE, and Cameron was careful to ensure these were drawn out as part of his research.

Cameron has kindly given permission for us to share his visual summary, which you can see by clicking here.

Cameron's six main literature sources for this piece of research were:

• Rossett, A., & Frazee, R. (2006). Blended learning opportunities. New York, NY. American Management Association.
• Garrison, D., & Kanuka, H. (2004). Blended learning: Uncovering its transformative potential in higher education. The Internet and Higher Education, 7(2), 95–105.
• Vernadakis, N., Giannousi, M., Sitskari, E., Antoniou, P., & Kioumourtzoglou, E. (2012). A comparison of student satisfaction between traditional and blended technology course offerings in physical education. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education, 1, 137–147.
• Vernadakis, N., Giannousi, M., Derri, V., Michalopoulos, M., & Kioumourtzoglou, E. (2012). The impact of blended and traditional instruction in students’ performance. Procedia Technology, 1, 439–443.
• Singh, H. (2003). Building effective blended learning programs. Educational Technology-Saddle Brook Then Englewood Cliffs, 43(6), 51–54.
• Tayebinik, M., & Puteh, M. (2013). Blended Learning or E- learning?. In Tayebinik, M., & Puteh, M. (2012) Blended Learning or E-Learning, pp. 103-110.

PGCE research bites 4 features Lydia Bundy, a student teacher on our PGCE Primary programme, and also a guest appearance by Jo Bowers from the primary team.

Lydia researched into the Reading for Pleasure pedagogy, something that Jo has talked to us in detail about on the podcast in the past, and its potential for enhancing the wellbeing of primary pupils. In this research bite she runs through her findings and conclusions. Jo, meanwhile, gives us some perspective from the point of view of a primary specialist and a Reading for Pleasure veteran!

Lydia's six main literature sources were:

• Clark, C. and Teravainen-Goff, A. (2018) ‘Mental wellbeing, reading and writing’. National Literacy Trust. Pp 1-37.
• Mak, H.W. and Fancourt, D. (2020) ‘Reading for pleasure in childhood and adolescent healthy behaviours: Longitudinal associations using the Millennium Cohort Study’. Preventive medicine, 130, p.105889.
• Ledger, S. and Merga, M.K. (2018) ‘Reading Aloud: Children's Attitudes toward being Read to at Home and at School’. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 43(3), pp.124-139.
• Elley, S. (2014) ‘Examining the Use of Bibliotherapy in a Third Grade Classroom’. Texas Journal of Literacy Education, 2(2), pp.91-97.
• Chou, M.J., Cheng, J.C. and Cheng, Y.W. (2016) ‘Operating Classroom Aesthetic Reading Environment to Raise Children's Reading Motivation’. Universal Journal of Educational Research, 4(1), pp.81-97.
• Stairs, A.J. and Burgos, S.S. (2010) ‘The power of independent, self-selected reading in the middle grades’. Middle School Journal, 41(3), pp.41-48.

For this episode we welcome one of our lead partnership school colleagues, Abi Chase. Abi is associate headteacher at Bassaleg School just outside Newport. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, Abi had the exciting task of revamping and redefining the school's vision and values around pedagogy. When Covid-19 hit, Abi's work had its ultimate test!

In this conversation, Abi explains how she worked to 'rebrand' the school's priorities, and how she then used these to keep a steady ship as the school was challenged by the need to move to remote teaching and learning almost overnight in the Spring of 2020.

There are plenty of interesting insights into leadership and strategy, as well as where we go from here as educators now that there is (hopefully) some light at the end of the coronavirus tunnel.

A huge thank you to Abi for taking the time to speak to us!

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Recorded remotely on 25th February 2021

Welcome to our 2021 Easter light episode! Last Easter, Tom was recording furtively in his car in the dark, so things have improved a little - he's back in the office. And Emma remains at home, so it's another remote recording in which we bring a selection of random goodies for your enjoyment.

Actually, enjoyment might be a bit optimistic, as both of our presenters seem to have arrived with some slightly heavier material than usual. Stick with us, though, as we ruminate over freedom of speech, inclusion, decolonisation and impostor syndrome. Eventually we'll arrive at the sunlit uplands of our comedy twitter offerings, with some ruthless university management parodies and something unmentionable involving Weetabix.

Have a wonderful Easter break, and we'll be back with normal service next time!

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Recorded remotely on 8th March 2021

Croeso i bennod arall o Dameidiau o Ymchwil TAR, yn dod â’r ymchwil gorau gan athrawon dan hyfforddiant o Bartneriaeth Caerdydd ar gyfer Addysg Gychwynnol i Athrawon.

Yr wythnos hon rydym ni’n lledaenu’n Gymraeg, ac yn croesawu Beca Harries o’r cwrs TAR Uwchradd Ieithoedd Tramor Modern a fydd yn sgwrsio gyda Dr Gina Morgan.

Mae Beca wedi bod yn ymchwilio strategaethau i annog cyfranogaeth ar lafar mewn gwersi ieithoedd tramor modern. Bydd Beca yn cyflwyno chwe phapur allweddol ac yn rhannu ei chasgliadau.

Mae Beca eisoes wedi cyflwyno’r ymchwil yma i’w phrif ysgol partneriaeth ar ffurf crynodeb weledol, ac wedi rhoi caniatâd i ni rannu ei ffeithlun, y gallwch chi ei weld drwy glicio yma.

Os hoffech chi ddarllen mwy, mae cyfeirnodau ar gyfer y chwe phapur allweddol i’w weld isod.

Diolch yn fawr i Beca am rannu ei ymchwil, ac i Gina am gyflwyno!

• Christie, C., 2013. Speaking spontaneously in the modern foreign languages classroom: Tools for supporting successful target language conversation. The Language Learning Journal, 44(1), tud.74-89.
• Sherrington, T (2019) Rosenshine’s Principles In Action. John Catt Educational Ltd., tud.27-34.
• Namaziandost, E., Homayouni, M. and Rahmani, P., 2020. The impact of cooperative learning approach on the development of EFL learners’ speaking fluency. Cogent Arts & Humanities, 7(1), p.1780811.
• Bunaya, Mulya & Basikin, Basikin. (2019). Improving Speaking Confidence by Using Think Pair Share (TPS) Teaching Strategy to High School Students. 10.2991/iccie-18.2019.59.
• Lemov, D. 2015. Teach Like A Champion 2.0 : 62 Techniques That Put Students On The Path To College. Jossey-Bass. San Francisco, USA
• Dallimore, E., Hertenstein, J. and Platt, M., 2012. Impact of Cold- Calling on Student Voluntary Participation. Journal of Management Education, 37(3), pp.305-341

A warm podcast welcome back to Dr Rhiannon Packer, who joined us just after Christmas in a double-act with Dr Susan Davis, but is now back for a solo appearance! Rhiannon has just published a book: All Change! Best Practice for Educational Transitions, and is here to talk to us about all things transitional.

The lives of our learners are full of transitions, and managing these so that they are a positive experience is hugely important for all of us who work in education. Rhiannon has plenty of pointers for us in today's deep discussion, and hopefully you'll leave with some new things to consider when approaching these pivotal moments for whoever you teach.

Top marks to Rhiannon for coming back so soon with another set of homework slots, too!

Rhiannon's book is published by Critical Publishing and is well worth a read!

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Recorded remotely on 25th February 2021

Croeso’n ôl i Tameidiau o Ymchwil TAR – rydyn ni’n lledaenu’r ymchwil gorau gan athrawon dan hyfforddiant o’n rhaglenni TAR yn Gymraeg. Mae Nia Davies yn fyfyriwr ar ein rhaglen TAR Cynradd, ac mae hi wedi bod yn ymchwilio i’r addysgeg Darllen er Pleser yng nghyd-destun dysgu cyfunol.

Mae crynodeb gweledol Nia a grëwyd ganddi er mwyn cyflwyno i’w hysgol yma, a diolch yn fawr i Nia am roi caniatâd inni ei rannu. Os ydych chi’n awyddus i ddarganfod mwy, mae ei chwe phrif ffynhonnell llenyddiaeth isod.

Diolch i Nia a Sioned am ymddangos ym mhennod yr wythnos hon! 

• Reimer, F.M. a Schleicher, A. (2020) Schooling Disrupted Schooling Rethought: How the Covid-19 Pandemic is Changing Education. OECD.
• Cremin, T. et al. (2014) Building communities of engaged readers: Reading for Pleasure. Routledge.
• Cai, R a Wang, Q (2020) A Six-Step Online Teaching Method Based on Protocol-Guided Learning during the Covid-19 Epidemic. Best Evid Chin Edu Cyf 4(2) (tt. 529-534)
• Clark, C. a Picton, I. (2020) Children and young people’s reading in 2020 before and during lockdown. London: National Literacy Trust.
• Merga, M.K. a Mat Roni, S. (2018) ‘Empowering Parents to Encourage Children to Read Beyond the Early Years’. Reading Teacher Cyf 72 (tt. 213-222)
• Scottish Book Trust (2018) ‘Evaluation of the First Minister’s Reading Challenge’

For the next two episodes, we're going to talk about our own doctoral research, and what it's like studying for a doctorate while working in education.

Emma's drawn the short straw and agreed to go first, and her research is set to weave together a number of really important themes including curriculum reform, reform of initial teacher education and her beloved subject of drama.

It's also a chance to hear about the EdD - a doctorate that may not be as widely known as the PhD, but potentially provides a great format for doctoral study for teachers.

We'll be back in a fortnight, when Tom takes the hot seat!

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Recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed campus on 17th May 2021

In the second episode of this doctoral double-bill, it's Tom's turn in the hot-seat to discuss his progress so far. Tom's gone for the more traditional PhD option because he likes being left alone to get on with things. The story so far includes Welsh mining communities, National Curriculum fights, the oddities of music teachers and plenty more.

We hope you've enjoyed hearing about two doctoral research experiences. If you're interested in applying for an MA or doctoral programme here at Cardiff Met, please do search for the relevant web pages online and you'll be able to contact someone who knows more than us about the programmes!

Tune in next time for our final episode of this year, all about inspection.

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Recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed campus on 21st May 2021

There's a bonus episode 22 this year because we started our PGCE late, so we're finishing later than usual. And that means we've reached the final episode of season 3! In another pandemic-disrupted year, we've still managed to have a great time interviewing the great, the good and the knowledgable in the education world about their specialist subjects. Today we've managed to get the boss herself, Dean of Cardiff School of Education and Social Policy Julia Longville, to talk about a subject that can strike fear into the hearts of teachers up and down the land: inspection.

Julia worked for the Welsh education inspectorate, Estyn, in a past life, and has plenty to say about what inspectors are for, what they do, and how we should approach their inevitable appearance in our schools. There's lots of great advice for those who haven't had a brush with the inspectorate before, and although much of the conversation is focused on Estyn, we also touch on inspection more generally.

We also take a look at the way the relationship between Estyn and educators has evolved in the light of education reform in Wales, and look to the future of the inspectorate under a new curriculum.

STOP PRESS: Estyn got in touch with us just before this podcast came out to pass on their latest guidance on inspection for schools and PRUs. You can check it out here: Our new inspection arrangements for schools and PRUs | Estyn (gov.wales)

For our final set of short slots this season, Julia has some tips for us on the usual topics of wellbeing, something interesting and something to try.

And that's a wrap for the 2020-21 academic year! Thanks for being with us as we grappled with remote recording, al fresco podcasting and finally a joyful return to our beloved studio. We'll be in touch over the summer, and then return with more podcast goodness in September. Thanks for listening!

Best wishes from Emma and Tom

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Recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed Campus on 17th May 2021

We're back with another round of PGCE research bites! And we welcome back Matthew Green, who's been finding out how we can best encourage high quality literacy in the music classroom. Hopefully the mix of research and classroom-based enquiry and reflection will be a great worked example for our serving teacher friends!

You can watch this episode on YouTube - https://smarturl.it/cardiffpartnership

References

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Aubrey, K. and Riley, A. (2019) Understanding & Using Educational Theories 2nd edn. London: Sage.

Barton, G. (2014) 'Literacy and the Arts: Interpretation and Expression of Symbolic Form', in Barton, G. (ed.) Literacy in the Arts: Retheorising Learning and Teaching. Switzerland: Springer International Publishing, p.14.

Barton, M. L., Heidema, C., Jordan, D. (2002) ‘Teaching reading in mathematics and science (Reading and Writing in the Content Areas)’, Educational leadership, 60(3), pp. 24-28.

Broomhead, P. (2021) ‘A New Definition of Music Literacy: What, Why, and How?’, Music Educators Journal, 107(3), pp. 15–21. doi: 10.1177/0027432121991644.

Capel, S. (2019) ‘Student teachers’ roles and responsibilities’, in Capel, S., Leask, M., Younie, S. (ed.) Learning to Teach in the Secondary School, 8th edn., Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 396-408.

Didau, D. (2014) The Secret of Literacy. Camarthen: Independent Thinking Press.

Donaldson, G. (2015) Successful futures: Independent review of curriculum and assessment arrangements in Wales (Cardiff: Welsh Government).

Fautley, M., Savage, J. (2011) Cross-curricular teaching and learning in the secondary school: The Arts. Abingdon: Routledge.

Green, L. (2008) Music on Deaf Ears: Musical Meaning, Ideology and Education. 2nd edn.  Bury St Edmonds: Arima Publishing.

Green, L. (2008a) Music, informal learning and the school a new classroom pedagogy, Aldershot: Ashgate.

Halverson, L.R. and Graham, C.R. (2019) ‘Learner engagement in blended learning environments: A conceptual framework.’ Online Learning, 23(2), pp. 145-178.

Harrison, C. (2004) Understanding Reading Development. London: Sage.

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Pearman, C. J. and Friedman, T. (2009) ‘Reading and Rhythm: Binding Language Arts and Music in an Academic Notebook’, General Music Today, 23(1), pp. 12–16. doi: 10.1177/1048371309331610.

Philpott, C., Evans, K. (2016) 'Language and learning in music’, in Cooke, C., Evans, K., Philpott, C., Spruce, G. (ed.) Learning to Teach Music in the Secondary School, 3rd edn., Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 52-62.

Rose, D. (2011) ‘Beyond literacy: Building an integrated pedagogic genre’, Australian Journal of Language & Literacy, 34(1), pp.81–98.

Swanwick, K. (1988), Music, Mind and Education. London: Routledge.

Wagoner, C. L. (2020) ‘Integrating Literacy within the Performance Classroom’, Music Educators Journal, 106(4), pp. 24–29. doi: 10.1177/0027432120917746.

Watson, A., Myhill, D. (2019) ’Creating a language-rich classroom’, in Capel, S., Leask, M., Younie, S. (ed.) Learning to Teach in the Secondary School, 8th edn., Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 396-408.

Weidner, B. N. (2018) ‘Content Area Literacy in Ensemble Music Education: The Before-During-After Instructional Framework’, Journal of Music Teacher Education, 27(3), pp. 10–23. doi: 10.1177/1057083717732512.

Welsh Assembly Government (2019) Curriculum For Wales, Available at: https://hwb.gov.wales/curriculum-for-wales/ (Accessed: 2 May 2021).

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Welsh Assembly Government (2020c), Examination results in schools in Wales, 2018/19 – Revised. Available at: https://gov.wales/sites/default/files/statistics-and-research/2020-01/examination-results-september-2018-august-2019-revised-477.pdf (Accessed: 2 May 2021).

Williams, Z. (2020). Review of the impact of mass disruption on the wellbeing and mental health of children and young people, and possible therapeutic interventions Cardiff: Welsh Government, GSR report number 62/2020.

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Mae Tameidiau o Ymchwil TAR yn cyflwyno ymchwil gorau myfyrwyr ar gyrsiau Addysg Gychwynnol i Athrawon gyda Phartneriaeth Caerdydd. Yn y bennod hon mae Daniel Roberts yn trafod sut yr aeth ati i ddysgu mwy am ddefnyddio cyd-destun dilys wrth addysgu mewn ysgol gynradd, drwy ymchwil ac ymholi. Gallwch hefyd wrando ar Tameidiau o Ymchwil TAR ar ffurf glywedol drwy gofrestru i wrando ar bodlediadau Emma and Tom Talk Teaching, ar gael ar blatfformau cyffredin podlediadau.

Gallwch wylio'r bennod hon ar YouTube - https://smarturl.it/cardiffpartnership

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Aspy, D. N., Aspy, C. B., Quinby, P. M. (1993) What doctors can teach teachers about problem-based learning. Educational Leadership, 50(7), t. 22–25.

Blumenfeld, P. C., Soloway, E., Marx, R. W., Krajcik, J. S., Guzdial, M., Palincsar, A. (1991) Motivating project-based learning: Sustaining the doing, supporting the learning. Educational Psychologist, 26(3 & 4), t. 369–398.

Braund, M., Reiss, M. (2006) Towards a more authentic science curriculum: The contribution of out-of-school learning. International Journal of Science Education, 28(12), t.1373–1388.

Brown, J. S., Collins, A., Duguid, P. (1989) Situated cognition and the culture of learning. Educational Researcher, 18, t. 32-42.

Callison, D., Lamb, A. (2004) Key words in instruction: Authentic learning. School Library Media Activities Monthly, 21(4), t. 34-39.

Deci, L., Vallerand, R., Pelletier, L., Ryan, R. (1991) Motivation and Education: The Self-Determination Perspective. Routledge. t.325-346

Donaldson, G. (2015) Dyfodol Llwyddiannus: Adolygiad Annibynnol o’r Cwricwlwm a’r Trefniadau Asesu yng Nghymru. Cymru, UK: Crown. 

Donovan, M. S., Bransford, J. D., Pellegrino, J. W. (Eds.). (1999) How people learn: Bridging research and practice. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

Duke, N. K., Purcell-Gates, V., Hall, L. A., Tower, C. (2006) Authentic literacy activities for developing comprehension and writing. The Reading Teacher, 60(4), t. 344–355.

Estyn (2018) Adroddiad Blynyddol Prif Arolygydd Ei Mawrhydi dros Addysg a Hyfforddiant yng Nghymru. Ar gael yn: https://www.estyn.llyw.cymru/system/files/2020-07/Estyn_Annual%2520Report_Accessible_Welsh_2018.pdf

Gardner, H. (1991) The unschooled mind: How children think and how schools should teach. New York: BasicBooks.

Hobart, P. (2005) Authentic learning beyond the classroom: Authentic learning, VELS, and PoLTs. Ethos, 13(1), t. 12–19.

Hui-ju, L. (2015) Learner Autonomy: The Role of Motivation in Foreign Language Learning. Journal of Language Teaching & Research, Vol 6 t. 1165-1175

Irvin, L. K., Horner, R. H., Ingram, K., Todd, A. W., Sugai, G., Sampson, N. K. (2006) Using office discipline referral data for decision making about student behavior in elementary and middle schools: An empirical evaluation of validity. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 8, t. 10–23.

Llywodraeth Cymru (2020a). Canllawiau Cwricwlwm i Gymru. Caerdydd: Llywodraeth Cymru.

Llywodraeth Cymru (2020b) Ystyriaethau gweithredu ac ymarferol -rhan o Cynllunio eich cwricwlwm. Caerdydd: Llywodraeth Cymru.

Llywodraeth Cymru (2015) Cwricwlwm i Gymru – cwricwlwm am oes. Caerdydd: Llywodraeth Cymru.

Maina, F.  W. (2004) Authentic learning: Perspectives from contemporary educators. Journal of Authentic Learning, 1(1), t. 1-8.

Parsons, S. A., Ward, A. E. (2011) The case for authentic tasks in content literacy. The Reading Teacher, 64(6), t. 462–465.                             

Pearson, P.D., Raphael, T.E., Benson, V.L., Madda, C.L. (2007) Balance in comprehensive literacy instruction: Then and now. In L.B. Gambrell, L.M. Morrow, & M. Pressley (Eds.), Best practices in literacy instruction. New York: Guilford. t. 30–54.

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Renzulli, J. S., Gentry, M., Reis, S. M. (2004) A time and a place for authentic learning. Educational Leadership, 62(1), t. 73-77.                   

Rule, A. C. (2006) The components of authentic learning. Journal of Authentic Learning, 3(1), t. 1–10.

Ryan, R., Deci, L. (2000) Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Contemporary Educational Psychology. University of Rochester.

Santrock, J. W. (2011) Educational psychology (5th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

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Willems, P., Gonzalez-DeHass, A. (2012) ‘School-Community Partnerships: Using Authentic Contexts to Academically Motivate Students’, School Community Journal, 22(2) t. 9-30

It's time for another PGCE Research Bites! Emma is joined by Lucy Gooding to discuss her research into the place of oracy in drama. We hope you find this interesting and useful!

You can watch this episode on YouTube - https://smarturl.it/cardiffpartnership

REFERENCES

Alexander, R. (2020) A Dialogic Teaching Companion. New York: Routledge. Barnes, D. (1988) The politics of oracy. in: Maclure, M. Philips, T. & Wilkinson, A(Eds)

Oracy Matters. Milton Keynes: Open University Press. Boyd, M.P. and Markarian, W.C. (2011) Dialogic teaching: talk in service of a dialogic stance.

Language and Education, Vol. 25 No. 6, pp. 519-520. Brookfield, S. (2006) The Skilful Teacher: On technique, trust and responsiveness in the

classroom. 2nd Edn. San Fransisco: Jossey-Bass.

Donaldson, G. (2019) Expressive Arts: Statements of what matters - Hwb. [online] Hwb.gov.wales. Available at: <https://hwb.gov.wales/curriculum-for-wales/expressive-arts/statements-of-what- matters> [Accessed 7 May 2021].

Donaldson, G. (2018) Literacy Framework Guidance. Cardiff: Education Wales, pp.1-7. Donaldson, G. (2015) Successful Futures. Wales: Crown, pp.1-31.

Gaunt, A. and Stott, A. (2019) Transform Teaching and Learning through Talk. 1st ed. London: Rowman and Littlefield.

Haworth, A. (2001) The re-positioning of oracy: a millennium project? Cambridge Journal of Education, Vol. 31, No. 1, pp. 11-23.

Jalongo, M. (1995) Promoting Active Listening in the Classroom. 1st ed. [ebook] Indiana, Pennsylvania, pp.13-17. Available at: <https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.cardiffmet.ac.uk/ docview/210392505/fulltextPDF/F5A57E3FD6A44F38PQ/1?accountid=15588> [Accessed 27 April 2021].

Kempe, A. and Nicholson, H. (2007) Learning To Teach Drama 11-18. London: Continuum.

Literacy Framework (2020) Literacy Framework [ebook] Welsh Government, pp.2-3. Available at: <https://hwb.gov.wales/api/storage/4d852cbe-03d6-4c36-8175-c281461c8690/literacy- framework.pdf> [Accessed 7 May 2021].

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Maxwell, D. Burnett, P. Reidy, D. Willis, B. and Demack, S. (2015) Oracy Curriculum, Culture and Assessment Toolkit. [ebook] London: Education Endowment Foundation, pp.12-31. Available at: <http://shura.shu.ac.uk/10828/1/EEF%20Oracy%20School_21.pdf> [Accessed 12 April 2021].

Mercer, N. and Hodgkinson, S. (2008) Exploring Talk in School. 1st ed. London: Sage Publications, pp.18-25.

Mercer, N. and Mannion, J. (2018) Oracy across the Welsh curriculum. 1st ed. [ebook] Cambridge: Oracy Cambridge, pp.7-64. Available at: <https://oracycambridge.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/ Oracy-across-the-Welsh-curriculum-July-2018.pdf> [Accessed 26 April 2021].

Nemec, P. Spagnolo, A. and Soydan, A. (2017) Can You Hear Me Now? Teaching Listening Skills. Vol 40. [ebook] Washington: American Psychological Association, pp.415-417.

Stinson, M. (2015) Speaking up about oracy: the contribution of drama pedagogy to enhanced oral communication. English Teaching: Practice & Critique, [online] 14(3), pp.303-313. Available at: <https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au/bitstream/handle/10072/141515/ StinsonPUB1919.pdf;jsessionid=5704FBD73F31134FA1BCA49C1E89B76B?sequence=1> [Accessed 17 April 2021].

Palmer, E. (2014) Teaching the Core Skills of Listening and Speaking. 1st ed. N/A: ASCD, pp. 60-70.

Voice21.org. (2020) Oracy [online] Available at: <https://voice21.org/oracy/> [Accessed 27 April 2021]. “oracy is the ability to articulate ideas, develop understanding and engage with others through spoken language”

Wagner, B.J. (1998), Educational Drama and Language Arts: What Research Shows, Heinemann, Portsmouth, NH.

Mae Tameidiau o Ymchwil TAR yn cyflwyno ymchwil gorau myfyrwyr ar gyrsiau Addysg Gychwynnol i Athrawon gyda Phartneriaeth Caerdydd. Yn y bennod hon mae Nia Davies yn trafod sut yr aeth ati i ddysgu mwy am hyrwyddo llafaredd mewn dosbarth cynradd, drwy ymchwil ac ymholi. Gallwch hefyd wrando ar Tameidiau o Ymchwil TAR ar ffurf glywedol drwy danysgrifio i bodlediadau Emma and Tom Talk Teaching, ar gael ar blatfformau cyffredin podlediadau.

Gallwch wylio'r bennod hon ar YouTube - https://smarturl.it/cardiffpartnership

Cyfeirnodau

Alexander, R. (2004) Towards Dialogic Teaching ‘Rethinking Classroom Talk’. Dialogos UK Ltd.

Alexander, R. (2013) Improving Oracy and Classroom Talk: Achievements and Challenges. Primary First (tt. 22-29) An Evaluation of the Plymouth Oracy Project. Plymouth Teaching School Alliance. [ar-lein: Gwelwyd: 03.04.2021]

Barnes, D. a Todd, F. (1977) Communication and Learning in Small Groups. Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd

Barnes, D. a Todd, F. (1995) Communication and Learning Revisited. Boynton/Cook Publishers

Chambers, A. Tell Me (Children, Reading & Talk) (2011) Thimble Press

Codi Safonau Llythrennedd, Datblygu gwaith trafod mewn grŵp (2000) Uned Iaith Genedlaethol Cymru CBAC

Consortiwm Canolbarth y De: Trysorfa Llais 21 (2019) [ar-lein: Gwelwyd 10.02.21]

Daniels, H. (2016) Vygotsky and Pedagogy. Routledge

Dawes, L. a Sams, C. (2004) Developing the Capacity to Collaborate. Learning to Collaborate: Collaborating to Learn. Science Pub. Inc.

Dawes et al. (2004) Thinking Together – A Programme of Activities for Developing Speaking, Listening and Thinking Skills for Children aged 8-11. Imaginative Minds Ltd.

Donaldson, G. (2015) Dyfodol Llwyddiannus

Egan, D. (2018) ‘It’s Good to Talk: Moving Towards Dialogic Teaching – Building Learning Through Language’. Impact, Journal of the Chartered College of Teaching

Emma & Tom Talk Teaching (2021) 8 Ionawr 2021 [Podcast] Supporting Quiet, Shy and Anxious Children with Dr Susan Davis and Dr Rhiannon Packer

Estyn (2019) Ymateb i Ymgynghorioad: Ymchwiliad ‘Speak for Change’ y Grŵp Hollbleidiol Seneddol ar Lafaredd [ar-lein: Gwelwyd 18.05.21]

Estyn (2021) Caffael ar yr Iaith Gymraeg [ar-lein: Gwelwyd 21.03.21]

Gascoine, M. & Gross, J. (2017) Talking About a Generation: Current policy, evidence and practice for speech, language and communication. The Communication Trust [ar-lein: Gwelwyd 03.04.21] )

Gaunt, A. & Stott, A. (2018) Transform Teaching and Learning Through Talk: The Oracy Imperative. Rowman and Littlefield Publishers. 24

Grugeon, E., Hubbard, L., Smith, C. & Dawes, L. (2005) Teaching Speaking and Listening in the Primary School. London. David Fulton Publishers. 3rd ed.

Hardy, E. (2020) 7 May 2020 ‘Coronavirus: Why Schools must focus on oracy’ TES Online [ar-lein: Gwelwyd 10.02.21]

Lucas, B. & Spencer, E. (2017) Teaching Creative Thinking. Crown House Publishing Limited.

Mercer, N. & Mannion, J. (2018) Oracy Across the Welsh Curriculum [ar-lein: Gwelwyd 08.01.21]

Mercer, N. & Sams, C. (2008) ‘Teaching Children how to use language to solve maths problems’. Language & Education Online Journal. Routledge. Taylor & Francis Group.

Mercer, N. & Warwick, P. (2017) Identifying and Assessing Students’ Spoken Language Skills [ar-lein: Gwelwyd 03.04.21]

Millard, W. (2018) Speaking Up: The Importance of Oracy in Teaching and Learning [ar-lein: Gwelwyd 03.04.21]

Millard, W. & Menzies, L. The State of Speaking in Our Schools Voice 21 [ar-lein: Gwelwyd 10.02.21]

Nyborg, G., Mjelve, L., Edwards, A. & Crozier, W. R. (2020) ‘Teachers’ strategies for enhancing shy children's engagement in oral activities: necessary, but insufficient?’ International Journal of Inclusive Education

Pienaar, F. (2016) ‘Oracy and well-being’ Speaking Frankly. Voice 21 & English[1]speaking Union [ar-lein: Gwelwyd 04.04.21]

Simpson, A. & Mercer, N. (2010). ‘Douglas Barnes revisited: If learning floats on a sea of talk, what kind of talk? And what kind of learning?’ English Teaching: Practice and Critique V9 No.2 (tt.1-6)

Weinstein, Y. & Sumeracki, M. (2019) Understanding How We Learn. Routledge.

Wilkinson, A. (1965) ‘The Concept of Oracy’. The English Journal Vol 59 no.1 (tt.71- 77)

Worth, D. (2019) TES Focus on Oracy TES 4.10.2019 [ar-lein: Gwelwyd 10.02.21]

For the final PGCE Research Bites of this block, we welcome Ben Pepler, who's here to discuss with Tom his research into how we can get more consistent results in the different components of GCSE music through an integrated approach.

We hope you've found this set of Research Bites interesting, and maybe it's inspired you to carry out your own classroom research or enquiry!

You can watch this episode on YouTube - https://smarturl.it/cardiffpartnership

Bibliography

Badeley, A., (2006). Working Memory: An Overview. In: S. Pickering, ed., Working Memory and Education. Elsevier Inc.

Dammann, G. (2008) ‘GCSE music: As for pupils who cannot read a note’, The Guardian Limited, 9 August,

D’amore, A. (2006) Musical Futures: An approach to teaching and learning. London: Paul Hamlyn Foundation

Evans, J. and Philpott, C. (eds.) A Practical Guide to Teaching Music in the Secondary School. London: Routledge Publishing Group

Green, L. (2008) Music, Informal Learning and the School: A New Classroom Pedagogy. London: Ashgate Popular and Folk Music Series.

Hartland, J. (2000) Arts Education In Secondary Schools: Effects and Effectiveness. Berkshire: National Foundation for Educational Research.

Lindsey, R., Shroyer, J., Pashler, H. and Mozer, M., (2014). Improving Students’ Long-Term Knowledge Retention Through Personalized Review. Psychological Science, 25(3), pp.639-647.

Major, A. (2008) ‘Appraising composing in secondary-school music lessons’, Music Education Research, 10(2), pp. 307-319. London: Routledge Publishing.

McCormack, I. and Healey, J. (2008) Getting the Buggers in Tune. London: Continuum International Publishing Group.

McPherson, G. (2006) The Child as Musician. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Mills, J. (2005) Music in the school. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Philpott, C. (2001) Learning to Teach Music in the Secondary School. Oxon: Routledge Falmer Publishing Group.

Philpott, C. and Spruce, G. (eds.) (2007) Learning to Teach Music in the Secondary School: a Companion to the School Experience. London: Routledge Falmer.

Price, J. and Savage, J. (eds.) (2012) Teaching Secondary Music. London: Sage Publications.

Sherrington, T. (2019). Rosenshine’s Principles in Action. Woodbridge

Sherrington, T. and Caviglioli, O., (2017). The Learning Rainforest. Woodbridge.

Sherrington, T. and Caviglioli, O., (2020). Teaching Walkthrus. Woodbridge.

Sherrington, T. and Caviglioli, O., (2021). Teaching WalkThrus 2. Woodbridge.

Spruce, G. (2002) Aspects of Teaching Secondary Music. London: RoutledgeFalmer

Swanwick, K., (1979). A basis for music education. [Windsor]: NFER-Nelson Publ. Co.

Wales. Department for Children, Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills (2008a) Music: Guidance for Key Stages 2 and 3. Cardiff: Crown Copyright.

Wales. Department for Children, Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills (2008b) Music in the National Curriculum for Wales. Cardiff: Crown Copyright.

Westerlund, H. and Väkevä, L. (2011) ‘Who needs theory anyway? The relationship between theory and practice of music education in a philosophical outlook’. British Journal of Music, 28 (1), pp 37-49, [Online], Available at: http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid= 7967516

WJEC (2021). [online]. WJEC GCSE in Music Specification. Available at: <https://www.wjec.co.uk/umbraco/surface/blobstorage/download?nodeId=7 813> [Accessed 31 May 2021].

Wright, R (2002) ‘Music for all? Pupils’ perceptions of the GCSE Music examination in one South Wales secondary school’, British Journal of Music Education, 19 (3) pp.227-241, [Online]. Available at: http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=onine&aid+1 26504&fulltextType=RA&field=S0265051702000323

Hello from Emma and Tom! Hopefully you're all having a well-deserved summer break after the last academic year. We're off on our holidays too, but wanted to pop by and round up the year of podcasting that's just gone. Plus we look forward to our return for season 4 on the 3rd September!

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Recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed campus on 2nd August 2021

WE'RE BACK! It's time to kick off season 4 with a fond farewell to a stalwart friend of the podcast, Dr. Judith Kneen. Judith took early retirement at the end of the academic year 2020-21 so we got her in front of a microphone before she went, and she's delivered us a characteristically interesting discussion.

Judith's here to discuss some research on a topic dear to her heart as programme leader for PGCE secondary English: the set texts chosen by English teachers for their classes. As lead researcher for a project funded by the UKLA, Judith's got some sobering reflections for us about the diet of texts that pupils receive between the ages of 11 and 14. The research covers prose, poetry and plays. Why is it that there are so many male protagonists? Why are so many of the texts so old? What are the impacts of political pressure, stretched budgets and pragmatic decision-making?

Most importantly, what should new English teachers be asking themselves when deciding what set texts to present to their classes?

You can read the full research report here.

Finally, we're sure all our listeners (and past PGCE students) would like to take a moment to send the warmest wishes for a long and happy early retirement to Judith. A podcast legend and an irreplaceable colleague, we do hope to find an excuse to get her back on here soon.

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Recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed Campus on 8th July 2021

Welcome back to the podcast! Today we're looking outside the world of teaching to find out about other professionals who work with young people. Julia Rooney works on the Youth and Community programmes here at Cardiff Met, and she joined us down the line to discuss the many and varied roles that youth workers play in the lives of some of our most vulnerable young people. We hear about how new youth workers are trained, and how the teaching profession can make best use of their knowledge about the young people in our classrooms.

If you're considering youth work as a career, why not check out the courses available (from foundation level right up to postgraduate) here at Cardiff School of Education and Social Policy?

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Recorded at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed Campus with remote guest on 20th November 2020

It's time for our traditional October light episode, where we scour the weirdest corners of the Internet to find some interesting things to share. As usual, we have no idea what the other is bringing to the mic, and the result is an episode that takes in statistics, impostor syndrome, social media and wellbeing cheese (you'll have to listen to find out what that's all about).

Our episode rounds off with a rant from Tom and a feelgood tweet from Emma that leaves Tom muttering into the mic as the credits roll. Enjoy and we'll see you soon for the long run-up to Christmas!

Our goodies from this episode:

What Data Can't Do - The New Yorker

Wellbeing Cheese - Tom Sherrington

Intimidating Personality - Laura Pickering-Payne

Six hours without Facebook - The Register

Loyal, loving friends - Hallie Rubenhold

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Recorded in studio C2.05 at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed Campus on 14th October 2021

We're delighted to welcome Dr. Julia Jenkins back to the podcast after far too long away! Previously a member of our PGCE secondary science team, Julia was working for Teach First Cymru last time we caught up, but is now on the staff of the Institute of Physics. Julia has plenty of hard-hitting facts and figures for us on a worrying situation for diversity in the physics teaching world, with serious knock-on effects for teacher recruitment, A-level numbers and the subject of physics itself.

Julia and her colleagues at the IoP have plenty fo support available for physics teachers, and also the significant number of non-specialists who are teaching the subject. Check out their Limit Less pages at iop.org/strategy/limit-less or drop Julia an email at julia.jenkins@iop.org

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Recorded in studio C2.05 at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed campus on 21st October 2021

It's never been more important to have a clear vision and justification for your own subject and where it fits into the curriculum, whether you're in Wales or further afield.

In this episode, Emma and Tom go back to basics to model the kind of material that can help you start thinking and talking about where you stand on the big questions about your subject. It goes without saying that this model uses the specific contexts of secondary music and drama that Emma and Tom know and love, so if you're not from that world you'll need to apply this to your own particular situation. Even so, we hope the conversation in here is a starting point for anyone who needs to work out where they stand in relation to the educational things they hold dear!

If you want to find the texts discussed in this episode, here they are:

Robinson, M. (2021) 'Drama' in What should schools teach? London: UCL Press

Philpott, C. (2012) 'The Justification for Music in the Curriculum' in Debates in Music Teaching. Abingdon: Routledge

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Recorded in studio C2.05 at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed Campus on 9th November 2021

For this final episode before our traditional Christmas Special, we welcome Richard West, numeracy coordinator at Stanwell School in Penarth. Richard is a physics specialist but has taken on this important role in his school, supporting his colleagues to find opportunities within their subject specialisms to draw out numeracy skills.

Richard discusses how to address numeracy meaningfully, how to address the fear factor amongst staff, and gives us plenty of practical strategies for addressing this cross-curricular theme within the curriculum for Wales.

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Recorded in studio D0.18 at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed Campus on 29th November 2021

It's Christmas Eve! We're here to supply our traditional festive ramble through a variety of random things we've gathered together for your enjoyment and diversion as you recover from a long, long autumn term. 

As usual, it's a mixture of the heavy and the insubstantial, the academic and the completely left-field. Hopefully there's something in the present pile for everyone, whether you're looking for something to think about or just some entertainment. 

After exhausting the selection of articles, podcasts and party games, our final offering is Emma's idea to shamelessly pinch the central concept from a popular podcast on the Guardian, which sees our intrepid duo sharing their favourite comfort food snacks and explaining the story behind them. 

If that leaves you hungry (!) for more, we hope you'll enjoy all the goodies we have lined up for you in 2022. That's it from us for 2021, and we hope you've enjoyed our episodes this year. Have a wonderful Christmas and new year, and we'll see you again in January!

Best wishes from Emma and Tom xx

As a special Christmas present, you can watch this podcast on YouTube here! 

LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE:

Tom

The vanity of 'white guilt' - Lionel Shriver, The Spectator

The internet has turned our past into a curse - James Marriott, The Times

Maton, K. (2013) 'Knowledge-knower structures: What's at stake in the 'two cultures' debate, why school music is unpopular, and what unites such diverse issues' in Maton, K. Knowledge and Knowers: Towards a Realist Sociology of Education. London: Routledge

The seven types of rest: I spent a week trying them all. Could they help end my exhaustion? Emma Beddington, The Guardian

A Very Fatal Murder - Onion Public Radio

Emma

The Story of Aids - BBC World Service

A moment that changed me: Patrick Stewart on the teacher who spotted his talent – and saved him - Patrick Stewart, The Guardian

Things Fell Apart - Jon Ronson

Iant - Steve Blandford, Cambria Books

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Recorded in studio D0.12 at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed Campus on 14th December 2021

For the first time in a very long time, we're off on the road to an actual real-life school! Pencoedtre High School in Barry is the venue for an interesting discussion about what we mean by trauma-informed schools and how trauma-informed practice can help support pupils in overcoming difficulties that can affect their experience in school.

Steph Robinson and Liz John join us in a school in the midst of being rebuilt to talk about what this looks like in practice, and how a little thought can go a long way in ensuring pupils have an emotionally available adult to call upon when they're in school.

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Recorded at Pencoedtre High School, Barry on 7th December 2021

So you want to become a teacher? Hopefully we can help!

Our original episode of this name three years ago has been our number 1 most downloaded episode, so there must be quite a few of you out there interested in joining us in the best job in the world! But three years is a long time, and we thought it was time to produce a sequel and put it out there. We're joined by Sioned Dafydd, primary education specialist and one of the Welsh-language voices of the podcast, to chew over what you need to know and how to prepare to become a teacher. 

There's plenty of advice about the importance of knowing what you're signing up for, some ideas about the different pathways, and loads of common questions answered. We hope you find it useful!

If you fancy coming and training with us, you can find out more about our programmes at www.cardiffmet.ac.uk/cardiff-partnership

Wherever you decide to become a teacher, good luck!

You can also watch this episode on YouTube here.

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Recorded in studio D0.12 at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed Campus on 9th December 2021

Dr. Viv John, recently awarded her doctorate after completing the Cardiff Met EdD programme with flying colours, has been in our sights for a while! After hearing the rave reviews of her viva, we had to get her in front of a microphone to find out what she's been researching.

And the answer is that Dr. Viv has been bravely tackling several of the trickier areas relating to music education, taking on so many challenges that even her supervisors wondered if it was wise!

In a nutshell, Viv was interested in trying to nail down the tricky concept of creativity as it applies to musicians who embark on the PGCE in secondary music with the aim of becoming classroom music teachers. We've heard many times on the podcast from Tom about the fact that people entering the profession as secondary music teachers skew strongly towards what we call 'classically trained', and Viv was interested in the implications of that for how these musicians see their own creativity and how it changes as they beome teachers. As well as the PGCE students trained in the western classical tradition, a small group of non classically-trained musicians came onto the programme and Viv was able to see how their views of creativity differed, and the challenges that they faced when entering a profession that has largely trained in music in a very different way.

Along the road to gaining her EdD, Viv grappled with the sociological theories of Pierre Bordieu as a means of making sense of what was going on, and used the slightly unorthodox research methodology of narrative enquiry to tell the stories of these musicians as they entered the teaching profession during their PGCE year.

This episode will be a gift to anyone interested in music education, arts education, creativity, the sociology of education and narrative enquiry, so our grateful thanks to Viv for popping in just before Christmas to bring us such a huge selection of goodies!

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Recorded in studio D0.12 at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed Campus on 14th December 2021

It's been a little while since we last heard from our student teachers, and today you can hear from several of them! The concept of research and enquiry is central to Cardiff Met's research-informed clinical practice model of initial teacher education, and it's a joy to hear student teachers outlining their early research and enquiry activities from their first school placements so articulately.

We set up our 'research and enquiry photo booth' project in which our student teachers sent 2-3 minute 'selfie' videos telling us what they'd taken away from a piece of research and enquiry. Emma and Tom introduce some of them in this episode, and discuss the place of research and enquiry in initial teacher education.

For our Welsh-speaking listeners, there's a bonus this week as we're simultaneously releasing a Welsh version of this episode. Check out our feed for the other episode 13, in which our Emma and Tom's colleagues Sioned Dafydd and Rhian Crooks-Williams take their places to discuss the 'photo booth' submissions of our Welsh-medium student teachers.

Thanks, as ever, to all of our students for putting their time and effort into these pieces of work.

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Recorded in studio D0.18 at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed Campus on 29th November 2021.

Mae wedi bod ychydig yn amser ers i ni glywed ddiwethaf gan ein hathrawon dan hyfforddiant, a heddiw gallwch chi glywed gan sawl un ohonyn nhw! Mae'r cysyniad o ymchwil ac ymholi yn ganolog i fodel ymarfer clinigol addysg gychwynnol ymchwil Caerdydd Met, ac mae'n bleser clywed athrawon dan hyfforddiant yn amlinellu eu gweithgareddau ymchwil ac ymholi cynnar o'u lleoliadau ysgol cyntaf mor groyw.

Fe wnaethom sefydlu ein prosiect 'bwth lluniau ymchwil ac ymholi' lle anfonodd ein hathrawon dan hyfforddiant fideos 'hunlun' 2-3 munud yn dweud wrthym beth yr oeddent wedi'i dynnu oddi wrth ddarn o ymchwil ac ymholiad. Mae Sioned a Rhian yn cyflwyno rhai ohonynt yn y bennod hon, ac yn trafod y lle ymchwil ac ymholi mewn addysg gychwynnol athrawon.

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Recordiwyd ar Gampws Cyncoed Prifysgol Fetropolitan Caerdydd ar 14eg Rhagfyr 2021

It's been quite a while since we discussed the all-important role of the mentor in initial teacher education, and we welcome two guests today: Sally Bethell, veteran of several podcast recordings, and Sian Wickersham, one of our newest colleagues.

Sally has spent years becoming our go-to colleagues about all things to do with mentoring, and is in the closing stages of doctoral research on the subject. Meanwhile, Sian has just joined us from a role at an academy chain in London, and her perspective as a new member of the team (and one with experience of initial teacher education over the border in England) adds a new angle.

There have been some major changes in the way we work in partnership with our schools to educate new members of the teaching profession in the last few years. How has this manifested itself in the role of the mentor, the person who the student teacher probably sees more than anyone else on the programme? How have our colleagues who train and support mentors changed how they work to take account of this? And how can schools select the very best possible people to be mentors?

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Recorded in studio D0.12 at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed Campus on 9th December 2021

Long-time podcast listeners may remember our review of Lucy Crehan's bestseller Cleverlands, in which the author outlined her insights into leading education systems of the world. Crucially, Lucy had actually got on a plan and travelled to the countries, living with teachers and speaking to people involved in education, and so her conclusions about the features of high-performing education systems of the world had more weight behind them. It also helped that her final chapter was crystal clear in summarising what she saw as the common features of world-leading education systems.

So you can imagine how excited we were to be able to pack up our wires and microphones and hit the road - not only were we taking the podcast for the first time since Covid hit in 2020, but we had an invitation to Lucy Crehan's house for a long chat about her work supporting teachers in implementing the new curriculum for Wales!

Our discussion turned out to be an honest and serious evaluation of how things are going in what should be the final stages before the new curriculum is rolled out in Welsh schools. Are we ready? Are there cautionary notes to be drawn from Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence? How can teachers fill in the gap between the 'big picture' aspirations of the curriculum documents and the nuts and bolts of subject disciplines?

All is revealed in this extended interview with Lucy Crehan, and we hope you find the insights useful, no matter where in the world you're listening.

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Recorded in Swansea on 16th February 2022