Seven Myths About Education: A Book Review

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 in studio B1.12 at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed campus on 14th December 2018