Rethinking Education

Today I am speaking with behaviour specialist and volcano of positivity Adele Bates. As you will hear at the start of our conversation, I worked with Adele for a short period, and so I speak with experience when I say that the second you meet her, you immediately realise that you are dealing with an incredibly compassionate, thoughtful, unique human being. Adele has recently written a fascinating, down to earth, warts-and-all book called 'Miss I don’t give a Sh*t: Engaging with Challenging Behaviour in Schools.' Here are some of the lovely things people have said about the book: “Looking for a breath of fresh air when it comes to behaviour management? Look no further. With wit and wisdom, passion and compassion, Adele Bates not only puts the relationships between teacher and young person at the heart of the educational endeavour, but also gives that young person a voice.” (Ian Gilbert) “Adele Bates has written a highly readable book brimming with practical ideas, exuberant optimism and encouragement of experimentation. She urges practitioners to see beyond the so-called bad behaviour to the human being in context. This is a book that celebrates the importance of reflection, empathy and care, including the all vital task of self-care.” (Melissa Benn) ‘This book offers an in-depth, detailed and nuanced overview of the subject of behaviour, with a particular focus on building relationships, helping pupils to feel safe and on teacher self-care. It is a must read book for all teachers, and will be particularly helpful for those working in the most challenging contexts, staff in alternative provision and those working with children who have SEND and SEMH.’ (Sue Cowley) At just over an hour, this is a shorter episode than usual. But there is loads packed into this conversation and you will come away with practical ideas for how to work with young people who present with challenging behaviour in schools. As someone who has worked in schools in which dealing with behaviour was a daily challenge, I really wish Adele’s book had been around when I entered the profession. LINKS Adele’s website: https://adelebateseducation.co.uk/ Adele’s book: https://www.waterstones.com/book/miss-i-dont-give-a-sh-t/adele-bates/9781529731569 Mighty Network Welcome Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=47xZ73YPTNs Rethinking Education Campfire Conversations playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZ6mCUmebHJNC-qrWX9gMBCQJtHxoGNh2 The Rethinking Education Mighty Network: https://rethinking-education.mn.co/feed Become a Patron of the Rethinking Education project: www.patreon.com/repod Buy James a pint, a coffee - or perhaps even a pint of coffee: www.buymeacoffee.com/repod The Rethinking Education podcast is hosted and produced by Dr James Mannion. You can contact him at rethinking-ed.org/contact, or via @RethinkingJames on Twitter.

This episode features a conversation with Harry Fletcher-Wood, who has written an absolutely fascinating book called Habits of Success: Getting every student learning. Ground-breaking books about education don’t come around too often, but Habits of Success is truly pioneering. We’ve heard a lot about cognitive science in recent years - often a quite narrow interpretation of cognitive science which focuses largely on memorising stuff. But there has been another area of social science bubbling away in the background in recent years, slowly coming to the boil - the field of behavioural science. A few years ago the UK government set up something called the Behavioural Insights Team - also known as the Nudge Unit - which focuses on how to change people’s behaviour not by telling them what to do (like ‘eat 5 fruit and veg a day’), but by nudging them in the right direction (like by putting attractive displays of fruit next to the checkout in a school canteen). In Habits of Success, Harry applies insights from the world of Behavioural Science to the problem of how to help students build helpful habits for learning effectively, while breaking one or two unhealthy habits along the way. I really enjoyed my conversation with Harry. About half-way through the podcast there’s a section where I ask him some taxing questions about the book, and his responses were really impressive. Harry has an enviable gift for expressing complex ideas in a really engaging, accessible way. As always, this was a fascinating conversation which left me with many more questions than answers, which is always a good sign that you’ve hit a rich seam. Link to the Fiorella paper on the Science of Habits Harry mentions paywalled unfortunately): https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10648-020-09525-1 Mighty Network Welcome Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47xZ73YPTNs Rethinking Education Campfire Conversations playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZ…WX9gMBCQJtHxoGNh2 The Rethinking Education Mighty Network: https://www.rethinking-education.mn.co/feed Become a Patron of the Rethinking Education project: https://www.patreon.com/repod Buy James a pint, a coffee - or perhaps even a pint of coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/repod The Rethinking Education podcast is hosted and produced by Dr James Mannion. You can contact him at https://rethinking-ed.org/contact, or via @RethinkingJames on Twitter.

Today I am speaking with Michael FD Young, Emeritus Professor of Sociology of Curriculum at the UCL Institute of Education. Michael has been a towering figure in the field of Sociology of Education for over five decades. He has written and edited many books throughout his career, including Knowledge and Control (1971), Bringing Knowledge Back In (20080) and Knowledge and the Future School (2014) - to name just a few. You may have noticed a theme in those book titles - Michael writes about knowledge a lot. Hence the title of the podcast. A few weeks ago I met Michael for an enjoyable lunch in Russell Square, sitting under the trees with a lasagne and a beer and discussing life, the universe and everything. To my delight, Michael agreed that it would be a good idea to join me for an extended conversation about his remarkable career to date. As always, this was an absolutely fascinating conversation. It’s also a conversation that I think many people will find surprising - both the hard-line traditionalists and the hard-core progressives among you. You know who you are. I look forward to hearing what people make of it - please do let me know what you think. LINKS: MIchael’s 2018 article in Impact: A knowledge-led curriculum: Pitfalls and Possibilities: https://impact.chartered.college/article/a-knowledge-led-curriculum-pitfalls-possibilities/ The Nature article MIchael mentions, by Paul Nurse - ‘Biology must generate ideas as well as data’: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02480-z Mighty Network Welcome Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=47xZ73YPTNs&t=3s Rethinking Education Campfire Conversations playlist: www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZ…WX9gMBCQJtHxoGNh2 The Rethinking Education Mighty Network: www.rethinking-education.mn.co/feed Become a Patron of the Rethinking Education project: www.patreon.com/repod Buy James a pint, a coffee - or perhaps even a pint of coffee: www.buymeacoffee.com/repod

Earlier this year, through connecting with people in the Mighty Network, I hosted a series of six "campfire conversations". In contrast to the podcast, which features long-form, pre planned, recorded conversations with individuals, the campfire conversations were an attempt to bring more people into the conversation. These were live-streamed, shorter, more spontaneous conversations that usually included between 6 and 12 people at a time - always including young people, as well as parents and carers, psychologists and so on. If you haven't seen any campfire conversations, they're all archived on YouTube, along with one or two juicy clips - there’s a link below. The fact that those campfire conversations included the voices of young people was absolutely wonderful, and kind of rare. The idea that we should include young people in discussions about education shouldn't really be a radical thing, should it. But, we are where we are. Anyway, I am delighted to be able to say that in this episode, I speak with Yumna Hussen and Lottie Cooke from Pupil Power, an absolutely brilliant youth organisation dedicated to: * raising awareness of young people’s perspectives on education; * educating young people on how funding cuts have affected education provision in recent years; and * campaigning for changes to educational policy and practice that take account of the experiences, views and desires of young people. The very thought, listeners! Whatever next! Yumna Hussen is currently studying A levels in Biology, Chemistry and Politics. in the lower sixth. She is the Youth MP for Birmingham, and the author of a wonderful book called Struggles of War, which she wrote when she was in Year 8. Like you do. She's also done a fabulous TEDx talk entitled 'Re-Imagining Education To Create An Impact In The World'.(Links below) Lottie Cooke is currently a first year undergraduate at the University of Warwick. She is a young journalist and has published some brilliant articles and appeared on many a podcast setting out her vision for the future of education (link to article below). It was an absolute joy and privilege to be able to spend a few hours in the company of Lottie and Yumna. There is so much wisdom and insight packed into this conversation that I had to keep pausing it and re-listening to whole sections. I think it will take me a couple more listens at least before I can take it all in properly. And although many of the issues we spoke about are deeply concerning and challenging, when you speak with young people like Lottie and Yumna you come away feeling like the future is in safe hands. LINKS: Mighty Network Welcome Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47xZ73YPTNs&t=3s Rethinking Education Campfire Conversations playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZ6mCUmebHJNC-qrWX9gMBCQJtHxoGNh2 James’s secret teacher article: https://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2012/sep/08/secret-teacher-political-control-education-innovation-fatigue The secret teacher archive: https://www.theguardian.com/profile/the-secret-teacher Yumna’s book, Struggles of War: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Struggles-War-Yumna-Hussen-ebook/dp/B07FPS2PGF Yumna's TEDs talk, 'Re-Imagining Education To Create An Impact In The World': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkpeN64AuLU&ab_channel=TEDxTalks Article by Lottie Cooke setting out her vision for the future of education: https://www.getrevue.co/profile/innovatejournal/issues/innovate-journal-issue-2-485387?utm_campaign=Issue&utm_content=view_in_browser&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Innovate+Journal The Rethinking Education Mighty Network: www.rethinking-education.mn.co/feed Become a Patron of the Rethinking Education project: www.patreon.com/repod Buy James a pint, a coffee - or perhaps even a pint of coffee: www.buymeacoffee.com/repod

Today I’m speaking with Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, whose work is, I honestly think, the most important I’ve yet come across in all my years of dabbling in education research and trying to understand how young people learn and develop, what we should be doing in schools to help them, and what we should maybe stop doing as soon as is humanly possible. Mary Helen is a Professor of Education, Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Southern California and the Director of Candle: the Center for Affective Neuroscience, Development, Learning and Education, which, among many notable achievements, is surely the most successful academic acronym of all time. Mary Helen and her team study the psychological and neurobiological development of emotion and self-awareness. In particular, her work highlights the importance of emotions, sociality and culture in young people’s social, cognitive and moral development. She uses cross-cultural, interdisciplinary studies of stories and the feelings they induce to shine a light on the neural networks that underpin identity, intrinsic motivation, and deep, meaningful learning. Mary Helen’s work often features children and adolescents from disadvantaged communities, and she often involves young people from these communities as junior scientists who are participants, as well as subjects, in her research. A former public high-school science teacher, Mary Helen has a doctorate in human development and psychology from Harvard University, and she completed her postdoctoral training in social-affective neuroscience with Antonio Damasio, whose research has been incredibly important in shaping Mary Helen’s work. In 2016, Mary Helen published a book, Emotions, Learning and the Brain, which summarises the key findings from the previous decade of her work. I can’t recommend this book highly enough to anyone with an interest in how children and adolescents learn. I really think it’s an incredibly important read, as is the work Mary Helen has done in the 5 years since the book was published. Mary Helen has received numerous awards for her research and impact on education and society, including an Honor Coin from the U.S. Army, a Commendation from the County of Los Angeles, a Cozzarelli Prize from the Proceedings of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and a host of early career achievement awards too numerous to mention. Toward the end of the conversation, we talk about three networks of the brain - the default mode network, the salience network and the executive control network. Understanding what these three networks do, and how they interact, is absolutely central to understanding the importance of Mary Helen’s work. I was hoping that we would have time to discuss these three networks in the conversation, but unfortunately we ran out of time toward the end of the conversation. Fortunately however, Mary Helen recently co-authored a paper with her colleague Doug Knecht, which explains these three brain networks and how they work and interact in lay terms. The paper is called ‘Building Meaning Builds Teens' Brains’, and it’s well worth a read. Links: Building meaning builds teens’ brains: https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/building-meaning-builds-teens-brains CANDLE (The Center for Affective Neuroscience, Development, Learning and Education): https://candle.usc.edu/ The Rethinking Education Mighty Network: https://rethinking-education.mn.co/feed Contribute to the Rethinking Education project: https://www.patreon.com/repod Buy James a pint, a coffee - or perhaps even a pint of coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/repod

A trailer for Season 2 of the Rethinking Education podcast. Website: https://rethinking-ed.org Email: enquiries@rethinking-ed.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/rethinking_ed Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rethinking.education/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtu5tET_5HwSEcuG0OwmsbA Mighty Network: https://rethinking-education.mn.co/feed Campfire Conversations: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZ6mCUmebHJNC-qrWX9gMBCQJtHxoGNh2 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/rethinkinged

Rachel Lofthouse is a Professor of Teacher Education in the Carnegie School of Education at Leeds Beckett University. Rachel has a specific research interest in professional learning, exploring how teachers learn and how they can be supported to put that learning into practice. The first part of the conversation - roughly the first hour or so - focuses on a controversy that is unfolding in England at the current time (summer 2021) which can reasonably be described as the government’s assault on providers of University-based Initial Teacher Training. If you are listening in Summer 2021 and would like to help, you can respond to the government’s online consultation to share your views (deadline August 22, 2021). The consultation is long, and life is short, so there is also some guidance below on how you might wish to respond to the consultation without spending your entire summer holiday doing so. LINKS: The ITT Market Review: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/initial-teacher-training-itt-market-review/initial-teacher-training-itt-market-review-overview University of Cambridge website providing further information about the review and its implications for their ITT programmes: https://www.educ.cam.ac.uk/news/itt-market-review-facts-figures-information/ Statement from the Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Head of Faculty at the University of Cambridge: https://www.cam.ac.uk/notices/news/statement-on-the-uk-government-initial-teacher-training-itt-market-review-report Blog looking at recent ITT inspections, but Terry Russell and Julie Price-Grimshaw: https://www.teachbest.education/a-look-at-recent-itt-inspections-by-terry-russell-and-julie-price-grimshaw/ Article in Times Higher Ed: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/universities-refuse-slavishly-follow-teacher-training-plans Online consultation (deadline August 22, 2021): https://consult.education.gov.uk/itt-policy-unit/initial-teacher-training-itt-market-review-recomme/ What can you do to help? Respond to the online consultation before the deadline of 22 August. Write to your local MP and explain why the continued delivery of university-based PGCE courses matters. You could approach completion of the online consultation in one of several ways: Give as full a response as possible based on your knowledge of the market review and your understanding of the sector. This is the best possible form of response, but it might include quite a lot of ‘not applicable’ responses to specific questions, because there is no way that you are able to answer some of them. This does not matter. What is important is giving your perspectives on elements of the consultation on which you do have expertise/views. The last question of the survey is of particular importance, as it asks you to summarise your views and asks about anything further you want to add. Where you have access to the responses of institutions, and you wish to mirror specific question responses with which you agree, use quotes acknowledging the source. Give a response that is a mixture of 1 & 2. Give a response in which your answer to every question is ‘Please see the views presented in response to the final question of the consultation’ (unfortunately you cannot simply leave a question blank). Then give a response in the final question which is an overview of your perspectives on the Market Review. The Rethinking Education podcast is hosted and produced by Dr James Mannion. You can contact him at https://rethinking-ed.org/contact, or via @RethinkingJames on Twitter. You can join the Rethinking Education Mighty Network here: https://rethinking-education.mn.co Buy James a coffee here: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/repod

Dr Naomi Fisher is a clinical psychologist with a doctorate in clinical psychology and a PhD in Developmental Cognitive Psychology, focusing on autism. She is also the mother of two self-directed learners, having decided not to send her children to school. Naomi is the author of 'Changing our Minds: How children can take control of their own learning'. It's about self-directed learning and it's an absolutely brilliant read - I really can’t recommend it enough. We talk about the book in depth in this conversation. Naomi also recently appeared in one of the Rethinking Education campfire conversations - a brilliant episode called Self-Directed Learning - Dare to give young people autonomy - which you can see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yh2qgFo2C6c LINKS: TED talk with Molly Wright: https://www.ted.com/talks/molly_wright_how_every_child_can_thrive_by_five Some of Naomi's recent articles: The how and why of the classroom: https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/how-and-why-classroom School's out(setting out some arguments for self-directed learning): https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-33/march-2020/schools-out School's really out: https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/schools-really-out Naomi's brilliant book, Changing our minds: https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/naomi-fisher/changing-our-minds/9781472145505/ The Rethinking Education podcast is hosted and produced by Dr James Mannion. You can contact him at https://rethinking-ed.org/contact, or via @RethinkingJames on Twitter. You can join the Rethinking Education Mighty Network here: https://rethinking-education.mn.co Buy James a coffee here: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/repod

This is a cross-post of an episode of the Flourishing Education podcast, in which Fabienne Vailes interviewed James Mannion about, well, Rethinking Education. Fabienne is a brilliant, intuitive interviewer who lets the conversation go where it will. Which made for a fascinating and, in places, quite emotive conversation. I would like to express my thanks to Fabienne for taking the time to speak with me. I’ve really enjoyed listening back to this conversation, and I hope you do too. The Rethinking Education podcast is hosted by Dr James Mannion, the Director of Rethinking Education. You can contact him at https://rethinking-ed.org/contact, or via @RethinkingJames on Twitter. To join the Rethinking Education Mighty Network, visit: https://rethinking-education.mn.co/feed

Dr Amelia Peterson is an LSE Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where she teaches social policy, and she is soon to become a founding member of faculty at the London Interdisciplinary School. She completed her PhD in Education Policy and Program Evaluation at Harvard University, where she was an Inequality and Social Policy fellow. During her studies she was a junior visiting scholar at Nuffield College, Oxford and holds a masters degree in Human Development and Psychology, also from Harvard. Amelia studies education and skills policies and their interactions with wider societal processes. Her dissertation traced the institutional changes associated with the de-vocationalization of upper secondary education, in the context of increased income inequality. She is interested in how political and social factors impact policy implementation and recently co-authored an absolutely brilliant book with Valerie Hannon, entitled: THRIVE - the purpose of schools in a changing world, which we discuss at length in this episode. LINKS Two brilliant Rethinking Assessment blogs by Amelia: ‘Moving beyond grades will be key to rethinking assessment’: https://rethinkingassessment.com/rethinking-blogs/moving-beyond-grades-will-be-key-to-rethinking-assessment/ ‘We need a more flexible and useful assessment regime that will motivate young people’: https://rethinkingassessment.com/rethinking-blogs/we-need-a-more-flexible-and-useful-assessment-regime-that-will-motivate-young-people/ A recent Rethinking Education campfire conversation that involved Amelia on self-directed learning - "Dare to give young people autonomy": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yh2qgFo2C6c The Rethinking Education podcast is hosted by Dr James Mannion, the Director of Rethinking Education. You can contact him at https://rethinking-ed.org/contact, or via @RethinkingJames on Twitter. To join the Rethinking Education Mighty Network, visit: rethinking-education.mn.co/feed