Emma & Tom Talk Teaching

It’s October half term, and therefore time for one of our ‘light’ episodes! To entertain you with something a little different, we’ve gone a bit rogue and found three interesting things each. As ever, we don’t tell one another what’s coming in advance (though if you listened to the last episode with Emma, it’s fair to say that Tom had a good idea that an epistemology quiz was in his immediate future…). We also quietly drop our usual 60 minute limit on episode length in order to chew things over a bit more expansively. Today we have a Hollywood actor, an ex Prime Minister, a rising star of feline academia, some bad habits, and some other bits and bobs to keep you amused and make you think. Normal service will be resumed next time, when we welcome a colleague to the studio to discuss AI in education. ————————————————Recorded in Studio B2.15 at Cardiff Metropolitan University’s Cyncoed Campus on 9th August 2024

Tom is joined in studio B2.15 today by Megan Cole from PGCE Primary, who talks us through her research into how learning through play can enhance the experience of older primary school pupils. ---------------------Recorded in studio B2.15 at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed Campus on 29th April 2024

In the second half of our EdD work-in-progress double bill, Emma moves on from defining her worldview to realising that she needs to carry out her research using participatory methods. This is something a bit new to Emma (and quite a few of us in education) so today we take a dive into what it involves, how it differs from many of the approaches we’re used to as education specialists, and look forward to what Emma’s going to do next. Thanks to Emma for lots of interesting food for thought!—————————————Recorded in Studio B2.15 at Cardiff Metropolitan University’s Cyncoed Campus on 8th August 2024

For this episode, we welcome a very special guest to the studio… Emma! She’s still working away at her EdD and has been concentrating on the research design. This includes not only piloting her project on a small scale, but also getting to grips with tricky things such as her worldview, paradigm, ontology, epistemology and axiology - all long words to strike fear into researchers. In discussing her work in progress with Tom, she ended up providing enough content for two episodes! In this first one we concentrate on ontology, epistemology and axiology, and how understanding those things help the researcher come to understand their worldview and what that means for how to undertake a research study. We hope you find this a non-threatening look at plenty of big words! Next time, we’ll bring you the second half of the discussion, in which Emma concludes that she needs to dip her toe into the exciting world of participatory research. ———————————Recorded in Studio B2.15 at Cardiff Metropolitan University’s Cyncoed Campus on 8th August 2024

ITV National News* have just dropped a hard-hitting report about standards of literacy in Welsh schools. I you haven’t seen it, you can get the text and video here. We wanted to put together a reaction piece to unpack the issues around phonics and reading (without getting embroiled in any reading wars!), but also zoom out a bit and see whether this first really prominent news investigation into the Welsh education reforms might be pointing to wider questions or concerns with the Curriculum for Wales. Thanks to Rhys Williams at ITN, Gareth Rein at St Peter’s RC Primary School in Cardiff, Dr Gareth Evans at UWTSD and the various people who gave me background information and understanding, especially about systematic synthetic phonics!If you were hoping to hear Emma's dulcet tones on this episode, apologies - she was teaching all day and we wanted to turn this episode around in a single day. She'll be back next week!* This story was put together and broadcast by ITV National News, part of ITN, and not ITV Wales, as I wrongly state twice in the episode. Sorry! - Tom-------------------------------------------------Recorded in various locations in Cardiff on 27th September 2024

For today's snippet of student teacher research Tom is joined by Ella Cleary from PGCE Secondary Biology. Ella was interested in how to use assessment for learning strategies to create an equitable biology classroom.-----------------------------------------------------Recorded in studio B2.15 at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed Campus on 29th April 2024

For today's episode, we return to a comment made by Professor David Egan in a previous episode, where he identified community focused schools as important in supporting pupils and their families living in poverty.To dig a little deeper into what they are and what they do, we've invited Dr Jan Huyton to the studio. Jan has done a lot of work on this, and also uses a multi-agency approach when teaching on the MA in Education here at Cardiff Met.Jan tells us what community focused schools can be, what they do, and what obstacles we need to overcome to join up various types of organisations which seek to support children and families.--------------------------------------------------------------Recorded in studio B2.15 at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed Campus on 24th April 2024

English language listeners: a reminder that we also produce occasional episodes in Welsh! This is the beginning of a new block of PGCE Research Bites, and English-speaking listeners can get their fix in a fortnight!

Welcome back for our seventh season of the podcast!We’re opening the new academic year with another of our live panel sessions - this one was recorded in June this year at our PGCE research conference. Joining us to discuss what enquiry can look like in schools, and how we can make it work for us as teachers, is a quartet of people with a claim to have something to say on the subject! Emma Aston and Sarah Cason join us from Whitchurch High School and Palmerston Primary school - both schools with excellent track records. Louise Muteham was previously heard this time last year asking a great question and now joins us as a panellist - she’s from the Central South Consortium. And Dr Matt Hutt is a colleague from just down the road at the University of South Wales. We hope you enjoy what they have to say, and their answers to the questions provided by our audience. As ever, we’ll be back in a fortnight with more goodies for you. ———————————————Recorded live in Lecture Theatre 1 at Cardiff Metropolitan University’s Cyncoed Campus on 10th June 2024.