Inside Education - a podcast for educators interested in teaching

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney On this week's programme I spoke to Dr. Eemer Eivers, research fellow, and Aidan Clerkin, research associate, at the Educational Research Centre at St. Patrick's College about the performance of Irish fourth class children on the PIRLS and TIMSS tests. In the tests Irish children's performance on reading, maths and science was compared with the performance of children in up to 50 other countries. The guests authored the Irish report, which can be viewed here.

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney On this week's programme Professor Deborah Loewenberg Ball, who is Dean of the School of Education at the University of Michigan and Director of Teaching Works talks about her research on teacher education. She also shares her impression of Irish education and tells us what the current hot topics are in U.S. education. She was in Ireland as a guest of the Marino Institute of Education and the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment. You can watch a podcast of her talks to Irish educators here.

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney On this week's programme I continue my discussion with Síle Ní Fhearáin, a recently retired post-primary school teacher. Síle uses a pastoral care perspective to reflect on matters related to school attendance, discipline and suspension as a sanction for misbehaviour. During the interview Síle refers to a report, Discipline in Schools, written by Dr. Maeve Martin in 1997. A more recent report on the topic is available here.

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney On this week's programme Síle Ní Fhearáin discusses how she became a teacher, her time in Belcamp College and the experience of moving to Pobalscoil Neasáin after 33 years teaching in Belcamp College. She also discusses the teaching of Irish. Next week I'll speak to Síle about attendance and discipline.

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney On this week's programme Professor Margaret M. Clark, who was in Ireland as a guest of the Reading Association of Ireland, discusses topics including literacy, research and early years education.

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney On this week's programme we marked this year's Kilkenomics festival and considered the topic of economics teaching by speaking first to economist David McWilliams. This was followed up by an interview with teacher Derek Lynch, who is the honorary secretary of the Business Studies Teachers' Association of Ireland.

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney In this week's programme Professor Jo Boaler from Stanford University discusses the teaching of mathematics. She was in Ireland earlier this year as a guest of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment. She recommended the NRICH website as a source of maths problems.

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney On this programme I continued my seasonal coverage of teaching social, environmental and scientific education in the primary school with teacher, teacher educator and environmentalist, Paddy Madden. During the interview Paddy referred to the section about "Paddy's School Garden" on the Blackrock Education Centre website.

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney On this programme, Professor Colum Kenny from DCU's School of Communications talks about the need for our education system to be more responsive to the needs of young people.

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney On this week's programme Valerie O'Dowd from the Marino Institute of Education talks about the videos she made with the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment showing how parents can help their child with mathematics. You can view the videos and tip-sheets here and here. Professor Margaret Clark, from Newman University College, Birmingham, who was a guest at the Reading Association of Ireland's annual conference speaks about lefthandedness.