Emma & Tom Talk Teaching

Today we welcome our colleague Dr. Anne Hodgson, an expert in autism and additional learning needs more widely. We discuss the new ALN act in Wales and the implications for pupils and teachers. As well as that, we consider how the new curriculum in Wales might have an impact on provision for pupils with additional learning needs, and what mainstream settings (and the teachers in them) need to do i...

It's time for another look at doctoral research in progress, and Tom's hoping his won't be in progress for much longer! Recorded the day after submitting his viva corrections, this episode looks at Tom's PhD thesis, A Study of Key Stage 3 Music Teachers' Pedagogic Beliefs in the Context of a New Curriculum for Wales. The study aimed to create a model of the beliefs of classroom music teachers abou...

Today we welcome Dr. Mary Woolley from Canterbury Christ Church University. Mary joins us down the line from Folkestone to discuss her role in a research project focusing on encounters between science and religion in the classroom. Having met Mary and her colleague Professor Bob Bowie at the UCET conference, we immediately saw the potential for their work to support curriculum reform in Wales. Tod...

Today, we welcome Professor David Egan to our podcast studio for an extended discussion about poverty in education in Wales. David has had a long and distinguished career in education, starting as a history teacher in the Welsh valleys in 1976 and ending up as a professor, so he has plenty to tell us about the education landscape. In this episode, David tells us about the causes and consequences o...

Happy new year! Friend of the podcast Sally Bethell is back once again, with an upgrade to Doctor Sally after successfully achieving her EdD professional doctorate a few months ago. Having spoken to us several times in the past about her work on mentoring, Dr Sally is now in a position to outline how she's been working to support mentors in generating a self-reflection tool to help them reflect on...

Well, here we are again - in the gap between Christmas and New Year, and it's time for our annual tradition of giving each other six Christmas presents consisting of interesting things we've begged, borrowed and stolen. This year, Emma's finally succumbed to Covid after a glorious three-year run of immunity, and is therefore forced to dial in down-the-line from home. Tom, meanwhile, is all alone i...

Today we welcome a friend of PGCE Research Bites to his first full podcast episode! Dr. James Snook heads up all things to do with research and professional learning here at the Cardiff Partnership, and is a strong advocate for classroom enquiry. We sat down with James to ask him about the benefits of classroom enquiry, how to embed a culture of enquiry in school, the place of universities, and mo...

This week, we're delighted to welcome a school colleague to our podcast studio. James Wise is the ITE coordinator at Cardiff High School, and also the organising force behind ResearchED Cymru. We wanted to chat to James about how he works with new teachers to help them create a culture of challenge for all pupils in their classrooms. Thanks to James for taking part, and do check out the latest fro...

Dyma damaid arall o ymchwil TAR i chi ac mae’r myfyriwr TAR Uwchradd Mathemateg, Tomos Woods, yn siarad gyda Dr Gina Morgan am ei waith ymchwil. Mae’n trafod ei ail Aseiniad, sef ymyrraeth sydd yn ffocysu ar sut mae Esboniadau Ychwanegol Gweledol yn Cynyddu Dealltwriaeth Gysyniadol Disgyblion mewn Gwersi Mathemateg. Mae’r ystyried effaith gadarnhaol y defnydd o luniau, diagramau, siapiau a lliw ar...

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, w...

Today's Research Bite features Daniel Gurner, a PGCE Secondary Music student teacher who designed and delivered an intervention in his placement school to help pupils improve their literacy when answering GCSE music exam questions. In putting the intervention together, Daniel drew on various sources of literature as well as his understanding of the advantages of treating music as a holistic subjec...

Hello from our latest podcasting home - just across campus from our old podcasting home! And as is traditional at this time of year, we've got a feast of random stuff for one another, drawn from all four corners of the internet and beyond. If you'd like to see any of the items from this episode, check out the links below. We'll see you again soon! News is bad for you - Rolf Dobelli in the Guardian...

In this episode, Phoebe Rees (who has just graduated from our PGCE primary programme) speaks to Tom Breeze about an intervention she created to tackle her concerns about low academic self-esteem in her pupils. Before embarking on the PGCE, Phoebe did a degree in psychology, and she brought her knowledge of research-informed approaches to bear on the practical issues she wanted to address in her cl...

For today's episode we welcome one of our newest colleagues, and one of the newest Doctors on the team - Dr Kristina Kelly joins us at Cardiff Met with a wealth of knowledge about additional learning needs (ALN), so we immediately put her in front of a microphone to tell us about her research. Kristina carried out classroom research into how Piagetian schema are applicable to pupils with autism, a...

We're on the road for a special podcast recording today, speaking to Jess Dainham about her work for her Master's degree. As part of her research, Jess has investigated how to make the Curriculum for Wales work for the working class pupils that she teaches. When we're carrying out education research, we don't tend to name schools or participants, so today's podcast comes from an unnamed school in...

Welcome back to PGCE Research Bites! In this episode, PGCE Secondary Biology with Science student Joseph Thomas talks to Dr. James Snook about how he spent time in school trying to get a more in-depth understanding of scaffolding learning. While scaffolding is a well-known term, and many of the strategies Joseph came across during his investigation are familiar to all of us, he wanted to have a re...

It's always lovely to welcome a school colleague to the podcast! Today we say hello to Lauren Rees, who is currently the research champion at Stanwell School in Penarth, but has fulfilled every teacher-educator role in her time at the school. We're keen to hear the school perspective about how research and enquiry contributes to the development of new teachers, as well as what it does for the scho...

For the latest instalment in our PGCE Research Bites strand, Tom talks for PGCE primary student teacher Peter Russell about his intervention to increase pupil engagement in Welsh in his placement primary school. Located in Torfaen, Peter's school presented something of a challenge when it came to enthusing pupils about wanting to learn Welsh: not only is Torfaen one of the most socio-economically...

Welcome back to season 5 of the podcast! Today's episode features an extended interview with our colleague Paula Webber (Programme Leader for PGCE Secondary Religious Education) to talk about religion, values and ethics. Not in the abstract - it's a mandatory part of the new curriculum for Wales. Up to this point, religious education (RE) has been something that parents can opt their children out...

Happy holidays! We're checking in briefly before we go off for some R&R. We look back on an exciting season of episodes, and forward to series 5. We'll be back with our normal service on Friday 9th September. In the meantime, we hope you're all keeping well. Why not give us a rating or review?

Here we are at the end of another series - four long years in front of the microphone! Meanwhile, in the wider world of education, Wales is heading for an important staging post on the curriculum reform journey: by the time we come back into your ears in September, the new Curriculum for Wales will be happening in schools all over the country.  It seems a good opportunity to fire up the line to ou...

We welcome an alumna of the (sadly departed) Teach First Cymru programme today. Bethan Jeffers has now moved sideways into a job working for the Skills Builder Partnership. Set up by Tom Ravenscroft (not, as Tom initially thought, the music broadcaster and son of the late Radio 1 DJ John Peel, but an educator, strangely enough), Skills Builder aims to provide businesses and education institutions...

Welcome to PGCE Research Bites 11, and our final bonus Saturday episode. Today, Dr. Rhodri Lewis from PGCE Secondary Biology with Science is in conversation with Dr. James Snook, senior lecturer in PGCE Secondary Science. Rhodri has reviewed the literature about target setting for pupil development with the aim of helping GCSE pupils come to an understanding about where they are and what they need...

Dyma damaid arall o ymchwil TAR i chi ac mae’r fyfyrwraig TAR Cynradd, Elin Dawes yn siarad gyda Sioned Dafydd am ei gwaith. Ystyria i ba raddau mae Dysgu yn yr Awyr Agored yn cael effaith gadarnhaol ar iechyd a lles, a beth ddylid ei ystyried wrth ei ymgorffori i fywyd yr ysgol.   Yn y sgwrs hon mae Elin yn esbonio beth wnaeth hi ddarganfod ac effaith hynny ar ei hymarfer proffesiynol.   Gallwch...