Emma & Tom Talk Teaching

It's been quite a while since we discussed the all-important role of the mentor in initial teacher education, and we welcome two guests today: Sally Bethell, veteran of several podcast recordings, and Sian Wickersham, one of our newest colleagues.Sally has spent years becoming our go-to colleagues about all things to do with mentoring, and is in the closing stages of doctoral research on the subject. Meanwhile, Sian has just joined us from a role at an academy chain in London, and her perspective as a new member of the team (and one with experience of initial teacher education over the border in England) adds a new angle.There have been some major changes in the way we work in partnership with our schools to educate new members of the teaching profession in the last few years. How has this manifested itself in the role of the mentor, the person who the student teacher probably sees more than anyone else on the programme? How have our colleagues who train and support mentors changed how they work to take account of this? And how can schools select the very best possible people to be mentors?---------------------------------Recorded in studio D0.12 at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed Campus on 9th December 2021

Mae wedi bod ychydig yn amser ers i ni glywed ddiwethaf gan ein hathrawon dan hyfforddiant, a heddiw gallwch chi glywed gan sawl un ohonyn nhw! Mae'r cysyniad o ymchwil ac ymholi yn ganolog i fodel ymarfer clinigol addysg gychwynnol ymchwil Caerdydd Met, ac mae'n bleser clywed athrawon dan hyfforddiant yn amlinellu eu gweithgareddau ymchwil ac ymholi cynnar o'u lleoliadau ysgol cyntaf mor groyw.Fe wnaethom sefydlu ein prosiect 'bwth lluniau ymchwil ac ymholi' lle anfonodd ein hathrawon dan hyfforddiant fideos 'hunlun' 2-3 munud yn dweud wrthym beth yr oeddent wedi'i dynnu oddi wrth ddarn o ymchwil ac ymholiad. Mae Sioned a Rhian yn cyflwyno rhai ohonynt yn y bennod hon, ac yn trafod y lle ymchwil ac ymholi mewn addysg gychwynnol athrawon.-------------------------------Recordiwyd ar Gampws Cyncoed Prifysgol Fetropolitan Caerdydd ar 14eg Rhagfyr 2021

It's been a little while since we last heard from our student teachers, and today you can hear from several of them! The concept of research and enquiry is central to Cardiff Met's research-informed clinical practice model of initial teacher education, and it's a joy to hear student teachers outlining their early research and enquiry activities from their first school placements so articulately.We set up our 'research and enquiry photo booth' project in which our student teachers sent 2-3 minute 'selfie' videos telling us what they'd taken away from a piece of research and enquiry. Emma and Tom introduce some of them in this episode, and discuss the place of research and enquiry in initial teacher education.For our Welsh-speaking listeners, there's a bonus this week as we're simultaneously releasing a Welsh version of this episode. Check out our feed for the other episode 13, in which our Emma and Tom's colleagues Sioned Dafydd and Rhian Crooks-Williams take their places to discuss the 'photo booth' submissions of our Welsh-medium student teachers.Thanks, as ever, to all of our students for putting their time and effort into these pieces of work.------------------------------------Recorded in studio D0.18 at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed Campus on 29th November 2021.

Dr. Viv John, recently awarded her doctorate after completing the Cardiff Met EdD programme with flying colours, has been in our sights for a while! After hearing the rave reviews of her viva, we had to get her in front of a microphone to find out what she's been researching.And the answer is that Dr. Viv has been bravely tackling several of the trickier areas relating to music education, taking on so many challenges that even her supervisors wondered if it was wise!In a nutshell, Viv was interested in trying to nail down the tricky concept of creativity as it applies to musicians who embark on the PGCE in secondary music with the aim of becoming classroom music teachers. We've heard many times on the podcast from Tom about the fact that people entering the profession as secondary music teachers skew strongly towards what we call 'classically trained', and Viv was interested in the implications of that for how these musicians see their own creativity and how it changes as they beome teachers. As well as the PGCE students trained in the western classical tradition, a small group of non classically-trained musicians came onto the programme and Viv was able to see how their views of creativity differed, and the challenges that they faced when entering a profession that has largely trained in music in a very different way.Along the road to gaining her EdD, Viv grappled with the sociological theories of Pierre Bordieu as a means of making sense of what was going on, and used the slightly unorthodox research methodology of narrative enquiry to tell the stories of these musicians as they entered the teaching profession during their PGCE year.This episode will be a gift to anyone interested in music education, arts education, creativity, the sociology of education and narrative enquiry, so our grateful thanks to Viv for popping in just before Christmas to bring us such a huge selection of goodies!------------------------------------------------------------------------Recorded in studio D0.12 at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed Campus on 14th December 2021

For the first time in a very long time, we're off on the road to an actual real-life school! Pencoedtre High School in Barry is the venue for an interesting discussion about what we mean by trauma-informed schools and how trauma-informed practice can help support pupils in overcoming difficulties that can affect their experience in school.Steph Robinson and Liz John join us in a school in the midst of being rebuilt to talk about what this looks like in practice, and how a little thought can go a long way in ensuring pupils have an emotionally available adult to call upon when they're in school.-------------------------------------------Recorded at Pencoedtre High School, Barry on 7th December 2021

So you want to become a teacher? Hopefully we can help!Our original episode of this name three years ago has been our number 1 most downloaded episode, so there must be quite a few of you out there interested in joining us in the best job in the world! But three years is a long time, and we thought it was time to produce a sequel and put it out there. We're joined by Sioned Dafydd, primary education specialist and one of the Welsh-language voices of the podcast, to chew over what you need to know and how to prepare to become a teacher. There's plenty of advice about the importance of knowing what you're signing up for, some ideas about the different pathways, and loads of common questions answered. We hope you find it useful!If you fancy coming and training with us, you can find out more about our programmes at www.cardiffmet.ac.uk/cardiff-partnershipWherever you decide to become a teacher, good luck!You can also watch this episode on YouTube here.-----------------------------------Recorded in studio D0.12 at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed Campus on 9th December 2021

It's Christmas Eve! We're here to supply our traditional festive ramble through a variety of random things we've gathered together for your enjoyment and diversion as you recover from a long, long autumn term. As usual, it's a mixture of the heavy and the insubstantial, the academic and the completely left-field. Hopefully there's something in the present pile for everyone, whether you're looking for something to think about or just some entertainment. After exhausting the selection of articles, podcasts and party games, our final offering is Emma's idea to shamelessly pinch the central concept from a popular podcast on the Guardian, which sees our intrepid duo sharing their favourite comfort food snacks and explaining the story behind them. If that leaves you hungry (!) for more, we hope you'll enjoy all the goodies we have lined up for you in 2022. That's it from us for 2021, and we hope you've enjoyed our episodes this year. Have a wonderful Christmas and new year, and we'll see you again in January!Best wishes from Emma and Tom xxAs a special Christmas present, you can watch this podcast on YouTube here! LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE:TomThe vanity of 'white guilt' - Lionel Shriver, The SpectatorThe internet has turned our past into a curse - James Marriott, The TimesMaton, K. (2013) 'Knowledge-knower structures: What's at stake in the 'two cultures' debate, why school music is unpopular, and what unites such diverse issues' in Maton, K. Knowledge and Knowers: Towards a Realist Sociology of Education. London: RoutledgeThe seven types of rest: I spent a week trying them all. Could they help end my exhaustion? Emma Beddington, The GuardianA Very Fatal Murder - Onion Public RadioEmmaThe Story of Aids - BBC World ServiceA moment that changed me: Patrick Stewart on the teacher who spotted his talent – and saved him - Patrick Stewart, The GuardianThings Fell Apart - Jon RonsonIant - Steve Blandford, Cambria Books------------------------------------------------Recorded in studio D0.12 at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed Campus on 14th December 2021

For this final episode before our traditional Christmas Special, we welcome Richard West, numeracy coordinator at Stanwell School in Penarth. Richard is a physics specialist but has taken on this important role in his school, supporting his colleagues to find opportunities within their subject specialisms to draw out numeracy skills.Richard discusses how to address numeracy meaningfully, how to address the fear factor amongst staff, and gives us plenty of practical strategies for addressing this cross-curricular theme within the curriculum for Wales.---------------------Recorded in studio D0.18 at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed Campus on 29th November 2021

It's never been more important to have a clear vision and justification for your own subject and where it fits into the curriculum, whether you're in Wales or further afield.In this episode, Emma and Tom go back to basics to model the kind of material that can help you start thinking and talking about where you stand on the big questions about your subject. It goes without saying that this model uses the specific contexts of secondary music and drama that Emma and Tom know and love, so if you're not from that world you'll need to apply this to your own particular situation. Even so, we hope the conversation in here is a starting point for anyone who needs to work out where they stand in relation to the educational things they hold dear!If you want to find the texts discussed in this episode, here they are:Robinson, M. (2021) 'Drama' in What should schools teach? London: UCL PressPhilpott, C. (2012) 'The Justification for Music in the Curriculum' in Debates in Music Teaching. Abingdon: Routledge--------------------Recorded in studio C2.05 at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed Campus on 9th November 2021

We're delighted to welcome Dr. Julia Jenkins back to the podcast after far too long away! Previously a member of our PGCE secondary science team, Julia was working for Teach First Cymru last time we caught up, but is now on the staff of the Institute of Physics. Julia has plenty of hard-hitting facts and figures for us on a worrying situation for diversity in the physics teaching world, with serious knock-on effects for teacher recruitment, A-level numbers and the subject of physics itself.Julia and her colleagues at the IoP have plenty fo support available for physics teachers, and also the significant number of non-specialists who are teaching the subject. Check out their Limit Less pages at iop.org/strategy/limit-less or drop Julia an email at julia.jenkins@iop.org--------------------Recorded in studio C2.05 at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed campus on 21st October 2021