In this episode, Brendan Lee speaks with Dr. Tim McDonald who is currently the CEO of YMCA WA and previously led Catholic Education WA, the Minderoo Foundation and was the Education Lead for Knowledge Society. Recently, he wrote a paper for the Centre for Independent Studies titled: Teaching Behaviour: How Classroom Conduct Can Unlock Better Learning. Throughout this conversation he touches on a lot of the key points from the report and talks about what schools can do to build a behaviour curriculum. He also answers some of the tough questions on things such as phones in schools, exclusions and behaviour expectations.
25 – Jessica Colleu Terradas on effective language and literacy screening and intervention practices for at-risk students
In this episode, Brendan Lee speaks with Jessica Colleu Terradas the Senior Officer Teaching and Learning Literacy and Instructional Coach in Canberra and Goulburn Catholic Education. In 2022, she travelled to the USA, England and France where she met with leading experts to investigate effective literacy screening and instructional practices to support older struggling readers as part of her Churchill Fellowship. She details some of the findings from her report in this chat.
24 – Jessica Del Rio on solving illiteracy in Australia
In this episode, Brendan Lee speaks with Jessica Del Rio the government and public finance lead at Equity Economics. She has recently been involved in a couple of major reports that have highlighted the poor literacy standards across Australia. In this conversation, Jess will tell us how bleak our current situation is, what needs to be done, what will happen if changes aren’t made and go through some examples of who is doing this well.
23 – Bruno Reddy on the psychology behind understanding, retrieval and anxiety in maths classrooms
In this episode, Brendan Lee speaks with Bruno Reddy CEO of Maths Circle (Times Tables Rockstars and Numbots). He is the former head of Mathematics at King Solomon Academy and one of the pioneers of mathematics mastery, as we know it today. As you will hear, he is hugely passionate about mathematics and has thought long and hard about what needs to be done to teach it effectively. Some of the things that are just starting to become common practice now, like retrieval practice, spaced practice and variation theory, are things that he was talking about 10 years ago.
22 – Emma Turner on Primary Curriculum Design and Cognitive Science
In this episode, Brendan Lee speaks with Emma Turner. She is an experienced school leader, author and co-host of the Mind the Gap podcast with Tom Sherrington. Her ability to describe what teachers need to know about curriculum development will leave you scribbling down notes throughout the episode. She also touches on what school leaders need to consider, cognitive science through the lens of a primary teacher and much more!
21 – Dr. Nathaniel Swain and Brendan Lee coaching workshop (live): Supporting teachers in implementing the science of learning
Listen to this live coaching workshop on implementing the science of learning with Dr. Nathaniel Swain and Brendan Lee.
In this session, you will hear from real teachers discussing their real-world challenges in implementing the science of learning. Dr Nathaniel Swain and Brendan Lee then guide the teachers and school leaders through some possible solutions, taking an evidence-informed approach.
In this conversation, Nathaniel plays the teacher version of Dolly Doctor and addresses some of the most sought-after questions in education and provides a number of practical, ready-to-use examples of how to implement the science of learning.
20 – Dr. Nathaniel Swain answers the FAQ about implementing the science of learning
In this episode, Brendan Lee chats with Dr. Nathaniel Swain. He is currently a Senior Lecturer, Learning Sciences and Learner Engagement at La Trobe University and has also been a speech-language pathologist, teacher and is the founder of Think Forward Educators.
In this conversation, Nathaniel plays the teacher version of Dolly Doctor and addresses some of the most sought-after questions in education and provides a number of practical, ready-to-use examples of how to implement the science of learning.
19 – David Morkunas On Explicit Instruction In Primary Maths
In this conversation, Brendan Lee chats with David Morkunas and they touch on a range of topics including why he thinks so many teachers have such a negative attitude towards teaching maths, what the key elements of his maths lessons are and how to teach mixed-ability classes.
In the previous episode, Brendan spoke with Ross Fox, the Director, and he gave an inspiring recap of how Catalyst was initiated and the vision behind it. In this chat with Patrick Ellis, the Education Lead for Catalyst, you will hear in detail about the implementation process, the challenges they have faced, and what they have learned from it.
For this episode, Brendan chats with Ross Fox the Director of the Catholic Education Archdiocese of Canberra Goulburn. He is the visionary behind Catalyst and you will hear about his journey. He will also discuss the process that he and his team have gone through in implementing Catalyst across 56 schools.
18 – Kevin and Robyn Wheldall on Effective Instruction in Reading
In this episode, Brendan Lee speaks with Emeritus Professor Kevin Wheldall and Dr. Robyn Wheldall. They’ve achieved so much throughout their careers. This includes co-founding MultiLit a leading provider of effective literacy instruction. In this chat, they describe their journeys and how MultiLit came about. They also speak about their recently published book – Effective Instruction in Reading and Spelling.
In the previous episode, Brendan spoke with Ross Fox, the Director, and he gave an inspiring recap of how Catalyst was initiated and the vision behind it. In this chat with Patrick Ellis, the Education Lead for Catalyst, you will hear in detail about the implementation process, the challenges they have faced, and what they have learned from it.
For this episode, Brendan chats with Ross Fox the Director of the Catholic Education Archdiocese of Canberra Goulburn. He is the visionary behind Catalyst and you will hear about his journey. He will also discuss the process that he and his team have gone through in implementing Catalyst across 56 schools.
5 Key Principles for Teaching Primary Mathematics Effectively
Currently, there are a lot of misconceptions about how to teach primary mathematics effectively. In this post, Brendan Lee offers five research-informed principles for teachers to follow in order to improve student learning outcomes.