In this episode, Brendan Lee speaks with Rebecca Birch, a teacher of English and the Director of Research and Practice at a top 50 independent school in Sydney, Australia. She shares her journey from a career in fashion and advertising to becoming an English teacher. Rebecca emphasises the importance of evidence-based practice and the need for teachers to be sceptical and critical of educational trends. She also highlights the challenges of implementing explicit instruction and the need for standardised teacher preparation programs. Rebecca calls for a clear hierarchy of importance within teacher standards and the role of teacher preparation in reinforcing those standards. The conversation also touches on strategies for schools to drive improvement without waiting for systemic changes.
Tag: Professional Learning
S02E03 – Dr. Jenny Donovan on accelerating the use of educational research in Australian classrooms
In this podcast episode, Brendan Lee interviews Dr. Jenny Donovan, CEO of the Australian Education Research Organisation. She stresses the necessity for evidence-based practices in education. Jenny talks about explicit instruction, classroom management, teacher training, NAPLAN testing, and accountability. Donovan’s career journey and involvement in significant educational reforms, including contributions to the Teacher Education Expert Panel, further highlight her expertise.
S02E02 – James Dobson Decoding The Foundations Of Teaching Kindergarten
Brendan Lee interviews James Dobson, an accomplished teacher at Campbells Creek Primary School, who emphasises the importance of evidence-based teaching methods like Direct Instruction for young learners. James shares insights into his daily and yearly lesson planning, focusing on foundational skills like phonics, writing, and maths, along with balancing the demands of teaching and personal life. Resources and strategies discussed include works by Engelmann and Lemov, and diverse educational programs.
S02E01 – Dr. Ray Boyd on Leadership, Vision, and School Culture
In this podcast episode, Brendan Lee interviews Dr. Ray Boyd, discussing his educational leadership journey, particularly his pedagogic innovations at West Beechboro P.S. and his experiences founding Dayton Primary School. Dr. Boyd shares lessons from past mistakes, the importance of communication with parents, fostering school community, staff well-being, and setting clear professional development goals. He offers advice for starting the school year and recommends various educational resources. The conversation is aimed at offering deep insights for school leaders.
26 – Dr. Tim McDonald on Building a Behaviour Curriculum
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.