Presented and produced by Seán Delaney.

The format of this podcast differs a bit from the usual one in that I am joined by my colleague in Marino Institute of Education, Dr. Gene Mehigan to discuss a book that influenced him on his journey as a teacher and teacher educator. The Book is The Master by Bryan MacMahon, published by Poolbeg Press in 1992. Among the topics we discuss are the following:

• How a book about teaching in Rural Ireland from the 1930s to the 1970s could speak to a teacher in a DEIS band 1 school in Darndale in the 1980s and 1990s.
• The consequences of poverty on children in schools.
• The “stain” of large classes (and their impact on children with language difficulties in particular).
• The importance of reading
• How Bryan MacMahon encouraged children to collect words (red notebook) and Gene Mehigan’s variation of it (jar on teacher’s desk).
• Stages in a reading lesson as outlined by Bryan MacMahon (who noted that they are not rigid and may need modern modification):
  • Arousal of interest (day before)
  • Introduction (before lesson begins to heighten interest in the text)
  • Examination of matter expressed in the text (Comprehension)
  • Examination of matter implied in the text (Comprehension)
  • Write difficult words on blackboard (Tier 1, 2 and 3 words today)
  • Teacher models reading
  • Children read aloud or silently
  • Isolate phrases for composition usage
  • Informed organic chat (in style of everyday conversation)
  • Dramatisation of the text (Reader’s theatre today)
  • Committal to rote “not to be scorned on special occasions”
• Why a teacher needs to back down in a confrontational situation with a pupil
• Characteristics of a good teacher;
  • Dedication
  • Sense of humour
  • Clear penetration in the timbre of the teacher’s speaking voice
  • A love of learning
  • Versatility of approach to a lesson
  • A congenial monotony (that can be departed from)
  • Occasional informal language
  • Good blackboard use and being able to sketch
  • Act in harmony with the traditions and culture of the school area
• Bringing the extraordinary into your teaching.
• The teacher’s job is to help each child find their special gift.
• Bryan MacMahon: “I realised that each child had a gift, and that the ‘leading out’ of that gift was the proper goal of teaching. To me a great teacher was simply a great person teaching.”
• Thoughts on a school library, access to books and encouraging children to read.
• Trying to entice children to read by tidying books. Buddy reading – to help beginning or reluctant readers but also helping older children consolidate their interest it reading. Helping a teacher narrow down who in a class might have dyslexia
• How Brian MacMahon practised an early version of “home-school liaison”
• Contemporary resonances – children from Germany fostered by local families during World War II.
• How Bryan MacMahon recruited children to look after other children who were vulnerable in some way
• Resonances with Johathan Haidt’s book The Coddling of the American Mind (preparing the child for the road and not the road for the child).
• How learning tables enthusiastically helped a pupil later excel as an emigrant
• “A school is nothing if it is not a place of laughter and song.”
• Sources of creativity in education
• The importance of a teacher being a philomath.

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney.

In this episode I interview Hugh Catts from the Florida State University about reading comprehension, dyslexia and more. People interviewed on previous Inside Education podcasts are mentioned in this episode: Jerome Kagan, Daniel T. Willingham and Tim Shanahan.

Among the topics raised on the podcast are:

• How his interest in educational research grew from problems members of his family, including himself, had in learning to read.
• The benefits of having knowledge of phonetics and linguistics in studying reading difficulties
• His thoughts on whether someone with reading difficulties can teach reading well
• How he became interested in comprehension
• Why thinking about comprehension as a skill is unhelpful in teaching reading
• Comprehension is a complex set of behaviours or cognitive processes that is more like listening. It is the interaction between the reader and the text they’re reading to construct meaning between what is written in the text and what the reader already knows about the topic.
• Comprehension needs to be taught within the context of the subject matter we want the reader to understand.
• Quote from Daniel Willingham: “Memory is the residue of thought.”
• “Comprehension is essentially changing your understanding of the topic based upon the text.”
• “The more you learn about a topic, the more interested you are in learning more about the topic because you feel comfortable with it.”
• The “simple view of reading” claims that reading comprehension is a two-stage process where you decode/recognise the word and thereby turn print into language; this is followed by turning the meaning of words into the larger meaning of the text. Decoding can be learned over a number of years whereas the language comprehension part is learned over a lifetime. The view has advantages and disadvantages.
• We’re missing a good curriculum “in some cases by focusing in early reading on reading rather than focusing on subject matters to where you can gain the knowledge at the same time as you’re gaining knowledge about reading.”
• Questions teachers can ask to help develop children’s comprehension. (E.g. what are you thinking about? How does this relate to what you already know? What experiences have you had that are related to this?
• Assessing comprehension. It’s not easy to measure!
• “You cannot reduce comprehension down to a single score because it’s not a single thing.”
• Comprehension should be tested within texts on the subject matter upon which children have been provided with instruction.
• Benefits and shortcomings of cloze procedure to test comprehension
• Evaluating psychologist Jerome Kagan’s stance on dyslexia.
• Comparing the neurological basis of dyslexia with someone who has little musical ability.
• There is no consistent brain-based marker for dyslexia.
• The difference between someone who has dyslexia and who does not have dyslexia is evident in how much you struggle to read when provided with quality instruction.
• How dyslexia and comprehension difficulties could co-occur or could occur independently
• Consequences of having dyslexia
• The causes of dyslexia are multi-factorial, some relate to risk and some to resilience
• The probability that a child might have reading problems can be determined before a child has reading problems.
• Dyslexia cannot be diagnosed until the end of first class/beginning of second class.
• Intensive, systematic, supportive and scaffolded instruction from an early stage can help students who are at risk of having dyslexia.
• Having dyslexia is not a categorical phenomenon – it exists on a continuum.
• How he finds time to write.
• He likes the work of Daniel T. Willingham, Tim Shanahan, and Natalie Wexler

On this week's podcast I speak to Professor Etta Hollins from the University of Missouri-Kansas City about teacher education and the role of the teacher. Among the topics we discussed are:

• Why observation is key to good teaching practice and learning to teach
• The need to be observing, documenting and analysing classroom practice from early in a student teacher’s course
• How the influence of theorists like Jerome Bruner and John Dewey can be seen in classroom practice
• Directed observation – how the subject you're studying narrows your focus of observation
• She gives an example of how a student teacher might learn to teach with reference to learning to teach aspects of early literacy. She illustrates her point with reference to the book Brown Bear Brown Bear by Bill Martin and Eric Carle.
• As the teacher educator, she engages in epistemic practices (practices related to knowledge) with student teachers including focused inquiry (studying something specific that you’re going to be able to observe or apply).
• Knowing when it’s time to redesign a teacher education programme.
• How to solicit feedback on a teacher education programme’s impact and outcomes. (Do peers trust graduates’ knowledge? How do school leaders evaluate performance of our graduates?)
• Using generic versus subject-specific instruments to evaluate student teachers’ teaching.
• A student is ready to graduate from their teacher education programme when they can consistently apply academic knowledge to practice and make adjustments as needed for differences among children and get the learning outcomes that are expected for the child’s age, grade and subject matter. How students can progressively demonstrate their development of teacher knowledge throughout their programme.
• Why she believes assessing students in particular contexts does not mean that their competence is confined to those contexts: responding to students is a habit of mind that can be transferred to wherever you are teaching.
• She draws a parallel between how teachers respond to children in classrooms and how she responds to teacher educators when reviewing teacher education programmes.
• Why teachers need not just academic knowledge but to be aware of why they’re teaching. Teachers need a bigger purpose for their work.
• How children responded to her as a middle-school history teacher
• “Every teacher, whether they do it intentionally or not, influences children’s perception, their relationships, their values and who they become.”
• How extreme events such as school shootings can be traced to children being isolated, excluded by their peers in school.
• A teacher’s role is to help every child find a place of comfort in the school, learn to build relationships with peers, and help peers become more accepting of difference.
• Bank Street in New York is an example of how teachers can help transform schools and communities serving students from socially and economically backgrounds.
• Schools founded by John Dewey. At the centre of such schools was the study of children. He conceptualised how learning takes place and he had a conception of diversity. The spirit has been maintained because of a sense of clarity and commitment to John Dewey’s principles.
• The Lab school in Chicago was founded by John Dewey and takes children from low-income environments.
• Culture influences cognition, values and practices.
• She compares how children learn to think with how they learn a language from caregivers.
• She gives an example of how student teachers trusted their own experience over theory. She gave them an experience to help them understand difference.
• She is inspired by the awesome responsibility of being a professional educator.