Podcasts are an incredible source of professional development for teachers. They are a bite-sized, accessible and convenient way for busy teachers to access knowledge, insight and expertise.

I strongly encourage colleagues to listen to podcasts to develop their thinking about teaching and learning, wider education issues, and school improvement. Below are some of my favourite episodes, organised by category.

Podcasts are part of the current renaissance in grassroots educational change. The science of learning movement, driven largely by classroom teachers, is shared through our increasingly connected professional networks — conferences, social media and podcasts. Good ideas can now travel widely because we are more connected than ever before.

Behaviour Management

Mastering Classroom Management: The Mr Barton Maths Podcast

Ollie Lovell and Mark Dowley discuss practical and actionable tips for mastering behaviour management. I found this conversation transformative in my quest to instil a culture of high expectations in my classroom.

What have we got wrong about behaviour? Tom Bennett on They Behave for Me

Tom Bennett’s expertise shines through in this episode. Tom’s understanding of school culture, educational excellence and behaviour issues is always a pleasure to listen to.

They Behave for Me is well worth subscribing to, good bants and good analysis.

Pedagogy

The power of explicit instruction with Anita Archer on Chalk & Talk

Anna Stokke’s podcast Chalk & Talk is consistently excellent in discussing current issues in maths education. The podcast strongly advocates research informed practice and interviews world-class experts in maths education.

In this particular episode Anita Archer discusses explicit instruction and how it powerfully changes the lives of young people. I particularly found the discussion about the importance of pronouncing key vocabulary useful – the idea that students must be able to pronounce words to store the words and in turn connect meaning to the stored word.

Greg Ashman on Explicit Teaching and Inquiry Learning: Progressively Incorrect

Another brilliant and consistent Podcast series by Zach Groshell. Zach has a huge library of brilliant episodes, and it’s well worth checking out the back catalogue from Progressively Incorrect.

This episode discusses the issues of inquiry learning and the relative benefits of explicit teaching.

Dylan Wiliam: Tips for Teachers

Craig Barton’s Tips for Teachers Podcast is hyper focussed on practical tups for the classroom and deep discussions about refining classroom practice.
The entire series is worth listening to. I chose the Dylan Wiliam episode as I’m always a fan of Dylan’s wisdom in educational issues.

The Knowledge Revival, Curriculum for Deep Thinking: The ThoughtStretchers Podcast

Drew interviews Paul Kirschner, Claudio Vanhees, and Daniel Muijs, three of the ten co-authors of the open-access book, Developing Curriculum for Deep Thinking: The Knowledge Revival.

This is an important discussion about the importance of emphasising knowledge in our curriculum and education.

Educational Research: What should teachers know?

Red Flags in Education Research with Ben Solomon: Chalk & Talk

A really accessible episode to begin the journey of being more critical about research in education. How do we really know whether a strategy is effective in our school and for our students?

Adrian Simpson critiquing the meta-analysis: ERRR Podcast

Effect sizes are widely used in education, but how reliable are they for interpreting the effectiveness of educational strategies?

Getting Good

These podcasts are my favourite discussions about the neurotic and obsessive quest some teachers go through to refine their craft. They serve as inspiration of how granular and perfectionist we can be in improving our practice.
Teaching is an amazing career, and one of the wonderful things about it is the never ending quest to ‘get good’.

Miniwhiteboards: Beyond Good

The Beyond Good podcast focuses on hyper-detailed discussions between Femi and Matt about the fine details in classroom practice. Excellent listening, I recommend every episode.

The StepLab Documentary: Great Teaching Unpacked

Not technically a podcast – sorry. But seriously worth watching.
Please.
Watch now.
It is transformative.

The Addvance Maths Pedagogy Series

Since you’re here check out our videos!

My Appearances…

I have been very grateful to speak on three separate podcast episodes. Thanks for Kieran at TDAPE and Jon at the Primary Maths Podcast for hosting me.

Listen to these last, the links above on the rest of this page are all absolute gold and I humbly point you to them first. 😅

Direct Instruction Without Loosing Thinking: Will Mcloughlin on The Primary Maths Podcast

I really enjoyed discussing direct instruction with Jon, and advocating for a framework of teaching that I believe is highly effective for every teacher and every classroom.

Thinking Deeply about Conceptual Understanding: Will Mcloughlin on Thinking Deeply about Primary Education

Kieran’s TDAPE podcast is excellent for nuanced and varied discussions on educational issues. Highly recommend subscribing.

Video Reflections: Why Every Teacher Should Video Record Themselves Teaching? Thinking Deeply about Primary Education.

Me, Jake and Kieran discuss the power of a video recording of our own practice. A great discussion and I valued the opportunity to share my thoughts on a really valuable professional experience.

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