Filling The Pail

Judith Hochman

Thu, 09 Jun 2022 07:46:41 +1000

Dr. Judith Hochman is an educator and founder of The Writing Revolution. In this episode, she talks to Greg Ashman about the origins of her method for developing writing skills and the contrast between her method and a writing programme. Judy and Greg discuss the differences between this approach and other methods for teaching writing. Along the way, Judy gives practical advice on how the method should be embedded in a content and how best to prepare for standardised assessments that require large amounts of writing from young students. Judy and Greg also discuss the importance of a knowledge-rich curriculum and ponder the solutions to fixing the knowledge-lite, skills-based approach to education that is prevalent in the U.S. and Australia.

Amanda VanDerHeyden

Tue, 08 Mar 2022 08:26:24 +1100

Dr. Amanda VanDerHeyden is a mathematics education researcher, founder of Spring Math and a policy Adviser who is also involved in new Science of Math initiative. In this episode, Amanda talks to Greg Ashman about how she developed an interest in class-wide maths intervention and what makes such an intervention successful. Amanda and Greg also discuss use of data, explicit teaching and how to deal with the arguments of the 'other side', including a discussion of procedural fluency versus conceptual understanding, productive struggle and the idea that timed tests cause maths anxiety.

Eric Kalenze

Sat, 12 Feb 2022 07:45:51 +1100

Eric Kalenze is a teacher, curriculum and instruction lead, occasional consultant, researchED US organizer, and author of the books, Education is Upside-Down and What the Academy Taught Us, as well as the A Total Ed Case blog. In this episode, Eric talks to Greg Ashman about his awakening to the research evidence around teaching and education, and the journey that led him to write two books about education and his experiences of school improvement. On the way, Eric and Greg discuss Eric's funnel metaphor, differentiated instruction, how reform efforts are frustrated and Eric's experiences coordinating researchED US.

Glenn Savage

Fri, 19 Nov 2021 16:12:30 +1100

Glenn Savage is an associate professor at the University of Western Australia who is an expert in education reform and the author of the book, “The Quest for Revolution in Australian Schooling Policy”. In this episode, Glenn talks to Greg Ashman about 'alignment thinking' and asks whether ever greater alignment in education policy is necessarily a good thing. Along the way, Glenn and Greg discuss Australia's education system, how it has arisen and the role of evidence and 'what works' in framing school reform.

Daisy Christodoulou 2

Thu, 30 Sep 2021 06:49:28 +1000

Daisy Christodoulou was the second guest on this podcast back in 2020. Daisy returns in this episode to talk about writing with Greg Ashman. Daisy and Greg discuss comparative judgement, banal writing prompts, the limits of moderation and the contribution of a knowledge rich curriculum to writing. Along the way, Daisy and Greg chat about quick fixes for improving writing and the correlation between multiple choice questions and writing scores.

David C Geary

Tue, 31 Aug 2021 08:48:18 +1000

David C. Geary is Curators' Distinguished Professor and Thomas Jefferson Fellow in the Department of Psychological Sciences at the University of Missouri. In this episode, he talks to Greg Ashman about his influential theory of evolutionary educational psychology that categorises knowledge as biologically primary or biologically secondary. Along the way, Dave and Greg discuss knowledge transmission in traditional societies, some common criticisms of the biologically primary/secondary distinction and both the artificality and importance of school.

Paul Ayres

Fri, 09 Jul 2021 17:27:19 +1000

Paul Ayres is Emeritus Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of New South Wales in Australia. In this episode, Paul talks to Greg Ashman about his journey from classroom teacher in the UK to education professor in Australia. Along the way, Paul and Greg discuss models of human cognitive architecture, mirror neurons, embodied cognition, goal-free problems, what makes a Pythagoras problem difficult and measuring cognitive load. They also discuss the recent review of the Australian Curriculum and what we can do to break the cycle of bad ideas.

Mandy Nayton

Wed, 16 Jun 2021 08:40:03 +1000

Mandy Nayton is the Chief Executive Officer of The Dyslexia-SPELD Foundation and President of AUSPELD, the Australian federation of SPELD Associations (SPELD is short for Specific Educational Learning Difficulties). In this episode, Mandy talks to Greg Ashman about her journey from governess on an outback station to where she is today. Along the way, Mandy and Greg discuss the factors that affect children's engagement with education and the barriers presented by reading failure. They discuss the process of learning to read, vocabulary, morphology and etymology, before chatting about an upcoming researchED conference in Perth and looking to the future for evidence-based education.

John Sweller

Thu, 06 May 2021 08:54:38 +1000

John Sweller is Emeritus Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, and is probably best know for his work on Cognitive Load Theory. He is also one of Greg Ashman's PhD supervisors. In this episode, John talks to Greg about the development of Cognitive Load Theory, its implications and some of the common criticisms levelled at the theory. Along the way, they discuss biologically primary and biologically secondary knowledge as well as their thoughts on the draft new Australian Curriculum.

Jenny Donovan

Fri, 23 Apr 2021 08:53:34 +1000

Dr Jenny Donovan is head of the newly formed Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO). Prior to that Jenny has had an influential career in education which has included the founding of the Centre for Education Statistics (CESE) in New South Wales, Australia. In this episode, Jenny talks to Greg Ashman about her journey into education, the work of CESE, including its review of Reading Recovery and its publication of resources on cognitive load theory. Jenny and Greg then discuss AERO and its plans for the future.

Sonia Cabell

Fri, 12 Mar 2021 08:30:47 +1100

Sonia Cabell is an Assistant Professor in the School of Teacher Education and the Florida Center for Reading Research at Florida State University. Sonia started out as a second-grade teacher trained in whole language reading instruction before making the move into research. In this episode, Sonia talks to Greg Ashman about her journey, the effects of the U.S. National Reading Panel report on schools, the 'science of reading' and what we mean by that term, academic language development and her recently published paper, co-authored with HyeJin Hwang, on attempts to boost reading comprehension by building children's knowledge.

Ollie Lovell

Sun, 28 Feb 2021 13:50:55 +1100

Ollie Lovell is a teacher, author, podcaster and entrepreneur. After studying physics and economics, Ollie became a maths teacher in Melbourne where he fed a passion for education research. Recently, Ollie Has written a book on cognitive load theory, Cognitive Load Theory in Action, part of the 'in action' series published by John Catt. In this episode, Ollie speaks to Greg Ashman about cognitive load theory, its implications for teachers and some of the controversies surrounding the theory.

Paul Kirschner

Thu, 11 Feb 2021 06:39:53 +1100

Paul Kirschner is Emeritus Professor of Educational Psychology at the Open University of the Netherlands and Guest Professor at Thomas More University of Applied Science in Belgium. In this episode, Paul talks to Greg Ashman about his long career in educational psychology, the key distinction between epistemology and pedagogy and that Minimal Guidance paper he wrote with John Sweller and Richard Clark. Paul and Greg also discuss Paul’s new book co-authored with Carl Hendrick, How Learning Happens. Unfortunately, Paul and Greg run out of time before all of Greg’s questions are answered and so Paul has agreed to return in the future.

Natalie Wexler

Thu, 14 Jan 2021 09:38:38 +1100

Natalie Wexler is an author and journalist who became interested in educational issues when she began to work with students in disadvantaged schools in Washington. Natalie is co-author of The Writing Revolution, with Judith Hochman and author of The Knowledge Gap. In this episode, Natalie talks to Greg Ashman about her journey into education, the Impact of The Writing Revolution and how its methods align with cognitive science. Natalie and Greg then discuss The Knowledge Gap, the reason why we need more of a knowledge focus in schools and some of the objections and barriers to this idea before discussing some possible solutions.

Emina McLean

Thu, 03 Dec 2020 08:57:08 +1100

Emina McLean is an Australian language and literacy expert. In this episode, she talks to Greg Ashman about her training as a speech language pathologist, her imminent career move to a brand new primary school in Melbourne, the science of reading and teacher professional development. Along the way, Emina and Greg discuss the controversies that surround literacy teaching, such as the recent blog post by Diane Ravitch complaining about the term the 'science of reading' and New South Wales' decision to roll-out a phonics screening check in all public schools, as well as the best and worst ways of changing people's minds and hopes for the future.

Greg Ashman with Kate Barry

Thu, 26 Nov 2020 10:28:25 +1100

In the episode, the tables are turned and Kate Barry, an English and French teacher from Ireland, interviews Greg Ashman about his new book, The Power of Explicit Teaching and Direct Instruction. Greg and Kate discuss Greg's route into teaching, the nature and value of education research, the meaning of the terms 'explicit teaching' and 'direct instruction', the different perspectives of academics and practising teachers, the need to look for disconfirming evidence, differentiated instruction and solution to avoiding progressivist/traditionalist pendulum swings. Thanks to Kate for asking the questions. You can read an excerpt from The Power of Explicit Teaching and Direct Instruction here.

David Didau

Fri, 30 Oct 2020 08:38:14 +1100

David Didau is a teacher, blogger and author of seven books about education. In this episode, David talks to Greg Ashman about how he became a teacher and the writing and blogging journey that has resulted in him changing his views about education over time. David and Greg elaborate on the conditions needed for people to change their minds before talking about David's new book, Intelligent Accountability. David explains the importance of humility and why 'mimetic isomorphism' - which David cannot pronounce - prevents us from learning through the wisdom of crowds. Finally, David explains why treating people equally is different to treating them fairly.

Briar Lipson

Fri, 16 Oct 2020 08:47:35 +1100

Briar Lipson is a research fellow at the New Zealand Initiative. Prior to this, Briar worked in think tanks, became a teacher and assistant principal and was involved in the Free School movement in England. In this episode, Briar talks to Greg Ashman about he newly released book, New Zealand's Education Delusion, and her thesis that child-centered teaching approaches have led to the decline in performance that New Zealand has suffered on international assessment such as PISA. Along the way, Briar and Greg discuss teacher training, the New Zealand curriculum and John Hattie's comments on her book. Briar's book is available for free on this link.

Doug Lemov

Mon, 12 Oct 2020 14:12:39 +1100

Doug Lemov has been a teacher, a school principal, a researcher, a writer and played many other roles in education in the U.S. He is perhaps best known internationally for his practical teaching guide, Teach Like a Champion (TLAC). In this episode, Doug talks to Greg Ashman about the genesis of TLAC, making content relevant to students, reading instruction and the importance of reading, Charter Schools, the tumultuous state of U.S. education debate and his efforts to help teachers maximise the potential of the remote learning that has been forced on them by the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.

Emily Hanford

Sat, 26 Sep 2020 07:44:31 +1000

Emily Hanford is Senior Correspondent with APM Reports at American Public Media. Over the last few years, Emily has been researching, broadcasting and writing about reading instruction in the United States and it is fair to say that, as a result, she has shifted the dial on the discussion there. In this episode, Emily talks to Greg Ashman about how she became interested in reading instruction and what she has learnt from her research. Along the way, Emily and Greg discuss explicit and direct teaching, balanced literacy, the nature of the evidence on reading, models such as the simple view of reading and what teachers have told her about how they were prepared to teach reading.

E. D. Hirsch

Fri, 11 Sep 2020 10:19:01 +1000

E. D. Hirsch Jr. began his career as a literary theorist. As a result of this work, he became aware of the importance of background knowledge for reading comprehension. However, when he looked to the education system, he found knowledge was undervalued. Since then, he has worked to highlight the importance of knowledge though his numerous books, including the best-selling Cultural Literacy, and the Core Knowledge Foundation that he set-up to further these aims by developing the Core Knowledge Sequence, now used in many schools in the US and beyond. In this episode, Don talks to Greg Ashman about knowledge, education, the importance of a 'speech community' and commonality more generally, as well as his new book, How to Educate a Citizen.

Jasmine Lane

Wed, 02 Sep 2020 13:33:40 +1000

Jasmine Lane is a teacher and education writer based in the United States. In this episode, Jasmine talks to Greg Ashman about how she became a teacher, why the killing of George Floyd makes it even more important for Black people to fight distraction and disengagement from education, what Shakespeare has to offer kids in the inner city and why learning standard English is important. Along the way, Greg and Jasmine discuss the literary canon, researchED and so-called 'carceral pedagogies'.

Calvin Robinson

Wed, 26 Aug 2020 21:18:36 +1000

Calvin Robinson is a teacher, podcaster, journalist and consultant to the UK's Department for Education. In this episode, Calvin talks to Greg Ashman about his switch from the computer science industry to teaching, the events surrounding the Brexit referendum and how this played out in the school where he worked at the time, the wider issue of balance in the curriculum, the Free Schools movement in the UK, computing as a school subject, STEM subjects more generally, educational research and Calvin's role in the 'Don't Divide Us' campaign.

Jennifer Buckingham

Thu, 20 Aug 2020 17:41:44 +1000

Dr Jennifer Buckingham is Director of Strategy and Senior Research Fellow at MultiLit, a publisher of evidence-based reading programs and interventions, where she also heads the Five from Five project. In this episode, Jennifer talks to Greg Ashman about how her interest in literacy developed, the evidence for synthetic phonics and the Australian phonics check, modeled on the check used in the UK, that has been rolled out in South Australia and is about to be trialed in a third of primary schools in New South Wales. Along the way, Jennifer and Greg discuss why it is that teaching methods become lumbered with ideological baggage.

Dan Willingham

Tue, 28 Jul 2020 07:27:25 +1000

Professor Dan Willingham is a psychologist at the University of Virginia. Dan started out as a cognitive psychology and neuroscience researcher, but an encounter with E. D. Hirsch Jr. led him to take an interest in the application of cognitive psychology to education. In this episode, Dan talks to Greg Ashman about his interest in education, his book, Why Don't Students Like School?, a new edition of which is in the pipeline, reading instruction and critical thinking.

Pam Snow

Wed, 15 Jul 2020 08:10:59 +1000

Pam Snow is Professor of Cognitive Psychology at La Trobe University in Victoria, Australia. In this episode, she talks to Greg Ashman about her new role in bringing cognitive science to teacher education students and her earlier research into the oral language competency of young people in the youth justice system, before Greg and Pam discuss literacy in general, so-called 'balanced literacy' and what motivated Pam to write a book with Caroline Bowen dissecting 'neuroflapdoodle'.

Dylan Wiliam

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 09:31:18 +1000

Dylan Wiliam is a world famous educationalist and author probably best known for his research on formative assessment. In this episode, he talks to Greg Ashman about how he became interested in formative assessment, what it is and how it became deployed by the UK government as Assessment for Learning, as well as the importance of a knowledge-rich curriculum, 21st century skills and the issues surrounding educational meta-analysis.

Katharine Birbalsingh

Wed, 24 Jun 2020 08:11:52 +1000

Katharine Birbalsingh is Headmistress of Michaela Community School, a Free School serving inner city London. In this episode, she talks to Greg Ashman about Free Schools, the challenges she faced setting up Michaela, the Michaela approach to learning and to discipline and why everyone should visit and see for themselves. Along the way, Greg and Katharine discuss the opposition to explicit teaching and how to cope with unpleasant comments on Twitter.

Andrew Old

Wed, 10 Jun 2020 21:30:10 +1000

Andrew Old is the godfather of UK teacher bloggers. Not only does he write a blog that has influenced UK government policy and OFSTED, the English schools inspectorate, he has encouraged teacher bloggers through his Echo Chamber initiative, as well as promoting teachers' voices more generally. In this episode, Greg Ashman talks to Andrew about maths teaching, Twitter, blogging, OFSTED, Achievement for All and school behaviour.

Daisy Christodoulou

Wed, 27 May 2020 08:02:15 +1000

Daisy Christodoulou is a former teacher and is currently director of No More Marking, an online engine which aims to help teachers with comparative-judgement assessment of school work. Daisy's influential 2013 book Seven Myths About Education reflected on her work as a teacher and some of the myths she once subscribed to. In this episode, Greg Ashman talks to Daisy about lockdown, her new book, Teachers versus Tech, teaching writing, and bad ideas in education.

Tom Bennett

Thu, 14 May 2020 09:06:42 +1000

Tom Bennett is the founder of researchED, a grass-roots organisation that raises research literacy in education. In 2015 he became the UK government's school 'Behaviour Czar', advising on behaviour policy. In the first ever Filling The Pail podcast, Greg Ashman talks to Tom about classroom behaviour, researchED, remote learning, Tom's role as a government advisor, the book Tom is currently writing and the howlers architects often make when designing schools.