SunRAE: The Sunderland Reflective Action in Education podcast

Saray talks about her research in a Hong Kong secondary school - EAL intervientions for her case study, and adaptive teaching for her action research.

Joe talks about his case study research in a primary school in Tokyo, looking at the way teaching assistants have been used for interventions.

Richelle talks about her action research into teaching critical thinking through questioning when reading with her early years students.

Wael talks about his experience of the PGCE, his case study on dyslexia interventions and action research on teaching more able French speakers in his French lessons.

Chat with a PAT - Dr Lynda Dalkin shares her insights and experience in education.

Chat with a PAT - Senior Lecturer Vikki Wynn shares insights into her learning trip to Reggio Emilia in Italy. 

A fascinating insight into a career in education. Graham is a personal academic tutor on our PGCE Education programme, providing support for trainees in China. Our 'chat with a PAT' strand of the SunRAE podcast helps you get to know the incredible people who support the trainees, as well as providing insights into where your own career could go.

Puja talks about her KS4 behavioural intervention case study, and her peer feedback in KS3 maths action research in a secondary school in UAE.

Justine talks about a pull-out EAL intervention for Key Stage 5 mainland Chinese students in a Hong Kong secondary school. This group was not born and raised in Hong Kong, so they were not sufficiently proficient in Cantonese or in English. All students need to be proficient in three languages for the Hong Kong DSE exam (Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination (HKDSE))- Cantonese, English and Mandarin! The GaoKao exam (National College Entrance Examination (NCEE) is a standardized college entrance exam held annually in mainland China) is very competitive and this means that language is important for educational success in this region. Justine also submitted a poster to the conference if you would like to read about this in more detail. Justine's hints and tips for future trainees - 1. TIME MANAGEMENT! 2. See how everything is connected and how you can make links between everything you do on your PGCE. 3. Rely on your PAT and 4. Embrace feedback, think about what has been suggested and make your decisions about what to focus on.

Sara talks about Learning Support Assistant-led maths interventions, which were running each week in homework lessons at the end of the day in a Dubai British Curriculum primary school. She enjoyed being able to research this area and make some conclusions about the best way forward in terms of frequency and timing. We discussed the high-calibre of learning support assistants leading the interventions. Sara's passion for maths meant that she is trying to keep a focus on maths to support her own developing pedagogy. Sara's top tips for trainees - stay on top of things right from the start - little and often - plan your time! The proposal makes sure you are on firm ground. Concentrate on one step at a time - use the essay plan for the case study - refer back to the lectures and examples. Your PGCE is manageable!

Jenny wanted to focus on something that might enhance engagement for more able students in a Shanghai bilingual school and explored a hypothetical extracurricular school magazine enrichment programme

Ashu in Hong Kong talks about the importance of reflection on teaching as part of his development over the course of his PGCE.

Today I’m talking to Yi Lu, a bilingual homeroom teacher in Hong Kong. Like many other teachers, Yi Lu wanted to focus her action research on better differentiation for her students, and also to use that data to assess them better. Yi Lu talks today about using a differentiated learning routine - List, Write, Draw - to engage her Grade 4 Students in a Hong Kong primary school, building on things she had learned about differentiation through professional development. Yi Lu's advice: be organised, collect your evidence as you go along even if you don't have a chance to organise it at that point. With your assignment, try to look back and reflect on what you are doing with your new research skills. Even if you are an experienced teacher, your new perspective from the PGCE will help you to look at things in a different way.

The best action research comes from a real issue in your teaching that you want to tackle. Melissa talks about her action research into gross and fine motor skills with her kindergarten learners in Japan. She noticed that some children were not meeting age related expectations with their motor skills, especially in the wake of Covid, and she was able to approach that in a systematic and research-informed way.

Teachers are always trying to find ways to improve teaching so that it leads to better learning. Our trainees use action research for this. Today I spoke to Christina about differentiated instruction in the classroom, teaching English to Year 9 in a secondary school in Egypt. She found that using technology allowed students to really develop their writing by engaging with a range of resources online. Christina's advice: start small and stay focused on your topic; access webinars and read recent material to learn what the current issues and debates are, and to listen to your students so that you know how to help.

Sometimes, people on our programme find that they can really make an impact on practice in their schools through their research assignments. Noha talks today about a phonics literacy intervention for Year 2 pupils in a PYP international school in Lisbon. Her findings from her case study were able to feed into suggestions for future development at her school. She went on to explore differentiation and grouping for her action research, leading to her promotion to full-time Class 2 teacher. Noha's advice for new trainees is to start on reading and preparation as early as possible, stay organised so that you can keep on top of things and make sure to ask questions when you need to!

We know that it can be a little bit hit and miss in terms of what interventions might be happening in your school just at the time when you need to find a topic for your case study research. Today I spoke to Ross, doing his PGCE in a primary school in Qatar. He was able to study a reading intervention that was already in place.

Sarah talks about using metacognition to improve listening skills in Spanish language acquisition classes in a Hong Kong secondary school.

Not everyone doing a hypothetical assignment worries about it. Today’s guest Melissa knew that she was moving countries and so she wanted to learn all about phonics before she moved schools to teach reading herself.

Melissa shares her hypothetical inquiry into teaching reading at KS1 using Jolly Phonics in Brunei Darussalam. She also talks about being able to apply this to her current placement in China, as well as starting her behaviour management action research.

Underpinning the teaching of reading is the hot topic of phonics. Teaching phonics is a requirement for the UK teachers standards but there are so many way to do this that it is important to consider it critically. 

Nathalie talks about a case study of ’Heggerty Bridge the Gap’: an individualised pull-out phonemic awareness intervention for Year 2 pupils at an international school in The Philippines. She also talks about her ongoing action research into peer-assessment with Year 3.

We often have to find new ways to make learning fun. Every teacher knows how important reading is as a skill to underpin learning, and that’s what Laurence has done. He has used an interactive online reading scheme to provide extrinsic motivation to increase daily reading time with Grade 2 ESL students in a primary school in China.

All trainees worry about behaviour and its often something they need or want to develop in their action research. There’s a lot of debate about the ways this can be done, so hopefully you'll find something interesting today when I talk to Zoe about implementing behaviour management strategies for Year 1 students in a primary school in Germany.

Not everyone starts their teacher training with a placement confirmed and they have to think about approaching their research from a hypothetical aspect. This can be daunting, but Andrea will reassure you about just how useful this can be.

Andrea talks about her hypothetical assignments on interventions for primary students with ASD and positive behaviour for learning in maths.

In the wake of Covid we have all had to move to online teaching, but some teachers were already active in the digital space. In this episode I'm talking to Greg about his online teaching, research and his exciting new book project, based on his work in primary schools in China.