Inside Education On 103.2 Dublin City Fm

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney On this week's programme Dr. Fionnuala Waldron, who is Dean of Education in St. Patrick's College talks about the new book she co-edited, about teacher education and about the integration of subjects across the curriculum. The book is called Re-imagining Initial Teacher Education: Perspectives on Transformation and is published by The Liffey Press.

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney. On this week's programme former governor of Mountjoy Prison, John Lonergan, discusses what the education system could do to help keep people out of prison and  he discusses education within prisons. This programme coincides with the screening of the television documentary on RTÉ 1, John Lonergan's Circus.

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney. On this week's programme, I speak to Professor Brian Mac Craith, President of Dublin City University, about the Séamus Heaney Lecture he gave in St. Patrick's College, titled Envisioning the Future of Education, and about his work as a university president today.

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney. On this week's programme I speak to the general secretaries of the three teaching unions to preview their respective conferences which take place this week. I spoke to Pat King of the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland, Sheila Nunan of the Irish National Teachers' Organisation and John MacGabhann of the Teachers' Union of Ireland.

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney On this week's programme, Professor Stephen Ball from the Institute of Education at the University of London talks about how he uses the discipline of sociology, and in particular the work of Michel Foucault and Pierre Bourdieu to study education policy. He was in Ireland as a guest of the Vere Foster Trust and the Institution of Educational Research in Ireland and you can listen to his address here.

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney On this week's programme, Joe Dale, who presented at the CESI Conference 2013, talks about many ways in which technology can support language learning. Among the applications and websites he mentioned in the course of the conversation are the following: Websites: Linguascope, Kelda Richards, Paper.li, MFL Times, Sound Cloud, Apps: Aurasma, Hot potatoes, Cue prompter, I Said What?!, Audioboo, Software: Audacity,

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney On this week's programme I spoke to Catherine Cronin, who is Academic Coordinator of online IT programmes and lecturer in IT at NUI Galway about girls and women and technology and about online learning. I spoke to capstone keynote presenter at the conference, Dan Meyer from Stanford University. Finally, I spoke to school principal, Rozz Lewis about an app that can help to reduce stress. All interviews were conducted at the 2013 CESI annual conference at GMIT.

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney On this week's programme I spoke to Anne White from the NCCA about plans for technology courses for the new Junior Cycle programme, to Damien Quinn from seomraranga.com and to Steven Daly from Camara Ireland. All three interviews took place at the annual conference of the Computers in Education Society of Ireland (CESI) 2013.

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney On this programme retired primary teacher and philosopher, John Doyle, shares his experiences and reflections on teaching poetry to children in primary school. Among the poets he mentions are Christina Rossetti, William Butler Yeats and Robert Frost.

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney On this week's programme I previewed two conferences that have a healthy following each year. The Irish Primary PE Assocation (IPPEA) is shortly having its tenth annual conference in St. Patrick's College and the Computers in Education Society of Ireland (CESI) is having its fortieth annual conference at GMIT. Caitriona Cosgrave from St. Colmcille's Junior National School and representing the IPPEA and Anne McMorrough from the Marino Institute of Education and representing CESI told me about the conferences and shared some of their own thoughts on the respective topics.

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney On this week's programme, Dr. Joe O'Connell of Limerick Education Centre discusses how to manage challenging behaviour among adults in schools: principals, teachers and parents. The interview is based on a talk he gave at the annual conference of the Irish Primary Principals' Network in January 2013.

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney On this week's programme I spoke to James Whelton, co-founder with Bill Liao of CoderDojo. I then visited the Kilkenny dojo and spoke to some local mentors and participants ranging in age from 8 to 18.

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney In the second of a two-part interview, retired principal of Scoil Chiaráin, and teacher educator, Éamon Ó Murchu reflects on his career as a school leader at a pioneering time for special education provision in Ireland.

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney. On this week's programme I bring you the first part of a two-part interview with retired Principal of Scoil Chiaráin Special School, Glasnevin, Éamonn Ó Murchu. On this week's programme Éamonn discusses his own primary schooling, the influence his teacher and mentor, Bryan MacMahon, had on him and on time he spent teaching in Zimbabwe.

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney On this week's programme I spoke to some students at the BT Young Sciensts who studied topics related to education. I spoke to Carl O'Dowd, Matthew Kavanagh and Richard Hughes from the Cistercian College in Roscrea. I spoke to Kevin Martin, Brian Glennon and Donal Lowry from Summerhill College in Sligo. I spoke to Rhona Lonergan, Amy O'Donoghue and Sarah Murray from St. Andrew's College in Booterstown. Finally, I spoke to Orla Tyrell, Michelle Healy and Anna Forde and to their teacher Crona McCarthy from Pobalscoil na Tríonóide in Youghal.

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney On this week's programme Paddy Madden spoke to us about teaching Social, Environmental, and Scientific Education (SESE) in wintertime. This programme completes a series of four interviews with Paddy on teaching SESE across the seasons. In this programme Paddy referred to three websites: InTouch, the publication of the Irish National Teachers' Organisation, Paddy's School Garden section of the Blackrock Education Centre website and the website of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney On this week's programme I spoke to Dr. Eemer Eivers, research fellow, and Aidan Clerkin, research associate, at the Educational Research Centre at St. Patrick's College about the performance of Irish fourth class children on the PIRLS and TIMSS tests. In the tests Irish children's performance on reading, maths and science was compared with the performance of children in up to 50 other countries. The guests authored the Irish report, which can be viewed here.

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney On this week's programme Professor Deborah Loewenberg Ball, who is Dean of the School of Education at the University of Michigan and Director of Teaching Works talks about her research on teacher education. She also shares her impression of Irish education and tells us what the current hot topics are in U.S. education. She was in Ireland as a guest of the Marino Institute of Education and the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment. You can watch a podcast of her talks to Irish educators here.

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney On this week's programme I continue my discussion with Síle Ní Fhearáin, a recently retired post-primary school teacher. Síle uses a pastoral care perspective to reflect on matters related to school attendance, discipline and suspension as a sanction for misbehaviour. During the interview Síle refers to a report, Discipline in Schools, written by Dr. Maeve Martin in 1997. A more recent report on the topic is available here.

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney On this week's programme Síle Ní Fhearáin discusses how she became a teacher, her time in Belcamp College and the experience of moving to Pobalscoil Neasáin after 33 years teaching in Belcamp College. She also discusses the teaching of Irish. Next week I'll speak to Síle about attendance and discipline.