Emma & Tom Talk Teaching

Emma Dooher & Tom Breeze
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We’re Emma (PGCE Secondary Drama) and Tom (PGCE Secondary Music) from Cardiff Metropolitan University. Welcome to our podcast, in which we muse about the joys of working with student teachers, the expressive arts, research, and teaching in general. Expect deep discussions, topical debates, celebrations of great practice, and things to steal for your own lessons! Our primary audience is student teachers and early-career teachers, but we hope there's something here for everyone who's involved in the world of education, whether you're new or experienced. Most of our episodes involve a main discussion (often with one or more guests), and two regular slots: something interesting and something to try. And when we hit the holidays, we bring out some weird and wonderful talking points from the internet and just have a chat. Podcast artwork by Beth Blandford (@blandoodles on Facebook and Instagram) Music by Cameron Stewart

  1. 6d ago

    SPECIAL REPORT: Wales's PISA results - where do we go from here?

    We interrupt your Friday off from our podcast to bring you a special episode about Wales’s PISA results! There’s been plenty of commentary about this already, and we wanted to contribute something that chews over the implications. Despite the results landing very inconveniently in the middle of our busiest teaching period of the year, we found a slot when we could both get in front of a microphone, and we’re doing our best to try and work out where we go from here without sugar coating the fact that these PISA results are really, really not good.  For those listeners new to these things, we take a brief run around what PISA actually is, then dive into Wales’s results, get a flavour of the commentary, and try to get a sense of where your new Plaid Cymru overlords want to take things next. Were they lucky to get this bombshell early in their tenure? Or are they already too late to avoid another bad news bomb in three years’ time?  Tom’s been sniffing around to get a sense of what’s going on behind closed doors in Welsh Government, and has a few things to report about some speedy announcements, and a curriculum review by the end of the year.  Thanks to Rhys Williams from ITV News for the clip that opens this episode. You can follow Rhys on X (and we recommend that you do!) at @rhyswilliamstv - his digging around the detail of data and inspection reports is doing a fine service to education journalism in Wales.  We’ll be revisiting plenty of the themes covered today over the course of the year. Normal service will be resumed next week! —————————— Recorded in studio B2.15 at Cardiff Metropolitan University’s Cyncoed Campus on 10th September 2026

  2. Sep 4

    Professional Learning in Wales with Dr Gwenllian Lansdown Davies

    Welcome back to the podcast for what is, unbelievably, our ninth season! For this first episode, Tom is out and about with his microphones, and has an interview with Dr Gwenllian Lansdown Davies, CEO of Dysgu. Dysgu was set up around a year ago to oversee the professional learning offering for people working in education in Wales. We wanted to find out how it sees its role, what its priorities are, and what would count as success for a nation still grappling with major educational challenges.  Thanks to Gwenllian for joining us.  -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recorded in Cathays Park, Cardiff on 7th July (interview) and in studio B2.15 at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed Campus on 12th August (final discussion)

  3. Aug 21 ·  Bonus

    Summer Bonus 2026

    First of all, welcome back to Emma! Although listeners may not have noticed (thanks to us imprisoning her in a studio for about a week last summer and then putting the episodes out slowly across the year), she has in fact just returned from a whole year away from the mic. In this bonus episode, we look back at season 8, and find out that Emma hasn't been keeping an eye on Tom while he was left to drive the podcast by himself - and it's a good thing he didn't realise or who knows what might have been published? We take a quick look forward to what's coming up in season 9, and invite you to make a date in your diary for the 4th September, when we release our first episode of the new academic year. -------------------------------- Recorded in studio B2.15 at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed Campus on 10th August 2026

  4. Jun 12

    Learning Styles: The Neuromyth that Just Won't Die with Dr Louise Allen-Walker

    We've reached the end of season 8 of Emma and Tom Talk Teaching, and to celebrate the end of another academic year, we're going to take on the end-of-level boss! Learning Styles is a neuromyth (something that people say about how the brain works that sounds attractive but is basically a load of rubbish). Not just any old neuromyth, but THE neuromyth that just refuses to lie down and die. For decades, some in the education world have been beguiled by the notion that all our pupils can be defined as visual, auditory or kinaesthetic learners, and that those who teach them should plan to deliver content in all three of these forms.  People have filled in questionnaires to find their learning style, people have made money off the back of the whole notion, and countless amounts of time, money, blood, sweat and tears have been expended on something that, as our guest points out early in the episode, has not only been thoroughly debunked, but is actively detrimental.  And yet... and yet... still the myth endures, and still the learning styles monster rears its ugly head from time to time.  So Tom has put out the bat signal, and a superhero for our times has answered the call: Dr Louise Allen-Walker from our psychology in education and criminology programmes joins him to engage in an act of public service. In this episode, we strike our own blow at learning styles: the neuromyth that just won't die.  Plus, of course, the infamous Neuromyth Van makes an appearance towards the end of the episode, so Louise can put her top three most hated myths (apart from learning styles) in there to be taken away and crushed.  Thanks to Louise for joining us today, and thanks to everyone for listening for another year! We'll be back soon.  ---------------------------------- Recorded in studio B2.15 at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed Campus (with remote guest) on 21st May 2026 Thanks to our sound engineer Pete Lambern, and studio manager Adrian Rapps, as well as the whole team at Cardiff Met Sport Broadcast & Media, for their support this year.

  5. May 29

    Research and Enquiry in Initial Teacher Education with Sioned Dafydd

    Today we look at our own initial teacher education (ITE) provision here at Cardiff Met, and question how effective the concept of Research and Enquiry has been for our student teachers. Working in a policy environment where teachers are expected to be capable of creating and consuming knowledge about teaching, and bringing to to bear on their own contexts, we provide time and space for our student teachers to learn how to do that. The idea is that this will make them into better teachers - but how successful has this new idea been and what does our idea look like in reality, on the ground?  Emma and Tom are joined by fellow researcher Sioned Dafydd to discuss what we found when we carried out some research that was close to home, and found out some interesting things about how things are going on! ——————————— Recorded in studio D0.12 at Cardiff Metropolitan University’s Cyncoed Campus on 23rd July 2025

  6. May 15

    The Key Concepts of a Literacy Curriculum with Sarah McErlaine

    Tom is joined in the non camera-enabled studio today (sorry, YouTube subscribers!) by Sarah McErlaine, who works with schools in Caerphilly county here in Wales. Sarah has just completed her professional doctorate, in which she worked with literacy specialists to try and nail down the key concepts in English. In the absence of much in the way of clues in the Curriculum for Wales framework, this turned out to be an important and difficult undertaking, and resulted in the production of some very handy concept maps to help support those teachers out in school.  Sarah talks us through how she went about designing a support package by taking an international view of the key concepts of the subject, and collaborating with school colleagues to come up with something they could use.  Thanks to Sarah for taking the time to chat, and apologies from Tom for pressing the wrong buttons in very much the wrong order on the studio desk, resulting in Sarah sounding like she was dialling in on Teams when she was in fact sitting a few feet away! ——————————————————————— Recorded in studio B2.10A at Cardiff Metropolitan University’s Cyncoed Campus on 22nd April 2026

  7. May 1

    Debating Childhoods with Joe Brown and Dr Tim Clark

    This week we welcome two academics from the University of the West of England - Joe Brown and Dr Tim Clark - to the studio. They’re here to discuss their recently published book Debating Childhoods, which gives Tom and Sian the chance to have an in-depth discussion about how we think of childhood and how society’s values influence the things we prioritise and consider when providing education and experiences for children.  There’s lots to think about in this extended episode, and if you’re interested in doing some more deep thinking on this topic, Debating Childhoods is published by Sage and available wherever you get your books! —————————————— Recorded in studio B2.15 at Cardiff Metropolitan University’s Cyncoed Campus on 10th February 2026

  8. Apr 22 ·  Bonus

    SENEDD ELECTIONS SPECIAL: What did we learn from our interviews? With Dr Gareth Evans & Finola Wilson

    With the Senedd (Welsh Parliament) elections here in Wales just around the corner, the team got together in Cardiff Met's broadcast centre to discuss what we learnt from the six parties in relation to some of the big themes facing education today. Tom is joined on the studio sofa by Dr Gareth Evans from the University of Wales Trinity Saint David and Finola Wilson from Impact Wales to discuss school standards, the future of Curriculum for Wales, funding, teacher recruitment, and more. You can see this episode on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/f_6xr3HAyjk We hope you found our Senedd Elections Special project interesting - we certainly did! ----------------------------- Recorded in studio B0.17 at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed Campus on 20th March 2026 For Cardiff Met Sport Broadcast & Media Studio technical support: Rhys Evans, Jamie Hicks, Caitlin Meredith Sound: Peter Lambern Director: Adrian Rapps For Impact Wales Producer: Darren Evans Any opinions expressed by the presenters are their independent views and not those of their respective employers.

    SENEDD ELECTIONS SPECIAL: What did we learn from our interviews? With Dr Gareth Evans & Finola Wilson
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About

We’re Emma (PGCE Secondary Drama) and Tom (PGCE Secondary Music) from Cardiff Metropolitan University. Welcome to our podcast, in which we muse about the joys of working with student teachers, the expressive arts, research, and teaching in general. Expect deep discussions, topical debates, celebrations of great practice, and things to steal for your own lessons! Our primary audience is student teachers and early-career teachers, but we hope there's something here for everyone who's involved in the world of education, whether you're new or experienced. Most of our episodes involve a main discussion (often with one or more guests), and two regular slots: something interesting and something to try. And when we hit the holidays, we bring out some weird and wonderful talking points from the internet and just have a chat. Podcast artwork by Beth Blandford (@blandoodles on Facebook and Instagram) Music by Cameron Stewart

Information

  • Creator
    Emma Dooher & Tom Breeze
  • Years Active
    2018 - 2026
  • Episodes
    236
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 Emma & Tom Talk Teaching
  • Show Website
    Emma & Tom Talk Teaching

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