Julie Dockrell talks to us about how oral language is the foundation for all other learning and what the implications of this are for teachers.

Julie talks about how her research aims to help children develop a flexible use of language across different contexts, for instance through a programme that supports children's conversational skills.

She explores the importance of developing children's inference skills and oral comprehension by encouraging children to talk about and understand the texts they're reading.

Julie also discusses the different types of multilingual classrooms and how teachers can address the challenges of teaching when there are many different languages in a classroom – though she also emphasises the importance of acknowledging the diversity of languages and translanguaging in particular.

Full show notes, links and transcript: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/news/2025/feb/if-we-dont-create-opportunities-talk-we-build-disadvantage-staffroom-s05e02

There is no form of culture or society without music – it's something that's part of us all. We take a look at the power of music, and how it intersects with technology, health and wellbeing.

Show notes and links: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/news/2025/mar/we-are-all-musical-rftrw-s24e03

In this episode, Guy Claxton takes us beyond simplified conceptions of the learning sciences and explains why teachers are sometimes vulnerable to fads and trends.

"We undersell ourselves as educators, educating young people for the future and for life, if we lazily assume that all we mean by learning is the kind of thing that leads to good grades in schools."

Guy shares his hopes as an educator – to help young people develop beyond just the periodic table, the Tudors and examination technique, and cultivate something of more lasting value.

He hopes to design a classroom culture that isn't solely defined by Ofsted, GCSEs or A-level results, probing at the question: what are you teaching? What are you teaching for?

Full show notes and transcript: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/news/2025/jan/asking-awkward-questions-staffroom-s05e01

Those in creative sectors have made it loud and clear that there’s been a lack of funding and a disregard for the arts in the school curriculum. We hear about why media, arts and play is so important from an educational perspective.

Full show notes: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/news/2025/jan/state-arts-and-media-education-and-whats-play-here-rftrw-s24e02

The IOE Podcast is delighted to share with you an episode from the UK Data Service's ‘Experts’ Expert Podcast’ series .

Professor Jennifer Symonds, Director of CLOSER, Robin Flaig, Co-Director of the UK Longitudinal Linkage Collaboration and Chief Operations Officer for Generation Scotland, and Dr Nigel de Noronha, Research Associate at the University of Manchester, discuss their personal data journeys and what they have found so rewarding about working with data.

This episode was first released as part of Love Data Week 2024, where you can listen to more episodes where the group highlight the impact that data and research has had on society.

We look at the potential power of learning and understanding other languages to take on the challenge of bridging cultural differences in an increasingly divided world.

Show notes and links: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/news/2025/jan/how-do-you-improve-language-learning-and-intercultural-understanding-rftrw-s24e01

It won’t come as a surprise to realise that the arts are struggling right now. This is certainly not just a UK-centric issue. When you look at how the cost of living crisis has impacted society, usually policies around the arts are slashed or go unnoticed.

In this season of Research for the Real World, we’re exploring the contribution of IOE research on Language, Culture and Arts Education to turbo-charge this much-needed reset. Joining us will be experts from the IOE to unpack the key issues at play.

More Research for the Real World: https://bit.ly/researchfortherealworld

In this episode, Sally Adams tells us about her new role leading adult learning – and the ways teaching can be a great stepping stone for a host of different careers.

Sally talks about the complexities of leading professional learning and the barriers teachers sometimes face.

She recommends that teachers schedule a little bit of time every now and then to take a step back from day-to-day tasks and really find time to think, reflect and focus on professional development.

"I think teachers really need to invest in themselves because they deserve it – and so do the children that they work with."

Full show notes and transcript: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/news/2024/dec/early-years-school-research-school-ecf-staffroom-s04e06

Mark and Elaine hear from researcher Emily Macleod, who says that if we want more people to try out teaching, we have to stop thinking of it as a vocation.

"These trajectories into teaching, they're not linear. They're multi-directional, they're complex... No one's trajectory into anything is going to be straightforward."

Not a vocation? For Emily Macleod teaching is an expert profession – nobody is 'born' to do it.

One in three young people consider teaching at some point. What happens to the ‘could have beens’?

Full show notes and transcript: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/news/2024/nov/what-happens-could-have-beens-who-decided-not-teach-ecf-staffroom-s04e05

As human beings, how do we learn? In this episode, Dr Rebecca Gordon explores how educational neuroscience can be used in the classroom.

Rebecca reminds us how complex and fascinating the human brain is and cautions us about the dangers of oversimplifying research.

She urges us to question ‘how we know what we know’ and evaluate the research for ourselves.

Full show notes and transcript: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/news/2024/nov/beware-anyone-who-claims-know-it-all-ecf-staffroom-s04e04