IOE Insights

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.

• Professor Zhu Hua will talk about the key pressing issues facing language learning and intercultural communication.
• Professor John Potter and Annie Davey will share artistic research collaborations with external partners and what that means in terms of developing arts education.
• Professor Evangelos Himonides joins us to talk about how research projects around music can impact our health and wellbeing, and the importance of music education.

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

Emily Taylor, ECT in Airdale Academy in Castleford, talks about how her strong bond with her mentor has supported her personally and professionally, and how she in turn builds strong relationships with her pupils.

Emily talks about her relationship with her ECF mentor Rachel. She details the professional, practical, and emotional support she received.

Emily shares how her mentor helped her to make a good start in her school, imparted pedagogical content knowledge, and supported her wellbeing as an ECT. In turn, she also makes sure to be a steady adult in her students’ lives, and gives advice to new ECTs about how to build good relationships with pupils.

Full show notes: 

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/news/2024/oct/happy-teacher-ect-emily-importance-relationships-ecf-staffroom-s04e03

In this episode, Cesc Masdeu discusses how mentoring and professional development can transform school cultures and contribute to institutional change.

Barcelona teacher Cesc, an associate at UCL, explains how schools in Catalonia are learning from the mentoring experiences of the ECF programme.

He discusses his hopes for increased investment in education – particularly in terms of professional development programmes and support for novice and experienced teachers. Cesc hopes their programme can install this culture of continuous development and support throughout the teaching career.

Full show notes: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/news/2024/sep/lessons-catalonia-ecf-staffroom-s04e02