The Conversation

Welcome to the Museum of Educational Curiosity. Host John Rodgers meets three guests from the education sphere who make donations to the museum. 

In this special episode, host john Rodgers discusses a range of ideas with Duncan Yeates, a senior leader and assistant principal of Mounts Bay Academy. A large part of the conversation revolves around ideas from the Situationist International, a group of artists, film makers and philosophers who laid the foundational ideology for the 'sioxante huitards'. 

In this special episode we interview Simeon Royal, Vice Principal of Mounts Bay Academy.

We discuss how schools can combat social injustice and explore ideas about cultural capital.  

In this episode of The Conversation we discuss  the purpose of education? There are of course many ways to answer this questions.

In a 2013 TED Talk Sir Ken Robinson says that the purpose of education is learning. “The whole point of education is to get people to learn.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wX78iKhInsc) 

How many of our conversations in schools, colleges, universities are about learning? How many of our meetings have learning as the main agenda item? Do we talk about the learning of our students enough? (And by the way, it is my opinion that discussion and analysis of progress data of one sort or another is NOT talking about the learning of students.) If then, we are not talking about learning, why not? And does this mean that we are wasting time and effort on things that are less important or subservient to learning?

But, after all that, we must still address the question of what we actually are trying to get our students to learn. OFSTED chief Amanda Spielman has recently discussed moving the mindset of inspections away from focussing on exam results and towards considering the curriculum offer a school provides. "Ultimately, the curriculum is the yardstick for what school leaders want their pupils to know and to be able to do by the time they leave school. It is therefore imperative that the new inspection framework has curriculum as a central focus.” (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-45560165)

Well that is nice but she doesn’t seem to be offering any guidance on what that curriculum offer should be. It seems that schools will have to justify their choices as to what they want their students to learn as well as their performance data.

So what should our students learn? I think that the answer to that question depends on your educational philosophy. 

For me the need is urgent  We must teach our students to be critical thinkers with the ability to question those in authority, to have the ability NOT to swallow anything and everything they read, hear or see in this post truth era. We must teach them to be creative, independent, resilient and optimistic. How we do that is another question

In this special interview episode we interview Sara Davey: CEO of LEAP (Leading Edge Academies Partnership).

We discuss Leading Edge ideas, the 6 E's of the LEAP vision as well as research and its impact on education.

In this special episode we interview Les Hall, Principal of Mounts Bay Academy.

We discuss the purpose of education and the philosophy of curriculum design.

This week hosts John Rodgers and Sarah Taylor discuss the most important idea in education.

Visit www.theconversation.education for more information and to download past issues of the magazine.

Welcome to the conversation

At The Conversation we believe that giving educators the space

and time to talk about teaching and learning is essential.

Conversations can generate ideas, inform pedagogies and inspire reform. A

conversation implies a measure of equality and that listening and sharing without

limit, without judgement, without inhibition can lead to incredible things.

Conversations allow us to explore ideas, to challenge and ask questions of

ourselves, each other and the systems we work in. They inspire us to create, analyse

and evaluate ideas. They provoke us to engage intellectually with the latest research

and make links between theories and praxes. Conversations can lift us, excite us and

challenge us. So join in the conversation!