A Hungry Mind

I love podcasts.

Recently I listened to episode #2 of the Education Research Reading Room (ERRR). During the episode, their guest Stephen Dinham was asked,

“What is your information diet? What are some key sources of information you suggest we tap into?”

As soon as I heard it, I was struck by that phrase: information diet. Even as it continued to resonate in my mind, I was struck again soon after by this comment from one of the educators who was part of the podcast:

“The more you know, the more you see…As your expertise builds, you’ll see more and you’ll learn more… It’s kind of like a leap of faith or a journey into the unknown; you just get started. You really don’t know where you’re going, and you don’t know where you’re going to end up. But everything you encounter along the way will add value and will help you see and understand better. There is no formula for it. It’s what Scott Barry Kaufman calls “a hungry mind.” The best thing you can have is a hungry mind.”

Another provocative phrase: a hungry mind!

Both of these phrases strongly resonate with me, particularly with regard to how ravenously I consume information about teaching and learning. I feel like I can’t get enough. There’s just so much to learn!

This led me to want to write this post for two reasons. The first is that the pedagogical moves I tried out last school year (my first year of teaching in 13 years) and what I’m planning to try out this year (things like worked examples and spaced practice) are specifically influenced by what I’ve been learning about over the past couple of years.

And secondly, I don’t want to keep it all to myself! I love sharing what I’m learning about, particularly if it might help or inspire someone else. At my old job, I used to share interesting articles, blog posts, videos, etc. that I came across on Twitter. I haven’t shared like that in a while – several years in fact! – so I thought, why not recap what I’m reading and listening to these days? If your mind is as ravenous as mine, there will be plenty to sink your teeth into. However, if your appetite is a little more measured, don’t feel like you need to read or listen to it all. Choose one thing that really piques your curiosity and dive in! To help you out, I’ve made some suggestions of particular podcast episodes to check out to save you some time.

Before talking about what I’m learning “these days,” I need to back up a bit because one book in particular set me on a path that heavily influenced my learning for the past few years.

Back in 2020 or 2021, somebody on Twitter (I wouldn’t be surprised if it was Michael Pershan) mentioned/recommended Craig Barton’s book How I Wish I’d Taught Maths: Lessons Learned from Research, Conversations with Experts, and 12 Years of Mistakes.

It happened to be on sale, so I picked it up, and I’m so glad I did! It was a fascinating read, particularly as it introduced me to numerous cognitive science findings that I hadn’t learned before, such as the crucial role of attention in learning and the limits of working memory, to name a few. While I was lightly introduced to cognitive learning theory during my Master’s degree program in 2004-2006, the bulk of my coursework explored constructivist territory. The context of the book may be mathematics (secondary mathematics at that), but the research the book shares and the implications for instruction span subject areas.

Wanting to learn more, I sought out Craig Barton’s podcast, The Mr. Barton Maths Podcast. Little did I know what I was getting into there. His podcast episodes are epic! Episodes easily last over an hour and can even go as long as 2-3 hours! It sounds wild, but what I love is that he and his guests really dive into the nuts and bolts of the topics they’re talking about. Craig is taking notes, making sense of what he’s hearing in real time, asking questions, and even pushing back as he’s talking to his guests.

If you’re interested in trying out his podcast, here are a few episodes that particularly fascinated me when I first started listening. I’m linking to them below, in case you want to listen to them through a web browser. You can just as easily find these episodes in your favorite podcast app.

• Episode #087 Tom Sherrington: Rosenshine’s Principles in Action (the web page player unfortunately is linked to play Episode #086, so you’ll want to seek this episode out in a podcast app)
• Episode #134 Ollie Lovell: Cognitive Load Theory in Action
• Episode #138 Michael Pershan: Teaching with worked examples: part 1
• Episode #139 Michael Pershan: Teaching with worked examples: part 2

If you’re intimidated by long podcast episodes, you’re not alone. I was, too. My secret is that I don’t listen to them all at once. In fact, I rarely listen for more than 20-30 minutes at a time. Podcasts, for me, are a fantastic way of enriching mundane tasks like doing dishes, driving to work, or getting ready in the morning. When I know I’m queuing up a good episode, it gets me excited to do even the most boring of chores. Sure, it means one episode often spans multiple listening sessions, but as the saying goes, “Slow and steady wins the race.”

In 2022, Craig Barton launched a second podcast, Tips for Teachers. I really like the format of this one! Not only are the episodes shorter – less than an hour usually – but they also maintain a regular structure. For each episode, Craig invites an educator to share their top five tips for teachers. To make the podcast as user friendly as possible, Craig includes time stamps of each of the tips so you can navigate directly to a tip of interest so you aren’t required to listen to the entire episode. And if that weren’t enough, he also records videos of each tip and posts them to YouTube so they can be easily watched by you, shared with colleagues, or used during professional learning.

Not sure where to start? Craig recently released a set of mini-episodes called Tips for Teachers Top 5s. Each episode is less than 10 minutes and includes Craig summarizing his top 5 tips he’s collected around a particular aspect of teaching:

• Paired Discussion
• Mini-whiteboards
• Checking for understanding
• Silent teacher
• The Do Now

These are a great intro, but I much prefer the full-length episodes where you can hear from the wide variety of educators he’s invited to share their tips. Rather than recommend any one episode, I recommend perusing the Tips for Teachers web page. Craig lists each guest along with their five tips. If you find a tip or a set of tips that piques your curiosity, then that’s where you should begin!

While rereading this post makes me come across as a Craig Barton fanboy, he really is prolific in his sharing of what he’s learning with the rest of us in education. I’ve learned a ton from him and his guests, and I appreciate all of the ideas and numerous educators he’s introduced me to.

Now that I’ve covered the Craig Barton ecosystem of education books and podcasts, let’s look at another book that has influenced my work lately.

Last summer, I picked up Michael Pershan’s book, Teaching Math With Examples. Where Craig Barton’s book was epic and far reaching in scope, Michael’s is a smaller and more focused affair. Michael knows his audience: teachers. He brings together a wealth of experience reading educational research and teaching with worked examples in a way that makes it accessible, conversational, and practical.

If you’re unfamiliar with worked examples, here is a very brief description of how they can be used in class:

1. Students analyze a correct or incorrect solution to a problem.
2. Students explain the thinking of the person who solved the problem.
3. Students solve problems that are similar to the example.

I also tweeted out a thread as I read the book, which gives highlights of each chapter:

Starting my next book, Teaching With Examples from @mpershan. If the Preface and Introduction are any indication, I'm going to enjoy reading this book and learn a lot about worked examples to boot! pic.twitter.com/EjHplebsFW

— Brian Bushart 🏳️‍🌈 (@bstockus) April 29, 2022

While I recommend reading Michael’s book, you might also want to check out the two Mr. Barton Maths Podcast episodes I linked earlier in this post where Michael talks to Ollie Lovell and Craig Barton about this pedagogical practice. These episodes are what nudged me to finally pick up Michael’s book. I was excited to try out worked examples this past school year. I haven’t written a blog post about it yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if one pops up on here within the next few weeks.

Speaking of a podcast nudging me to buy a book, I also picked up Ollie Lovell’s book, Tools for Teachers: How to teach, lead, and learn like the world’s best educators.

I’ve been slowly reading it this summer. I’ve particularly appreciated the chapters on behavior management, motivation, and relationships & regulation. Here are a few takeaways that resonated with me:

• The purpose of rules is to preserve the rights of all those in our school community. To put in place boundaries to ensure that these rights are protected at all times. (Chapter 2)
• Motivation helps direct our attention. Our attention determines what goes into short-term memory. When we think about and interact with information in short-term memory that information can be learned. (Chapter 3)
• Stable relationships are the foundation for self-regulation. (Chapter 4)

Ollie Lovell also hosts the ERRR podcast which I mentioned at the start of this post. In each episode, he chats with an education researcher. I just started listening to this podcast, so I can’t make any episode recommendations. You’re in luck though, because on the podcast webpage he lists the top 5 most downloaded episodes. Here they are for your convenience:

1. ERRR #060. Anita Archer on Explicit Instruction
2. ERRR #057. Harry Fletcher-Wood on Habits of Success
3. ERRR #059. Naomi Fisher on Self-directed Education
4. ERRR #056. Sammy Kempner on Teaching with Group Work, Accountability, and Chants
5. ERRR #064. Paul Spenceley on Formative Assessment

These episodes are likely a great place to start. I personally started at the beginning, which has been fascinating as I’m learning quite a bit about the context of education in Australia, or at least the context as it was 6 years ago when the podcast began.

But that’s not all! I’ve also been binging all of the Amplify podcasts over the past few months:

• Science of Reading
• Math Teacher Lounge
• Science Connections

For the first two seasons, Science Connections focused on conversations with a wide variety of scientists and science teachers. Season 3 has a more unifying theme, “Science as the Underdog.” If you’re pressed for time, I would recommend starting there.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson and Dan Meyer are the hosts of the Math Teacher Lounge. They have a great dynamic and the podcast is worth listening to for that alone. For the past two seasons, they’ve been focusing on one unifying topic each season. Season 4 is all about discovering the joy of math and Season 5 is all about math anxiety. With the wealth of guests they invite into the lounge, listeners get to see these topics from a wide variety of angles.

If tackling an entire season is intimidating, you’re in luck. Season 5 Episode 6 is a reflection episode where Bethany and Dan share their takeaways. It reminds me of a clip show episode from an 80s sitcom because you get to hear snippets of interviews from the other episodes in the season as well as Bethany and Dan’s thoughts as the season concludes. I also recommend Season 5 Episode 3: Cultivating a joy of learning with Sesame Workshop. It was fascinating to get a behind-the-scenes peak into the careful planning that goes into developing the educational content of a show like Sesame Street.

I was eager to dive into the Science of Reading podcast because the phrase “science of reading” has been EVERYWHERE since I got back into the classroom. For the 13 years I was out of the classroom, I focused on mathematics, so I’ve been feeling like I have a LOT to catch up on!

I’ve listened to seasons 1 and 2 so far, and I’m a couple of episodes into season 3.

One of my favorite episodes is Season 1 Episode 4: The importance of fluency instruction with Tim Rasinksi. In my school district we shuffle around all of our 4th graders every other day for 45 minutes of reading intervention. The group I was given had the vague label “low comp” and little direction on what to work on with them. After listening to this episode, I made fluency practice the focus of our work together using specific ideas I learned in the episode.

Day 150: In RtI today, we used repeated readings to build fluency as we listened to a poem read aloud, read it aloud together, and read it aloud some more in pairs. Finally, students had a chance to perform the poem in front of the class. pic.twitter.com/aOfJLziQ2e

— Bushart's Brilliant Bunch (@MrBushart) May 9, 2023

Another one of my favorite episodes was Season 1 Episode 21: The symbiotic relationship between literacy and science with Jacquey Barber. This episode was fascinating because it spoke directly to what many educators, myself included, have probably witnessed and/or experienced: schools cutting science and social studies time in favor of more reading instruction.

I also appreciated this episode because my district uses Amplify Science, and while they never explicitly talk about the program in the podcast episode, I was able to see how everything she talked about related to how Amplify Science is structured. It was really helpful for gaining a better understanding of the program and the “why” behind its design.

Finally, I enjoyed Season 3 Episode 1: Deconstructing the Rope: An Introduction with Dr. Jane Oakhill. Dr. Oakhill makes some provocative comments in the podcast:

“Having background knowledge is not enough to guarantee comprehension. It needs to be rapidly accessed and applied to the comprehension task. Background knowledge is obviously helpful for text comprehension, but the picture is quite a lot more complicated than that.”

These comments stood out to me because I feel like all I hear these days is the need for knowledge-building curricula. I don’t think Dr. Oakhill is dismissing background knowledge or saying these curricula aren’t necessary, but I appreciate her acknowledging that reading comprehension is more complex than just building students’ background knowledge. It’s not a silver bullet.

Another comment she made right at the end of the podcast also jumped out at me:

“I think many teachers don’t feel comfortable with this conclusion. Learning to read with good comprehension doesn’t necessarily need to involve huge amounts of reading [by the students]. The importance is those oral language skills and talk about text language.”

This was in reference to the importance of reading aloud to students because the language of books is not the same as spoken language. It’s more sophisticated. Rather than waiting for students to be able to decode these texts, we must develop their language comprehension skills, and what this means is we are simultaneously developing their reading comprehension skills even though they aren’t decoding the words for themselves.

The final education podcast I have in rotation these days is the recently-launched Knowledge Matters Podcast. I’m not terribly familiar with the Knowledge Matters campaign, but I started following them on Twitter in my efforts to tune in to current conversations around literacy instruction. This first season is hosted by Natalie Wexler, author of The Knowledge Gap and vocal advocate for the role of background knowledge in developing students’ reading comprehension. Whereas Dr. Oakhill shares about the complexity of teaching reading comprehension, I sometimes get the feeling that Natalie Wexler is a little more narrow in her views. That said, I do enjoy the podcast, particularly hearing from the wide variety of educators interviewed about their experiences shifting to a knowledge-building literacy curriculum. This is of particular interest to me since my district just adopted Amplify CKLA, and I’ll be using it for the first time this fall.

Whew! That was a lot. Putting it all together at one time was a daunting task, but thankfully listening to all these podcasts is just a matter of queuing up the next batch of episodes and slowly working my way through them.

In terms of takeaways and applying what I’ve learned, sometimes I try something right after I hear about it, such as making fluency practice a priority in my reading intervention block after listening to Tim Rasinski on the Science of Reading podcast. Other times it takes more planning, like my summer project creating a scope and sequence to review math concepts across the school year and developing all the associated practice activities. One of my mantras is continuous improvement. Even though I tried out teaching with worked examples last school year, I’m going to focus on that again this school year. I’ll hopefully blog about last year’s experiences with that soon to help me reflect before thinking ahead to next year.

If you have any recommendations for the next podcast I should check out, please share it in the comments!