Season 3

Episode #5 // The COVID lessons: John Hattie reflects

Laureate Professor John Hattie reflects on the effect of COVID-19 on the education system examining what we should keep from what he calls the ‘great experiment’. Speaking to Talking Teaching on the eve of his retirement from the Melbourne Graduate School of Education, John stresses the need to focus on the existing expertise we have in education and the need to upscale success.

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Episode #4 // The kids are alright but is the education system?

On this episode of Talking Teaching Kamilaroi woman, Dr Melitta Hogarth, the Assistant Dean, Indigenous at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education, discusses the challenges facing the education sector in building an inclusive school culture and environment for Indigenous students in Australia. To achieve this, she says, we need to flip the narrative and address the significant gap in non-Indigenous Australians’ understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages, cultures, knowledges and peoples. We also speak to Josh Cubillo, a Larrakia man educated in the Darwin area, who is now pursuing his dream of improving the knowledge of non-Indigenous teachers and their understanding of the concept of country.

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Episode #3 // Dealing with trauma: schools on the frontline

In a traumatic year of bushfires and a global pandemic young people in Australia have faced increasing uncertainty and anxiety. How do schools support their students through these times and how can they help them deal with the trauma to ensure that they thrive? On this episode of Talking Teaching Professor Helen Cahill, a leading innovator in school-based wellbeing interventions, discusses the ways that social and emotional learning programs in schools can assist young people to deal with traumatic situations and mitigate the effects of trauma, before they happen, if already implemented in schools.

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Episode #2 // Teaching through the pandemic: lessons learned in and out of school

Teachers, students, parents and entire school communities have been through a tumultuous time having been forced to switch schooling from the classroom to remote learning and back again in the space of a few months. So, what’s worked, what didn’t and what are schools going to take with them into the future? On this episode of Talking Teaching two leaders of two very different schools share their insights. Plus we speak with Professor Janet Clinton, who was commissioned by the Australian Government to report on ‘Supporting vulnerable children in the face of a pandemic’, about the potential effect COVID-19 may have on vulnerable students.

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Episode #1 // Resilience and recovery: bushfires and COVID-19

A global pandemic and devastating bushfires – these major events are going to affect people's lives and wellbeing for a long time. Their ramifications are forcing people to deal with uncertainty, stress and loss. On this episode of Talking Teaching: Professor Lindsay Oades, Director of the Centre for Positive Psychology at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education, tells us how we can find resilience in a pandemic – and we meet the Principal of Clifton Creek Primary School, Sue Paul, who’s rebuilding her school and community after it was destroyed by bushfire.

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The views expressed in this podcast series are those of presenters and guests and are not necessarily endorsed by the University of Melbourne.