Launched by prominent NSW school leader Rebecca Birch and LaTrobe University senior lecturer Dr Nathaniel Swain, ‘Chalk Dust‘ will zero in on footage taken from real classrooms to unpack the seemingly subtle but highly impactful ways in which teachers are applying the science of learning.
Birch says that unlike many of the teacher-focused podcasts out there, Chalk Dust won’t demand a huge time commitment with each episode picking apart a select few 2–3-minute clips.
There is gold to be found in analysing small pedagogical details and how these play out in the messiness of the average classroom, she tells EducationHQ.
“I think it’s really important for [Chalk Dust] to really dig into what are the nuanced ways that teachers are applying [evidence-based practice], because teaching can get a bit prescriptive in the way that we talk about it and the kinds of ways that we describe practice.”
Swain says the podcast will deliberately enter into quite fine-grained analysis, with a focus on how teachers cleverly apply an element of instruction to make it more responsive and adaptive than it might appear on paper.
“The message that’s often lost when people are talking about explicit instruction or effective practices that align with where the research is, they think it has to be robotic or it has to be a certain way and very structured when it actually can be quite flexible,” he explains.
Former primary teacher Dr Nathaniel Swain says Chalk Dust will help school executive to become better instructional leaders.
Due to drop very soon, the first episode looks at a teacher’s novel application of a checking for understanding routine, as outlined by Doug Lemov’s Teach Like a Champion body of work.
“[The teacher] doesn’t follow the typical structure of ‘turn and talk to your partner, see what you think, and then come back and answer the question’,” Swain explains.
“So, we actually really like it, because it’s utilising writing and redrafting as a tool for clarifying student thinking.”
The featured teacher shows how the practice can be used to deepen students’ understanding of a new concept beyond binary ‘yes or no’ takes, Birch adds.
“He’s really going after quality. He’s saying, ‘OK, I get that you understand this to a certain level, now we’re going to refine our understanding and we’re going to make that really visible, so that by the end of teaching this concept about poetry, you’re going to have a really clear understanding that you can express in a really eloquent and subject-specific way.”
Influential principal Manisha Gazula from Marsden Road Public School in south-west Sydney will feature in episode two.
School leaders have already been in touch with the pair, keen to see how the podcast could be used as part of their school’s professional learning.
“Where you might have set a reading before, now I think leaders are setting things like podcasts for staff to engage with and come back and discuss,” Birch notes.
NSW school leader Rebecca Birch says the podcast will dive into the messy, ‘lived reality’ of teaching to showcase exceptional instruction in action.
And despite the nitty-gritty take on instructional practice, Swain says school leaders themselves have much to gain from Chalk Dust.
It’s become clear that those schools successfully making the transition to evidence-based practice have a shared understanding about what this entails, he says.
To this end, the podcast will “bring everyone to the table”, giving leaders a chance to see particular teaching strategies done well in action.
“The school leader really, we think, should be an instructional leader and someone who is intimately connected to the work of teachers and aware of the professional learning and the professional practice that they’re working on.”
Offering a double whammy of audio commentary and video, Birch and Swain say they hope Chalk Dust’s impact will be profound.
“You’re hearing real sounds from real classrooms,” Birch says.
“I think some of this has been attempted before, where people describe practice, but it’s really not quite the same as hearing the kind of sounds that the students are making, the kind of responses that they’re making, the kind of moves that the teachers are making, how they narrate.
“So, we think it’ll work in audio and video formats – that’s one of the key differences,” she shares.
And when it comes to improving teacher practice, “seeing really is believing”, Swain says.
“When you can move past just speaking about a teaching practice or a teaching technique and actually analyse and contextualise and then try these out these in real situations.
“By observing great teachers in action and hearing commentary about that great teaching and what makes it so good, we think that has a lot of power and a lot of potential to move the profession forward.”
Teachers interested in submitting footage of their craft in motion should be sure to get permission from their principal and have it checked out from a student privacy standpoint, Swain advises.
“Usually what happens, footage is filmed from the back of the classroom and it doesn’t include student faces [so] we can actually get around a lot of the privacy concerns…”
Chalk Dust will be available via Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.
