Junior Cycle Talks is a podcast channel provided by the Junior Cycle for Teachers (JCT) support service. The podcasts explore a variety of issues, themes and topics that may be of interest to all teachers, students, parents and school leaders. Housed on this channel is the podcast Tangents which is the JCTs mathematics team’s podcast. It explores a number of issues in relation to the effective teaching and learning of mathematics at Junior Cycle in Ireland.
In the eighth episode of this podcast series the JCT team interviewed EPISTEMs co-director and lecturer in mathematics education, Dr. Niamh O’Meara. In the podcast Niamh discusses the importance of teaching for understanding and describes ways that teachers can help develop students’ procedural fluency and conceptual understanding. She also talks about how striking a balance between the two is critical. Niamh then goes onto discuss the role of the teacher in the transition from primary to post-primary mathematics education and how we as a society need to help foster more positive attitudes towards mathematics and move away from current narratives that portray mathematics as difficult, boring and only needed by certain individuals or in certain professions.
A link to the podcase can be found here: https://soundcloud.com/user-65250337/tangents-episode-8-with-dr-niamh-o-meara but it can also be found wherever you source your podcasts (Spotify, Apple podcasts etc.)