Explore every episode of the podcast Education Research Reading Room

In this episode, host Ollie Lovell speaks to international expert on mathematics fluency and systematic interventions in eduction, Brian Poncy. Brian and Ollie explore key ideas such as dosage, instructional set size, and learning rate, and what they mean for teachers trying to support students to bridge learning gaps, especially in mathematical fluency.

Full show notes at ollielovell.com/brianponcy

This podcast is brought to you by the Explicit Mathematics Program: www.explicitmathematicsprogram.com

In this episode, host Ollie Lovell interviews the hugely popular UK educator, Craig Barton. Craig shares insights from his new 'Tips for Teachers guide to...' book series , focussing on the 'We do'.

In the second half of the episode, Craig and Ollie share reflections and learnings from their 2025 Australia tour. Find out what each learnt from the other on running effective professional development within this episode.

Full show notes at www.ollielovell.com/craigbarton5

In this episode, host Ollie Lovell speaks with reading expert Christopher Such on the three key principles underlying the enabling of reading comprehension for students. Chris and Ollie discuss how these three principles have been communicated through Chris' two books, The Art and Science of Primary Reading and Primary Reading Simplified, in addition to the videos and action steps recently written by Chris for Steplab.

Full show notes at www.ollielovell.com/chrissuch

In this episode, host Ollie Lovell speaks with experienced educator Bill Hansberry on a practical approach to restorative practices in schools.

Full show notes at www.ollielovell.com/billhansberry

In this episode, host Ollie Lovell interviews the hugely influential author of Teach Like a Champion, Doug Lemov, about his newest book, The Teach Like a Champion Guide to the Science of Reading.

Doug shares advice on everything from why books are dying in our culture, the role of book choice in teaching reading, book-driven objectives, teaching writing, and much more.

This is a must-listen podcast for anyone teaching reading, especially in upper primary and secondary school.

Full show notes at www.ollielovell.com/douglemov2

In this episode, host Ollie Lovell speaks with Lissie Doyle about running test feeback in a way that supports students to think deeply about the process and learn from their mistakes.

Full show notes at www.ollielovell.com/lissiedoyle

In this episode, host Ollie Lovell speaks with Sue Knight, principal of multiple turnaround school stories based upon the Science of Learning.

Sue shares her insightful 3 principles for effective school leadership.

See all show notes at: www.ollielovell.com/sueknight

In this episode, host Ollie Lovell speaks with Amy Haywood and Nick Parkinson from The Grattan Institute on their recent research into primary mathematics and what we need to do at the system level to improve it!

Full show notes at www.ollielovell.com/haywood-parkinson

Host Ollie Lovell speaks with James Mannion about his new book, "Making Change Stick", and how to effectively implement change and improvements in schools and organisations.

Full show notes at www.ollielovell.com/jamesmannion2

This episode we’re speaking with Benjamin Riley. Ben is the founder of Cognitive Resonance, a think-and-do tank devoted to helping people to understand human cognition and generative AI. Previously, Ben founded and led Deans for Impact, a US-based nonprofit organization that works to improve initial teacher education using cognitive science. As Ben says, he likes to get people thinking, about thinking!

This ep goes much wider in scope than usual. But I feel that's fitting given the unique point we're currently at in global politics. Hope you find it interesting at the very least!

Full Show notes at https://www.ollielovell.com/benriley/

Host Ollie Lovell speaks with Alex Evans, Deputy Headteacher at St Luke’s Church of England School about the St Luke's change journey that moved the school from the bottom 20% of schools nationally, to the top 20%, within 4 years. This is a story of systematic instructional and curricular change, leveraging the power of Instructional Coaching.

Full show notes at www.ollielovell.com/alexevans

In this episode, host Ollie Lovell speaks with the worlds most popular Parenting author, Steve Biddulph, on his new book, 'Wild Creature Mind'.

This discussion explores the roots of our anxieties, with important implications in particular for how we support young people (and anyone close to us) at crucial times in their lives.

Full show notes at: https://www.ollielovell.com/stevebiddulph/

In this episode of the ERRR Podcast, renowed mathematics education David Morkunas describes the ins and outs of writing high quality mathematics lessons, and particularly how these principals are embedded into the Explicit Mathematics Program.

Full show notes at www.ollielovell.com/davidmorkunas

In this episode, host Ollie Lovell speaks with acclaimed school principal Steve Capp to hear what it takes to turn around not one, but two primary schools. Steve shares countless pearls of wisdom on everything from pedagogy to management.

Full show notes at www.ollielovell.com/stevecapp

Professor Jonathan Sharples from the Education Endowment Foundation shares insights and practical advice regarding how to help educational programs and initiatives to have maximum impact in your school or organisation.

Full show notes at www.ollielovell.com/jonathansharples

In this episode, Dr. Jennifer Buckingham describes key instructional and policy differences between the UK, Ireland, and Australia, and how these contribute to differing literacy levels and achievement on international tests such as PISA and PIRLS.

Jen and Ollie discuss a multitude of factors including curriculum, instruction, initial teacher education, assessment, school inspections, as well as the all important culture and demographics.

Full show notes at https://www.ollielovell.com/jenbuckingham/

This episode we're speaking with Ron Berger. Ron was a public school teacher and master carpenter in rural Massachusetts for over 25 years and is now a well-known national and international keynote speaker focused on inspiring a commitment to quality, character, and citizenship in students. He is the Senior Advisor at EL Education, a nonprofit school improvement organization that partners with public schools and districts across America, leads professional learning, and creates open educational resources.

In this episode, Ron and I go in-depth into the idea of an ethic of excellence, and discuss, perhaps even debate, some of the ins and outs of the use of projects, assessments, and more.

Full show notes at: https://www.ollielovell.com/ronberger

In this episode, usual ERRR host Ollie Lovell has a recent maths lesson that he taught pulled apart by fellow edu-podcaster Craig Barton.

Craig ask's Ollie a huge number of questions about this recent demonstration lesson, asking Ollie about different pedagogical decisions he made, and what he might do differently next time.

For those looking for a truly in-depth discussion about teaching and learning, this is it!

Full show notes at: https://www.ollielovell.com/craigbarton4/

Adam Boxer is a chemistry teacher in North London, he writes about science education, cognitive science, evidence-based education, and many other important topics. He’s an extremely popular on teacher social media and has had a huge impact on education both locally and internationally through his writings, books, podcast, and talks. 

I’ve followed Adam for a long time and have always found his writing to be extremely logical, practical, and well thought out. His book, Teaching Secondary Science, is a must-have for anyone who is keen for a great overview of a structured and systematic approach to teaching high school science, and I can highly recommend Adam’s other outputs too. 

This podcast was prompted when I recently explored a fantastic bit of edtech initiated by Adam, Carousel, which is an excellent knowledge management platform to help students to learn and master key knowledge that is fundamental to their success. Off the back of that, I was really keen to get Adam onto the podcast to discuss how he uses the first 10 minutes of a lesson to embed such knowledge… and I’m so glad I did! I hope you love it too

See full show notes at www.ollielovell.com/adamboxer

Expert PD designer Harry Fletcher-Wood shares wisdom on what it takes to design truly deep and impactful PD for teachers.

See all the show notes at www.ollielovell.com/harryfletcherwood3

In this episode we speak with Greg Ashman about what it takes to create a high performing school like Ballarat Clarendon College, Victoria's highest performing school. We touch on important factors including shared student expectations, effective professional learning, shared and prescriptive lesson plans, effective data use, and much more.

Full show notes at www.ollielovell.com/gregashman

In this episode, Dr. Jordana Hunter & Nick Parkinson from the Grattan Institue discuss lessons from their trip to New York and England to visit 7 multi-school organisations, groups of schools working together under common governance and structures to the benefit of students.

Regents Professor Karen Harris shares insights from over 50 years of writing instruction and refining the Self Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) method of teaching writing.

Host Ollie Lovell applies what he's learnt from reading Karen's book to share a demo lesson of teaching using the SRSD approach, and Karen provides valuable feedback!

Full show notes with all resources at www.ollielovell.com/karenharris