S2 E0 - What is Season 2 all about?

Join us for the preview episode of Season 2 of ‘Digging for the Why’ where we explore the deeper questions behind mathematics education.

In this episode, we’ll glimpse into what listeners can expect from the upcoming season.

We welcome a special guest and the third wheel of the DFTW tricycle, Sam, who provides her unique perspective as a non-mathematician and offers her insight into the editing process of the podcast.

Meet our Guest:
Sam handles all things branding and design at MEI. Whilst not classing herself as a mathematician, she is passionate about education and has a background in teaching. Sam edits all our podcast episodes and has a comprehensive understanding of what we do. We thought we’d get her on so she can discuss her thoughts on Season 2.

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You can find us on X
Andy - @desire2undrstnd/Bluesky
Alison - @AlisonHopperMEI

A talented young creative iingledew produced our intro/outro – check out his Soundcloud.

Chapters

• 0:00 Reflecting on Season 1 and introducing Season 2
• 1:00 What to expect from Season 2
• 2:36 Introducing special guest – Sam Button
• 2:54 Sam's personal experiences of education and the importance of understanding the ‘why’
• 4:52 Impact of asking why and improving the learning experience for students
• 5:39 Guest Lineup: Andy and Alison reveal the lineup of guests for Season 2
• 6:55 Asking why in all aspects of education
• 7:48 Concluding thoughts and Goodbyes, until the next episode

Transcript

Andy: 0:16

Hello and welcome to episode 0 of season 2 of Digging for the Why, the podcast for maths teachers where we explore thoughts behind asking why. Now episode 0, as that might suggest, is a preview episode for what we're going to try and get into in season two of Digging for the why and I say we, because of course, Alison Hopper, co host extraordinaire and my czar of all primary maths is here. How are you, Alison? I'm,

Alison: 0:40

I'm fine, slightly overwhelmed with that introduction, Andy, but extremely extremely happy to be here.

Andy: 0:46

Maybe, maybe we should record video these days because Alison was like, Ooh, don't give me such titles. She is my czar of Primary, so I don't know what I would understand about Primary without Alison here. Now we're just kind of here to talk about season two. We're a little bit excited about this, aren't we, Alison?

Alison: 1:00

We certainly are. Yeah, we had a great season last time for season one, but we were a bit niche and we, we looked at a shared interest of Andy's and mine, which is about transition and continuity for years five to eight in the maths classroom. And we really focused in on that and got into talking about different aspects of how children make successful transitions from primary to secondary, what might hinder that progress and hinder that continuity and spoke to some really, really interesting people who are very knowledgeable in that field. But for season two, we've decided to expand our horizons and talk a bit more in general about digging for the why with, with maths people from different walks of life. But still mainly around education.

Andy: 1:40

Yeah, it should be a good one. Now, you know, All kind of cards laid bare or whatever another saying might be We've recorded the majority of episodes already before we've done this introduction So we are going to talk a little bit about who's coming up soon But we also have a special guest even though it is a little preview episode we recently had a alice and I both work for mi and we recently had our staff meeting and then We have a wonderful person at mi who edits our podcasts for us And she came up to us and just said You Season two is amazing. Like I really like it. So Alison and I talked yesterday and went, we should get her on to talk about it. So her name is Sam. She is the brand design coordinator for MEI and in her own words is not a mathematician. However, she is forced to listen to every episode as she edits them for us. And so we thought get her on and let her know her thoughts about this upcoming season as she's heard majority of these episodes already. Sam, welcome to digging for the why excited to be here.

Sam: 2:36

Yes, very much so. Thank you for inviting me on.

Andy: 2:40

Oh, it's our pleasure. It's it was just really nice when you, when you came up to me and I think you can went to Alison independently as well and just said, you know, really like listening to it, you know, as a non mathematician, so why, why do you like it, what'd you get out of listening to it when you're doing those editing things for us?

Sam: 2:54

I am someone who has always been very passionate about education. I care very, very much about it. And I care very much about it because of my own experiences of education. And I am someone who. Has suffered a lot of, about the things that you talk about on this, this episode about somebody who just generally was not good at maths. And. Didn't thrive in an educational setting. And I always thought that that was just because of who I was, because I was a creative person that I learned in creative ways and that the education system wasn't really designed for me. It was designed for academic people, people who were traditionally smart. And it wasn't until I listened to this season of digging for the why and I heard the same thoughts that I had had about education and about my experiences with education being echoed through a lot of the people that you have interviewed this season. And it made me understand that actually that the problems we have or that I felt with education were felt widely by everybody. The overarching concept you have of this season, the, the finding out the why, it's relevant to every field in education. It's not just maths, although with this, you know, it's the team for the why it's, it's the maths podcast. It's framed in the context of maths, that overarching question of why you can apply that to any topic. And I think that if we can start getting people to question, okay, well, why does it work this way? Students will have a much, much better understanding of the education they are receiving. And I really think it's an important thing for, for people to understand that it's not always that you're not good at something. Maybe you just don't understand why it has to be done that way. And if you can understand why, and if a teacher can help you to get to that point of, well, this is why we do it that way. It will hugely improve the experience you have of education, hugely.

Andy: 4:52

Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, we're, we're really happy you agreed to come on. When we mentioned it, you were a little bit like well, you're kind of the third member of the team, really. So none of these would go out sounding like they do without Sam's help on this. So when you're listening to this upcoming season, when you listen to last season, Sam did edit all those podcasts. So we're very grateful for everything that you do for us, Sam. So we wanted you to be able to come on and say hi. And, and hopefully what you just said can resonate with people. If they're listening to this thinking, should I listen to this series? The last one was a little bit niche. I don't teach years five to eight. Well, actually this one's got a lot more about it, I think. So thank you for coming on. We don't want to take too long in this episode. So. Well, hang on before we finish, I guess we probably should say who's Who's coming up really? So Alison, who have we got?

Alison: 5:39

Right. Yep. So really exciting in no particular order, other than I think alphabetical by first name. Um, for, for, for reasons of yeah, for reasons of, of being alphabetical, I suppose. And we haven't also decided when by math.

Andy: 5:53

So we had to use English. Yeah.

Alison: 5:55

We had to use English in this case yet. And also we haven't quite decided which episode goes out when, but over the course of season two, you will hear from the likes of Alex Bellos. Ben Sparks, Katrina Ag of the Beautiful Diagrams, Charlie Strip, Ed Sarkisal, Susan Okereke, and possibly a couple more as well and it's been, it's been brilliant. The ones we've recorded so far have been brilliant. been really exciting. And as Sam said, I think there's something in there for, there's something in there for everybody. And certainly I found myself doing an awful lot of nodding as we've been recording and then jotting down things and thinking, yeah, of course, yes, of course, that's, yeah, that sums it up brilliantly. So we'll be talking to them about their thoughts on asking why, as well as exploring the sort of the journey that they've been on with the word why. And a whole host of other things as well in fact one of those asked us how many times we could get why into questions but we said well we're kind of we're allowed that it's it's. Digging for the why, isn't it? That's what it's about. Yeah, it's,

Andy: 6:55

it's, it has been a lot of fun. We are hoping to find a couple more to do recordings with as well. And, and we're even going to have a special bonus one that you record at the MEI conference at the end of June. So look out for that one as well. Which is going to talk a little bit about the Oak National Academy project. So there's going to be a bit of information there. So that'll be a good one. Slightly different to the normal format, but we thought it might be quite useful for people. So I guess, thank you for being a listener. Please like, subscribe as my daughter says when she records herself on nothing that goes anywhere. But apparently that's what everyone who does YouTube or anything like that says. So like, subscribe and leave us a five star review. Cause genuinely that last one would help us reach a bigger audience. Because the more ratings you have, the more people get to see it. We do, we love talking about maths. We love talking about digging for the why. And, and hopefully you guys enjoy listening. So for now, it's going to be goodbye from me. Goodbye from Sam.

Alison: 7:48

Goodbye. Cause she's

Andy: 7:49

still here. There she is. And goodbye from Alison.

Alison: 7:51

Goodbye.

Andy: 7:52

And hopefully we will talk to you all soon and you'll enjoy listening to this season two. Thank you guys. Bye bye.