WELS 2015

WELS 2015

I was fortunate to attend the World Educational Leadership Summit 2015 in Singapore with my Principal Dr Wendy Kofoed and colleague Sonya Van Schaijik.

As stated we were addressed by :

" THE WORLD’S MOST INFLUENTIAL MOVERS & SHAKERS IN EDUCATION OF OUR TIME" - six professors who I follow closely Pasi Sahlberg, Tony Wagner, Yong Zhao, Simon Breakspear, Stephen Murgatroyd and Sugata Mitra.

The highlight for me was attending the master class with Professor Sugata Mitra. I was particularly interested in going to his workshop as I had heard his TED talks around "The Hole in the Wall" and SOLE (Self Organised Learning Environments) and wanted to hear more about "Questioning".

Professor Mitra is a TED Prize winner - "The School in the Cloud",  a global experiment where children puzzle through big questions and ideas on their own with little assistance and teaching one another in the process. In his initial research Professor Mitra suggests that children in SOLE environments can learn almost anything by themselves.

To sum up, for me the "take away ideas/ key points/ highlights for the day were:

# a clearer understanding of how the principles of SOLE could be used and implemented at Newmarket.
# make it Non Prescriptive!!!!
# having Dr Sugata model and demonstrate the process and taking part in the experience.
#  how SOLE encourages collaboration
# clarification around timing, questioning, how and what to assess ( not necessarily every time) and when it could be used ( frequency).
# possible challenges - moving from 1-1 devices to 1-4, Teacher Control
# a need to redesign the curriculum and to ensure we evaluate on a regular basis
# importance of student, teacher,  parent and community voice when redesigning the curriculum.