09.00 – 09.45

พิธีเปิด Opening Address

Keynote Speech 1 "Inquiry and Collaboration in School as Learning Community –At Both of Classrooms and Staffroom"

Synopsis/Abstract

School as Learning Community (SLC) is not a simple recipe or technique, but an integrated set of vision, philosophies and activity systems of learning together among students, teachers and parents. SLC has progressed, especially in terms of “learning as inquiry through collaboration” during past five years. Many cases regard learning community as “inquiry community”. In this context, inquiry and collaboration are intensively related. Inquiry necessarily requires collaboration, because, thinking, which fundamentally dialogues with oneself, can be executed alone, while inquiry, that is integration and elaboration of multiple approaches of thinking is not able to be done without collaboration. In the other side, collaboration without inquiry is meaningless in learning.

In my keynote speech, I would like to show you the following issues.
1) Conceptual and theoretical interpretation about the relationship of inquiry and collaboration.
2) The reasons why SLC pursues a combination of inquiry and collaboration. Inquiry through collaboration is a strong vehicle to transform teaching “rhetoric of slave” of dominant school culture to learning “rhetoric of protagonist (main actor) of democratic society”.
3) Similarity and difference between Professional Learning Community (PLC) and School as Learning Community (SLC)
4) Continuity and coherence of inquiry through collaboration at classrooms and that at staffroom.
5) Designing a new linkage between inquiry through collaboration by students and that by teachers.

Keynote Speech 2 "Learning communities across schools nourished by lesson studies tackling social justice by raising levels of ‘oracy’."

Synopsis/Abstract

In this presentation, Pete will tell a story of oracy development through collaborative communities of inquiry in classrooms and staffrooms.
Oracy is the effective use of spoken language, (the Cinderella sister of Literacy and Numeracy). Poor Oracy development is now identified as a key cause of underachievement for many British students.
Oracy falls into two sets of know-how. The first is the ability to speak effectively, make your point or debate with impact. The second is more complex than it sounds. It is the ability to participate and learn effectively in groups.
But something as hard to ‘pin-down’ as spoken language is often more challenging to improve than literacy or numeracy. This is because we use the spoken language of the ‘voice in our heads’ to articulate our thoughts to ourselves. It is hard to think about how we use language for thinking through thought! Classroom and staffroom-based lesson study discussions conducted by learning communities of teachers in safe spaces where there is high social capital and trust between them, have proven powerful in enabling these kinds of thinking, talking and learning to happen.
At EDUCA 2016 Pete described the development of a partnership of sixty schools in London who collaboratively use lesson studies and other forms of inquiry to improve learning, teaching and curriculum – together, so that they care as much about the success of the other schools’ students as they do their own. In this presentation, he will describe how their lesson studies identified poor oracy development as the root-cause of poor achievement for many low-income students. He will describe how a four-school ‘Oracy Hub’ formed to support the development of oracy across the whole partnership, and its impact on learning – especially of the low-income students. He will share some of the challenges faced by teachers as well as some of the successes already experienced.
He will conclude by describing the attention that oracy is now attracting nationally and argue that without lesson study for learning community it will not be possible to develop deeply embedded oracy practice or curriculum, nor sustain its development.

Keynote Speech 3 "How do Teachers and Children Inquire about Challenging Tasks in Their Classrooms for Deep Learning?"

Synopsis/Abstract

Equality and quality in school education are required for bringing up all children as future global citizens. Fullan (2018) pointed out that what is significant about a “deep learning moment” is, that is not driven by policy or from the top (i.e., the government). Instead, it gets　its　strength　from　the　“middle” (districts, municipalities, school networks)　and　from　the　“bottom” (students　and teachers). Challenges from the middle and the bottom will drive the real innovation of education in the future. The quality of learning is influenced by three factors: task structure, participant structure, and the structure of lesson time allocation. Task structure is a crucial factor for authentic learning.

This presentation is focused on a few mathematics lessons from different schools. It describes how teachers design challenging tasks (“jumping tasks,” as Professor Sato calls them) and how children enjoy tackling these challenging tasks by working collaboratively. We identified three barriers in teachers’ epistemological beliefs when designing challenging tasks. The first is the teachers’ own thoughts about mathematics lessons. Many teachers believe the goal of a math lesson is not children’s inquiry and discovery of mathematical principals through mathematical reasoning, but their understanding of how to solve the problem and reach correct answers. The second is teachers’ naïve belief that the ability to solve more problems fluently is connected to deep learning. They also believe solving problems in a step-by-step manner is effective. The third barrier is their ideas about the teacher’s role. They believe that their role is to explain, more than it is to listen to children’s voices and sustain their shared thinking. There are three routes for overcoming these beliefs. Many teachers have tried to determine what makes for an authentically challenging task and then build strong bonds through observing lessons with one another and sharing their concerns and joys related to learning.

Q&A

Lunch

Keynote Speech 4 "Making collaborative learning in classrooms more effective"

Synopsis/Abstract

Collaborative learning is an important aspect of Schools as Learning Communities. Sato (2008), in his vision of Schools as Learning Communities, has envisaged children learning and growing together through collaborative learning. But putting children into groups does not mean that they will work well together in productive ways. While there is adequate research evidence (Johnson & Johnson 2002; Gillies, 2015) for the power of collaborative learning to bring about academic and social benefits for students, much of the group work in classrooms remains ineffective. This presentation will focus on the conditions required for productive group work, namely, the need for the setting of group work norms in classrooms and the nature of group tasks that will promote interaction within groups. References will be made to video cases of group work in classrooms in Singapore.

Keynote Speech 5 "Changing Language for Strengthening Collaborative Inquiry both in Classroom and Staffroom"

Synopsis/Abstract

Thai Education Reform Policies are more directly transmitted into school, especially classrooms where the reality of learning quality and equity are growing and nurturing. Good relationship “between teacher and students,” “among students,” and “among teachers” are emerging to be sufficient conditions and foundation of progress in the reform.

The relationships are transforming from “instructing” to “coaching and mentoring,” to “cooperation,” to “collaboration.” Consequently, inquiry culture is reforming from “passive learning” to “active learning” to “cooperative learning” and to “collaborative learning.” Also, learning context is growing from “learning individual” into a “learning community.”

The progress of the reform through the transformation of the relationships in staff room and classroom is reflecting in changing the language in awakening, connecting, and nurturing “respectfully collaborative inquiry” and “empowering competencies” in everyone.

Since 2015, SLC language helps us simplify and connect our visions, philosophies and activity systems into small, simple and significant tasks in our daily practices to strengthening collaborative inquiry for everyone in and around the schools.

Keynote Speech 6 "Theory and Practice of "School as Learning Community": The Case of the Fourth Affiliated Primary School of Fuzhou Institute of Education"

Synopsis/Abstract

“School as Learning Community” (SLC), teaching philosophy and learning method, is advocated by the Japanese educator Professor Sato and well-practiced by schools across Asian counties. The Fourth Affiliated Primary School of the Fuzhou Institute of Education, located in a southeastern coastal city of China, has been one of the Asian schools practicing the SLC principles. With the leadership endeavors of the principal Lin Xin and after four years’ continuous exploration, this school has found its own way of practicing SLC by creating a unique classroom landscape and a specialized teaching mode. This school’s hard exploration has set up a good example for more comprehensively promoting the ongoing curriculum reform based on key competencies in China.

Keywords: Learning; Community; Key competencies; Teaching-learning flipping

Q&A

Break

Keynote Speech 7 “Teachers' Professional Learning Community in Korea”

Synopsis/Abstract

This session will describe the operation and case of teachers' professional learning community in South Korea. Recently, it is emphasizing the operation of a professional learning community to spread "learning-oriented classes" and strengthen the professional competence of teachers.
The professional learning community is becoming one of the important policies being emphasized by 17 metropolitan and provincial education offices across the country, regardless of progress and conservatism.
There are three types of professional learning communities operating in Korea.
Type 1) The type of school unit in which all faculty members participate.
Type 2) The type operated on grade level by the desired grade in school
Type 3) The type of club that only the desired teachers operate regardless of their grades or curricula.

The education office supports budget and encourages the professional learning communities, but there are not many schools that regularly operate professional learning communities as lesson study, and schools that practice at the school level remain opposed by teachers.
Teachers' dissatisfaction with the professional learning community is mainly due to 1) Management of Professional Learning Community, 2) the principal's negative attitude, and 3) attitudes and relationships with fellow teachers.

Meanwhile, the following are solutions for a successful professional learning community.
1) The necessity of learning for new lesson study
2) A positive mindset and professionalism of school principals
3) The Necessity of expert middle leader, etc.

Keynote Speech 8 "Inquiry and collaborative learning in Indonesia cases

Synopsis/Abstract

This paper aims to analysis the inquiry and collaborative activities of several mathematics lessons in basic education in Indonesia. Collected video lessons of mathematics lessons in elementary and junior secondary schools in three cities of Indonesia were transcripted for further analysis. Those teachers have been practicing lesson study for three to six years of school-based lesson study. Teachers and teacher educators collaboratively involved in designing, observing, and reflecting the lessons. Teachers' initiative consulted the draft of lesson design by mean of e-mail/WhatsApp to teacher educators for feedback. Revised lesson design was implemented in a real class, which into all. The lessons were recorded as a video and voice recorder, then transcripted for analysis purposes.

It was found that teachers facilitated students with challenges problems to solve in several ways. Teachers encouraged slower students to ask their faster classmates for help. Teachers were patient enough to support and trust students to let them help and learn from each other by restraining from giving much instruction. Finally, students could solve the problems in several ways. Teachers were surprised when his/her students found unexpected solution.

Keywords: inquiry, collaborative, design, trust.

Keynote Speech 9 "Walking Along With God： Five Teachers’ Journeys of Growing their Meek Teaching Positions "

Synopsis/Abstract

Teachers in Taiwan have a relatively high social status, which is partly inherited from the Confucianism culture; teachers were even granted equal level with heaven-god, earth-god, emperor and ancestor in the family altar. Thus, teachers assume strong authority over the class. However, it is challenging to develop students’ autonomy of learning or to promote active learning skills for meeting the needs of Taiwan’s new basic education reform due to this strong teacher authority. The research conducted semi-structured interviews with five elementary school teachers, who have regularly participated in a professional learning community which is named “Walking Along With God”, studying on the philosophy and practice of Sato’s School as Learning Community (initial PLC-SLC).

The aim of the research was to explore how the teachers transformed their mind-set and practice from the teaching position of teacher-directed to student-centered. In order to elicit teachers’ authentic response and practical wisdom, rather than bring out conceptual answers, some indirect questions were brought to ask the participants, such as: “What is a meek teaching position to you and what do you do in your classroom about it?” and “What facilitated your transformation or professional growth of it?” 

The five teachers shared their journeys, including encountered difficulties, inner struggling and developed strategies, while giving up their authority or adjusting themselves to develop students’ ownership of learning. Teachers had their “Big Teacher” power faded out to bring in students’ ideas and voices, slowed down, lowered criteria, enhanced flexibility and strengthen partnership with students to make space for developing students’ problem-solving skills and coping strategies, opening to diversity, and connecting with each other. In the stumbling journey of growing their own meek teaching positions, the teachers not only acquired the support from their colleagues in PLC-SLC but also their daily observations, and interactions with the students, as well as their own reflection of reflexivity. I will include examples in this presentation.