1. Presentation by Mr. Martin Skelton
A reflection of my time with TH School, the vision and mission of the founder and 6 things I have learned about learning.
As an educator…
I want to be judged on how well my children and students learn good stuff
How well my children learn is dependent on how well colleagues support each other.
I know that repeated experiences and cognitive overload are both crucial to learning happening - the former in a good way and rhetorical latter in a bad way.
I know that learning always begins with a struggle before it gets better.
I realise that teaching for learning is a service activity.
There are many factors that affect how learning happens successfully. We’ll be looking at these in my workshops. Happiness is one of them. This is a reflective journey of past experiences and present trends, of student needs and of teacher responsibilities in the quest for happy teaching and learning outcomes.
2. Presentation by Dr. Ngo Tuyet Mai
Every day at school is a happy day
“Every day at school is a happy day” (Mỗi ngày đến trường là một ngày vui) is a popular motto in almost all schools in Vietnam. The motto demonstrates the aspirations of Vietnamese schools to make learning a happy experience for students. According to studies, happiness is positively correlated with motivation and academic achievement; happiness thus plays a key role in how well students learn.
However, in reality, many modern schools in Vietnam still pay more attention to educating the minds than the hearts, placing more emphasis on teachers’ transfer of subject knowledge, students’ knowledge acquisition, their development of intellectual intelligences (IQs) and grades while neglecting social emotional intelligences and fundamental soft skills needed for students’ pursuits of sustainable happiness.
Education of the heart and the mind is essential for flourishing learners who develop a love of sustainable learning along with competent social, emotional and academic skills. To make every day at school a really happy day, all key actors and stakeholders within an education system, including policy makers, school leaders, teachers, and parents need to work harmoniously and collaboratively to promote wellbeing and “happiness” as the central goal of education by (1) educating both the heart and the mind of students towards that goal; and (2) placing emphasis on both teachers’ and students’ social emotional well-being and happiness before teaching and learning.
3. Presentation by Teacher Tom
Placing Purpose & Happiness at the Center of Early Childhood Education
Teacher Tom will speak about how young children’s play brings the habits and principles of community into early years classrooms. He’ll start by discussing the purpose of education in a modern society and how and why we have managed to veer so far from the original intent, which is to educate citizens capable of contributing joyfully, to the wider society. In this presentation of support for play-based education, he will detail through his illustrative classroom stories and examples, exactly how this kind of child-led curriculum works to foster curiosity, self-motivation, community, empathy and purpose.
Participants will learn the benefits of introducing these playful principles to their own students, and review the hallmarks of what makes a good citizen both in a classroom as well as the wider world. We will examine how play stands at the center of healthy social-emotional learning, as well as investigate concrete tips and ideas for implementing these ideas in our own classrooms. This keynote promises to be an inspiring, often touching, often hilarious, and always eye-opening presentation which touches on the following:
Why education should focus on curiosity, joy, and community
Why classroom-as-community is more important than classroom-as-learning-factory
How to allow curiosity to be at the center of every child’s learning experience
The importance of allowing children to ask and answer their own questions
How open-endedness (as opposed to directive instruction) as the gold standard in learning
How and why even young children should be encouraged to question authority
Why risk-taking is essential to healthy intellectual and social-emotional development
Why children don’t need toys, but rather the opportunity to engage with the real world
How play teaches children the connection between failure, perseverance, and success
Why play and learning must (at least sometimes) be messy
Why bickering is an essential aspect of learning to collaborate with others
We are all concerned about student wellbeing and happiness and some schools have even implemented special programs such as Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) to promote student wellbeing and happiness. But genuine wellbeing and happiness come from doing meaningful work instead of being taught to be happy.
In this presentation, Professor Yong Zhao discusses how education can engage students in doing meaningful and significant work, how students can develop unique and great talents and use their talents to create value for others to achieve a meaningful and happy life. Professor Zhao’s education philosophy has been implemented in numerous schools in many countries including Australia and China.
The basic principles include personalization of learning, problem finding and solving pedagogy, and borderless education. This philosophy focuses on developing creativity and entrepreneurial thinking. Professor Zhao argues that the arrival of generative AI challenges education to cultivate different talents and provide new opportunities to support educational transformation.
In this presentation, Professor Zhao will explain his educational philosophy with examples from different schools.