Following the Better Learning Conference 2019, publisher Karen Momber reflects on the key themes and presents her takeaways from the event.
The conference
Over the course of three days, over 20 respected educators, academics and researchers addressed key issues in ELT today, and over 150 delegates engaged enthusiastically in considering the impact of these issues in their educational context.
The themes
The conference was organised around 3 themes, which included a curriculum for the 21stcentury. This explored the fact that we are increasingly seeing a move towards greater complexity in curricula as a focus on developing ‘future-ready’ learners. This has been recognised as a key educational aim alongside subject knowledge. Talks considered aspects of this, including the benefits of developing autonomous language learners; the role of critical thinking; and the embedding of competencies, such as collaboration and digital literacies, into the curriculum. If you are interested in this topic, you might like the read a recent report called ‘Building Tomorrow’s Global Citizens’.
A second theme addressed the issue of managing technological change. Clearly, the digital landscape has changed dramatically within education over the past decade and continues to change apace. This raises challenges in terms of infrastructure; choices over hardware and programmes; increased use of data in teacher reporting; and curriculum decisions around how best to enable learners to thrive in a digital world as the job market evolves. Speakers gave insights on the potential for Artificial Intelligence (AI) in education; on implementing new technologies to ensure sustainable success; and on the role of data mining and learning analytics to improve teaching and learning.
The third theme was around the area of strengthening teacher teams. It has been widely reported in the press that workloads have been increasing and teacher wellbeing is a growing concern in the profession. The 2018 OECD TALIS (Teaching and Learning International Survey) report tells us that the time in a lesson which is dedicated to teaching and learning has decreased over the past five years, with administrative tasks and time spent keeping order on the increase. Speakers addressed issues of teacher wellbeing, with suggestions for how to support teachers to flourish and thrive. They considered the importance of teacher collaboration and the development of both institutional and classroom cultures which foster engagement and learning.
My takeaways
A critical message which came out of the talks was the absolute centrality of the human in the teaching and learning process. The need to provide support (and supportive environments) for teachers in the changing educational landscape was highlighted again and again, both to ensure their wellbeing and their capacity to learn and grow as educators. I sensed a pragmatism in the approach to digital technologies, the need for the technologies to serve us, rather than seduce us, and the need to identify how they can reduce teacher workload and help learning outcomes.
For me, the key word of the conference was collaboration. It was identified as vital in both student and teacher learning. The value of developing collaborative teacher cultures was recognised as a key ingredient in creating the conditions for sustained and effective professional learning, learning which has the potential to impact hugely on student learning. Collaboration was also enacted throughout the conference as delegates from 30 countries shared their expertise and experience. This created a positive and energetic atmosphere in which everyone had something to take away.
Find out what Matt Ellman learned when he caught up with one of the speakers at the Better Learning Conference 2019 – David Crystal.