researchED Scandinavia Goteborg, Saturday 19 March 2016

On Saturday I was fortunate to attend researchED Scandinavia and had the huge privilege of meeting a range of educators from across Europe - plus one or two from Canada.  As always with researchED events, one got the opportunity to listen to a number of fantastic speakers and on this occasion they included:

• Svein Sjoberg : PISA - A global educational arms race
• Pedro be Bruyckere : Urban Myths about Learning and Education
• David Didau on what we know about feedback
• Rene Kneyber - Flipping the system: Changing Education from the ground up
• Eva Hartell (and winner of best session title) - Embedding formative assessment - how ....... hard can it be ? 

Each session was invariably stimulating and thought provoking, with a European sensibility, and made anyone with a background in English education system think about how things could be different, which was particularly relevant given the publication on Thursday of the Education White Paper.

As for me - the day got off to an interesting start, as one of the morning's speakers was unable to attend - and @kevbartle and myself were drafted in with about 60  minutes notice and to lead a session.  Quite by chance, we had recently worked together on a blog post entitled - The Biology of School Survival - and through the combined magic of wifi, PowerPoint and USB sticks - were able to put together a presentation on 'schools as complex adaptive systems and actions school leaders can take to increase the organisation resiliency of the school'.

Later in the day - and in far less pressurised circumstances - @ChrisBrown1475 and myself - delivered our session on 'Evidence-Based School Leadership and Management' : A concept whose time has come? and which is summarised in the following two slides:-

However, as with all researchED events, it is the delegates who are as interesting as the speakers and on Saturday I met with amongst others, @SchildkampKim, @Teachingpundit and @miss_mcinerney

And finally ...

It's important to acknowledge the contribution of @sara_hjelm to researchED Scandinavia.  Without her drive, passion and dare I say it grit and resilience, researchED Scandi would never have happened.  All of us who attended, will be forever in her professional debt for the contribution she made to our collective professional development.