FACULTY OF EDUCATION WORKSHOP ON EDUCATIONAL CHANGE
On Saturday 3rd July 2004, Dr. Garry Hoban, author of "Teacher Learning for Educational Change" (2002) conducted a full day workshop on "The Complexity of Educational Change: Implications for Professional Development, Curriculum Planning and Research Design'' at Assumption University Hua Mak campus, Among the audience were graduate students and lecturers from the Faculty of Education and a significant number of teachers from Faculty of Arts and other departments. The workshop explored the concept of change with a focus on learning analyzed by "complexity theory". As opposed to "chaos theory", complexity theorists look at change as caused by many influences that result in non-linear interaction through (i) sensitive dependence; (ii) resonance or (iii) correlation between factors. Chaos systems are generally physical systems whereas complex systems involve human systems which have an inbuilt intelligence. Complex system can "self-organise" or "self-adjust" because of this intelligence. Factors that influence educational change are numerous, e.g. leadership, school culture, school resources, types of children, teacher learning, curriculum, parent expectations, and so forth. The concept of learning was explored through a learning theory called situated cognition and situated learning under social constructivism. To social constructivists, knowledge is personally constructed but is strongly influenced by social and cultural contexts. Situated cognition theorists believe knowledge construction is dependent on the physical setting as well as personal and social learning. For more information, please read his book which is available at AU bookstore. The workshop was obviously successful. During this two-week visit at the Faculty of Education, Dr. Hoban also held Ph.D. thesis consultation meetings with his two Ph.D. candidates/advisees at AU. We are happy to note that his two children and wife who accompanied him voted this trip to Thailand as the best they ever had outside Australia. (Profile: Dr. Garry Hoban is a senior lecturer and Science Education Coordinator at The University of Wollonlgong in Australia and is a member of their I.C.T. research group. He obtained his Ph.D. from University of British Columbia, Canada in 1996 focusing on teachers' professional development. He has published journal articles and book chapters in both science education and in teachers' professional training. In 2002 he was the author of "Teacher Learning for Educational Change" published by Open University Press in USA and UK. He is currently editing a book entitled "The Missing Links in Teacher Education Design to be published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in the Netherlands".)
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