Anne van Dam has worked in schools in the Netherlands, China, Singapore and Switzerland, where she took on various positions such as team leader, PYP coordinator and director. Anne has been an IB workshop leader since 2005, sharing her passion for young children and play with educators in international and national schools. In August 2011, Anne moved back to Europe and took on the responsibility of Assistant Principal at the International School of Zug and Luzern. At ISZL, she supported the development of a new vision for the teaching and learning in the early years. This direction places a strong emphasis on relationships, play, learning spaces (both inside and outside) and on making teaching and learning visible to others. Anne moved back to the Netherlands in 2015 and collaborate for two years with the PYP development team at the IB regional office in The Hague. She has been working on the IB PYP review focusing on learner agency, early years, inquiry and several aspects of 'the learning community'. Anne still works for the IB workshop leader and content developer and collaborates with international schools as an independent educational consultant.
Venue:
KOWLOON JUNIOR SCHOOL
20 Perth Street, Homantin,
Kowloon, Hong Kong
8:30 am to 4:00 pm
Registration at 8.00 am
on the 7th September 2019.
Deep Dive Sessions: Exploring the breadth of opportunities for meaningful participation afforded to children during everyday life in the school and considering how to seek children’s input in decision making. Such pedagogy extends children’s learning and their sense of wellbeing and acknowledges them as active participants in their own learning as well as active and valued members of a learning group.
Children are active learners and meaning makers from birth. They constantly seek to explore, establish relationships and make sense of their worlds. When we recognise children as competent learners and acknowledge their right to participation, we encourage the development of a sense of agency, autonomy, independence and interdependence. If children are defined by their perceived “incompetence” relative to adults, then recognition of their capacities to be active agents in their own learning will been undermined (Devine, 2002). This ‘thread’ will focus, by contrast, on how a view of the child as a competent learner establishes equality, belonging, and active involvement of children in early childhood settings.
