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12-13 March 2010
Hosted by The International School of Lausanne
Doing more with less
Teachers and educational administrators are constantly faced with the challenge of offering first-class educational experiences in the best possible learning environment within a complex framework of material and financial constraints. These limitations of space, funding, resources, time and staffing can appear to be daunting obstacles at times, yet they also provide opportunities for creativity and innovation. The recent worldwide economic turbulence and the increasing focus on the urgent need for a responsible global approach to climate change further emphasise that we must review our dependence on resources of all kinds.
The 2010 SGIS conference focused on ways in which we can make the most efficient use of the precious resources we have and how effective teaching and learning can take place without recourse to expensive, complex and wasteful resources and practices. Speakers addressed the issues of efficient time, space and resource management - including human resources - and their impact on effective learning, suggesting imaginative ways to free our schools from the tyranny of high costs and over-administration, as well as demonstrating how often powerful and complex learning experiences are the result of simple approaches, both highly traditional and bravely innovative.
Speakers explored the following questions:
Are our schools over-resourced?
Could we perform as well - or perhaps better - with a reduced dependence on sophisticated resources?
How can we avoid waste, and in so doing model responsible attitudes to students?
What paradigms must we challenge in order to free our schools from a dependence on expensive resources?
How can we marshal that unforgiving resource, time, to best effect?
How do we promote environmental responsibility?
Do we overestimate the function of schools as the temples of learning, at the expense of learning away from classrooms?
What can we learn from schools and cultures that operate within severe constraints?
Historically mankind has endeavoured to do "more with more"; is it unthinkable to do "less with less"?