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The Vietnam National Institute of Educational Sciences (VNIES) and NISSEM jointly hosted a ground-breaking international conference on learning transversal competencies in ASEAN* countries and their neighbors. The day-long virtual event commemorated the 60th anniversary of the founding of VNIES with a clear eye to the future. The three distinguished keynote speakers challenged over 200 participants from around the region and the globe to reflect on what ‘transversal competencies’ are and how to better put them into practice in schools and institutions of learning. Follow-up exchanges featuring panel discussions moderated by NISSEM explored regional and national innovations in policy, research and practice, planning and implementation in Asia.
A volume of papers by the presenters of the Conference will be jointly published later in 2022.
The day’s sessions may be viewed in their entirety at the links below:
*Association of Southeast Asian Nations: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam
NISSEM and Teachers College, Columbia University co-organised two webinars in December 2020 and January 2021 on "Civic Responsibility, Textbooks and Pedagogy in a Time of Rapid Change. The presentations featured the authors of three related background papers commissioned by UNESCO's Futures of Education Commission. In the first session, NISSEM co-conveners Aaron Benavot and Andy Smart joined Helen Haste (U
niversity of Bath), Vidur Chopra (Teachers' College) and Michele Schweisfurth (University of Glasgow), while in the second session, James Williams (George Washington University) contributed to the NISSEM presentation on textbooks and pedagogy. Both webinars were moderated by Noah Sobe of UNESCO and Loyola University.
Offering their reactions to the pressing issues and innovative ideas brought to light by the presenters were Mohammad Mahboob Morshed of the BRAC Institute of Educational Development (11 December) and Enrique Chaux, Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia (7 January).
You are invited to watch full recordings of the two webinars On the Futures of Education: Civic Responsibility, Pegagogy and Textbooks on the NISSEM YouTube channel. The links below will take you there:
NISSEM was selected by UNESCO to write one of 20 background papers that informs a global report by the Futures of Education Commission. Led by the President of Ethiopia, Her Excellency President Sahle-Work Zewde, the Commission looked to “reimagine how knowledge and learning can shape the future of humanity and the planet”. The Futures of Education: Learning to Become report will lay out an agenda for education policy dialogue and action at multiple levels. Watch the Futures of Education video here.
The background paper has been published by UNESCO and will be acknowledged in the final Futures of Education: Learning to Become report to be published in November 2021. In addition, NISSEM organized webinars with the Teacher's College and UNESCO around this paper and two others.
You can find NISSEM's paper HERE.
Smart, A.T., Sinclair, M., Benavot, A., Bernard, J., Chabbott, C., Russell, S. G.and Williams, J. 2020. Learning for uncertain futures: The role of textbooks, curriculum, and pedagogy. Paper commissioned for the UNESCO Futures of Education report (2020).
During the proceedings of the 2019 Global Conference on Teacher Education for Education for Sustainable Development attended by some 150 teacher educators from around the world, NISSEM co-convener Aaron Benavot gave a presentation entitled “Integrating cognitive, social/emotional and behavioral learning in the teaching of education for sustainability and global citizenship: Recent findings and insights.” He used this occasion to report key findings from the new UNESCO publication “Educational Content Up Close” to which NISSEM provided critical inputs, as well as an overview of the NISSEM Global Briefs. Watch a video of Dr. Benavot's presentation here.
On 8 January 2020, Margaret Sinclair, Matthew Jukes (RTI) and Andy Smart presented NISSEM Global Briefs within a Centre for Education and International Development seminar at University College London's Institute of Education. Discussants were Juliet Millican (Institute for Development Studies, University of Sussex), Rae Snape (headteacher, Milton Road Primary School, Cambridge) and Sébastien Hine (consultant, former contributor to GEM Report 2019). NISSEM's profile in the UK continues to grow.
NISSEM co-convenor Margaret Sinclair spoke at a recent Salzburg Global Seminar (8-12 December) on the importance of reflecting SEL and its application to SDG 4.7 themes in textbooks and education materials, both in terms of content and embedded pedagogy.
RTI International and NISSEM hosted a lively panel discussion examining recent donor policies on SEL and the NISSEM Global Briefs. Panelists included representatives from the donor community, authors of several of the briefs and experts from current programs, each of whom discussed their experiences and lessons learned from implementing SEL in early grade reading activities, crisis and conflict areas, and low-resource settings.
Jean Bernard, Colette Chabbott, S. Garnett Russell, Margaret Sinclair, Andy Smart and James Williams presented.
Creative Associates International hosted a launch of NISSEM Global Briefs at its Washington, D.C. headquarters. Speakers included Global Briefs contributors Susan Hirsch-Ayari of Creative Associates and Paul Frank of SIL LEAD alongside Jean Bernard, Colette Chabbott, Margaret Sinclair and Andy Smart from NISSEM. The full October 1 presentation can be viewed here.
