Transforming Alberta schools from good to great
“Creating a great school for all - an evening with Alfie Kohn and Pasi Sahlberg,” Wednesday, February 20, 2013 at Red Deer College.For too long Alberta schools have been over-managed and under-imagined. The evening presentations will bring together two of the world’s preeminent educational reformers to
explore the opportunities to improve Alberta’s already high performing school system. Based on their research and experiences internationally, the two speakers will explore timely issues facing educators, parents and policy-makers. Some of the questions they will engage include: What should be the role of homework in a student’s development? Why does testing and comparing schools continue to be over-emphasized ? What is the appropriate balance of local and government in shaping curriculum, instruction and school life?
Alfie Kohn writes and speaks widely on human behavior, education, and parenting. The latest of his twelve books are “Feel-Bad Education and Other Contrarian Essays on Children and Schooling (2011), and The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing
(2006) and Unconditional Parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason (2005)."
Pasi Sahlberg is Director General of CIMO (of the Ministry of Education and Culture) in Helsinki, Finland. He has experience in classroom teaching, training teachers and leaders, coaching schools to change and advising education policy-makers around the world. He is an international speaker and writer who has given more than 250 keynote speeches and published over 100 articles, chapters and books on educational change.
Doors open at 6:30 with a reception until 7:00 pm. The lecture will run to 9:00 pm. The evening is sponsored by the Central Alberta Teachers’ Convention Board in partnership with its provincial Alberta Teachers’ Association.
Media are invited to contact David Martin 403-597-3394 to arrange for complimentary tickets
and interviews with the keynote speakers.