UNESCO/PROAP activities in Asia-Pacific

Project 2000+

The following major activities concerning Project 2000+ took place in the Asia-Pacific region in the first half of 1997:

• International Workshop on Assessment in Primary Science (Penang, Malaysia, 3-10 March) organized by the Southeast Asia Regional Centre in Education for Science and Mathematics (SEAMEO-RECSAM) in cooperation with UNESCO/PROAP and the Commonwealth Secretariat. The workshop finalized the resource materials on assessment in primary science for professional development which are being prepared for publication.

• Tenth ICASE Asian Symposium (Lahore, Pakistan, 4-8 April) organized concurrently with the UNESCO-ICASE Regional Workshop on Development of STL Teaching-Learning Materials (v. Connect, Vol. XXI, No. 4, 1996) by the Pakistan Association for Science Education (PASE) and the Punjab University in Lahore.

• International Conference in Science Education (Seoul, Republic of Korea, 25-29 May [see below])

In the second half of 1997 UNESCO/PROAP will organize a Regional Training Workshop on the Development of STL Materials at Basic Level jointly with ICASE. The workshop will be hosted by the Institute for Science and Mathematics Education Development of the University of Philippines from 3-9 November. The workshop aims to:

• evaluate the supplementary teaching-learning materials brought by the participants to meet the criteria proposed, reflect on the criteria and modify the materials when necessary;
• develop teacher-based formative and summative assessment as a measure of how well to use the materials in order to achieve the goals;
• judge the evaluation procedure in providing adequate feedback on the suitability of the teaching-learning materials and modify as appropriate; and
• prepare a pilot procedure for testing the teaching-learning materials and plan for future actions.

Participants in the workshop will be from science teacher associations of the Asia-Pacific region. The outcome of the workshop will constitute a resource for science teachers, which will be put on Internet and published.

Other activities

A National Workshop on EE for Rural Primary Schools will be organized by the Bureau of Elementary Education, Department of Education, Culture and Sports, Philippines. The workshop is one of the components of a project undertaken by the Hiroshima University, Japan, and the Asia Pacific Programme of Education for All (APPEAL), UNESCO/PROAP under the Japanese-Funds-Trust of the Government of Japan.

A Regional Training Workshop on Education for Sustainability will be hosted by the Institute for the promotion of Teaching Science and Technology (Bangkok, Thailand, 17-21 November 1997) in cooperation with UNESCO/PROAP. Organized within the framework of UNESCO's Transdisciplinary Project: Educating for a Sustainable Future (EPD), the workshop will have participants from countries with school curricula including environmental and population education. The objectives are to repackage existing teaching-learning materials in EE and population education to be geared towards "education for sustainability". Specifically, the workshop will collect, review, analyze and revise existing materials; prepare guidelines on their repackaging and try out and formulate recommendations for future action including further development.

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