This international conference was organized by the Korean Educational Development Institute (KEDI), Seoul, in collaboration with UNESCO and ICASE. The theme of the conference was: Globalisation of Science Education - Moving toward Worldwide Science Education Standards divided into the following strands:
The conference attracted around 400 participants from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Malawi, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Thailand, UK and USA, as well as ICASE, IOSTE, UNESCO, the Commonwealth of Learning, US National Research Council and US National Science Teachers' Association.
The conference consisted of plenaries, roundtables and workshops and addressed the following questions: What are our chances of globalising the common visions for the reform of science education? Are there common ingredients for various national efforts? Are our chances for success similar in all six areas defined in the conference strands? Having initiated a dialogue, a challenge was posed to the participants in the form of the following queries: Where will we be after debates, analyses and possible consensus regarding the issues round the world? Do we need a mechanism for continuing the dialogue through international groups? How can we better unite in terms of thinking, trying, sharing successes and failures as we move to common visions globally for a new century?
The conference ended with a Declaration addressed to governments, IGOs, NGOs, educational bodies, the industry and private sector as well as community organisations, concerning notably the broadening of focus of school science education, improvement of quality, provision of resources, implementation of adequate teaching/learning and assessment strategies and creation of partnerships.
| For further information contact: Dr Hae Ae So, Korean Educational Development Institute, Science Education Research Team, 92-6 Umyeon-dong, Seochu-gu, Seoul 137-791, Republic of Korea. Fax: 82-1-3460-0393. E-mail:hasco@ns.kedi.re.kr |