World renowned education researcher to speak at regional educators forum in Barbados

Educators from across the region will gather shortly at the Caribbean Summer Institute Connecting Mind, Brain and Education (MBE).{{more}}

The forum takes place in Barbados, at the University of the West Indies’ Cave Hill Campus, from July 19-23, 2011.

The Education Institute will be delivered by a highly qualified and respected team from the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE), led by world-renowned education researcher and practitioner Professor Kurt Fischer.

The motivation for this conference in the Caribbean is to expose the region to the latest approaches to education that can radically reposition the education system. These strategies stem from two decades of pioneering work in brain research, which have led the education community to realize that understanding the brain is key to improving education research, policies and practice.

The five-day conference, which will be delivered in English, aims to expose relevant persons in the Caribbean and Latin America to recent efforts at improving education, using some of the latest cutting-edge neuroscience techniques. This forum will provide an opportunity to bring together some of the region’s best minds in education to share information that can only positively influence education in the Caribbean.

The forum is open to educators – including technical, special and vocational; evaluators (persons involved in student testing/assessment); education researchers, neurologists and other medical practitioners; education students, education administrators, policy makers, parent-teacher associations, teachers’ unions and anyone interested in the advancement of the region.

This institute will feature leaders in education, cognitive science and neuroscience, who will deliver information and lead discussions in these areas of cutting-edge research. Participants will be exposed to some of the most recent international research and will discuss how this work can be used to develop a research programme tailored to the unique needs of Caribbean nations. The research programme will address the most pressing educational issues and build capacity to maximise the potential, promise and human capital with which the people of the region have been entrusted.

The efforts to realise this conference are further motivated by the fact that it is increasingly being recognized that mankind’s greatest natural resource is mankind. Despite this, there is no certainty that this knowledge is being capitalized on. With regard to the region, the aim is to position the education system to deliver on the promise and potential that exist in its communities, by embracing recent developments in cognitive science, neuroscience and education.

The conference is also being billed as an excellent opportunity for educators from outside of the region to benefit from the insights gained in relation to teaching classrooms with diverse populations.

Further information and registration details can be obtained at www.caribbeanmbe.com