會(huì)議Programme介紹，他要講Students’ minds and imaginations，摘要為：In this talk I will offer a rather new way of thinking about the process of students' cognitive development. It focuses on the kinds of "cognitive tools" or learning toolkits students develop as they grow up in a society like ours. In schools and in most currently dominant psychological theories of development, short-shrift is given to some of the most powerful learning tools students have available to make sense of their world and experience and the languages that surround them.

We tend also to think of the imagination as something of an educational frill--something to try to engage after the hard work of learning had occurred. I will try to show that focusing on central features of students' learning "toolkits" makes it clear that the imagination is one of the great workhorses of learning, and that we ignore it at the cost of making learning more ineffective than it should be and much schooling more tedious than it need be.

但我對這位學(xué)者的關(guān)注卻來自我之前對于thinking的閱讀，他的Imaginative approach to teaching讓我找了好久，到現(xiàn)在沒有買到原著，只是看了一些內(nèi)容。這也是我打算盡快去一趟美國的原因，那里的thinking education是我必須盡快全面了解學(xué)習(xí)的。

網(wǎng)上看到他的書的介紹，很有意思，內(nèi)容很多，其中一節(jié)為：

An Imaginative Approach to Teaching is a groundbreaking book that offers an understanding of how students’ imaginations work in learning and shows how the acquisition of cognitive tools drives students’ educational development. This approach is unique in that it engages both the imagination and emotions. The author clearly demonstrates how knowledge comes to life in students’ minds if it is introduced in the context of human hopes, fears, and passions.  To facilitate this new educational approach, the book includes a wide variety of effective teaching tools--such as story, rhythm, play, opposition, agency, and meta-narrative understanding--that value and build upon the way children understand their experiences. Most important, Egan provides frameworks for lesson planning and more than a dozen sample lessons to show how teachers can use these tools to awaken intelligence and imagination in the classroom.
Teachers, teacher educators, and staff development professionals will find this book to be an invaluable resource for understanding the theoretical underpinnings and practical strategies for effectively engaging students' imaginations. 

    9點(diǎn)，在IATEFL主席的隆重介紹下，Egan教授登場了。顯然，Egan教授不是有些大牌那樣authoritative，話語平和。

    他介紹了關(guān)于兒童心智發(fā)展的四種理論：socializing, accumulative privileged knowledge, psychological development, cognitive tool acquisition.

    他接著介紹了他對于understanding的研究，逐一解釋了三類理解：somantic understanding, mythic understanding, romantic understanding，還有兩類philosophic understanding, ironic understanding沒有介紹。

    講解中，他不斷使用案例、故事，使其艱深的學(xué)術(shù)內(nèi)容讓與會(huì)的普通老師都能聽懂，而且理解清楚、準(zhǔn)確，印象深刻。

    其實(shí)，外語專業(yè)委員會(huì)的學(xué)術(shù)也曾請認(rèn)知科學(xué)的專家講座，與本次內(nèi)容異曲同工，我也在現(xiàn)場聽，但其效果顯然不同，盡管那是用漢語講的，但有太多概念、數(shù)據(jù)，需要聽眾理解概念，自己解讀數(shù)據(jù)，所以intake非常有限。

    Egan教授詳細(xì)介紹Mythic understanding（其實(shí)就是語言的理解力）的主要認(rèn)知工具：story; metaphor; abstract binary opposites; rhyme, meter, and pattern; joking and homour; forming images; sense of mystery; games, drama and play。這些都是我們在課堂里正在的，但基本上不夠系統(tǒng)，挖掘也不夠，應(yīng)該強(qiáng)化。

   最后他結(jié)合外語教學(xué)舉了一個(gè)小例子說明，具體討論會(huì)在下午的專場進(jìn)行，只是屆時(shí)我沒時(shí)間了。

  應(yīng)該說，想象力是人類發(fā)展、創(chuàng)新的基礎(chǔ)，語言教學(xué)是培養(yǎng)想象力最直接、最經(jīng)濟(jì)的方法，是不是最有效的方法呢，還需要我們?nèi)ヅ?，尤其是對于缺乏?chuàng)新文化的中國。

回國后爭取盡快與他們聯(lián)系，并且聯(lián)系一些語文老師，在全國推廣一下想象力教育，為民族創(chuàng)新培養(yǎng)更多新生力量。

   他的具體介紹Programme的內(nèi)容如下：

Kieran Egan was born in Clonmel, Ireland in 1942. He was brought up and educated in England. He read History (Hons.) at the University of London, graduating with a B.A. in 1966. He worked for a year as a Research fellow at the Institute for Comparative Studies in Kingston-upon-Thames and then moved to the USA to begin a Ph.D. in Philosophy of Education at Stanford University. He worked concurrently as a consultant to the I.B.M. Corp. on adaptation of a programming method, called Structural Communication, to new computing systems. He completed his Ph.D. at Cornell University in 1972. His first job was at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, where he has remained ever since. He is the author of over 20 books, and co-author, editor, or co-editor of a few more. In 1991 he received the Grawemeyer Award in Education. In 1993 he was elected to the Royal Society of Canada, in 2000 he was elected as Foreign Associate member to U.S. National Academy of Education, he received a Canada Research Chair in 2001, won the Whitworth Award in 2007.

His main area of interest is education. His work focuses on a new educational theory, which he has developed during the past two decades, and its implications for a changed curriculum, teaching practices, and the institution of the school. His work deals both with innovative educational theory and detailed practical methods whereby implications of his theory can be applied at the classroom level.
Various of his books have been translated into about 10 European and Asian languages. His recent books include Teaching as Story Telling and Imagination in Teaching and Learning (Chicago: University of Chicago Press), The Educated Mind: How cognitive tools shape our understanding (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997), Getting it Wrong from the Beginning: Our progressivist inheritance from Herbert Spencer, John Dewey, and Jean Piaget (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002), An imaginative approach to teaching (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass,2005), and Teaching literacy: Engaging the imagination of new readers and writers (Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, 2006), and most recently The Future of Education: Reimagining our schools from the ground up (New Haven: Yale University Press).

   隨后去一個(gè)session聽了一個(gè)關(guān)于模擬聯(lián)合國的介紹。發(fā)言者是奧地利的Otto Ernest Gutmann (Knittelfeld Academic Secondary UNESCO School of Austria)，題目直接就是Model United Nations: Understanding the international dimension in teaching。

    Otto介紹在奧地利，老師一般都不知道模聯(lián)，他自己90年代在美國學(xué)習(xí)，接觸到這一活動(dòng)，然后回國開展，現(xiàn)在奧地利有一個(gè)面向全體學(xué)生的模聯(lián)活動(dòng)，明年會(huì)增加一個(gè)面向中學(xué)生的模聯(lián)，只有10幾所學(xué)校開展這一活動(dòng)。奧地利的人口少于浙江省，浙江沒有10幾所學(xué)校開展模聯(lián)，這說明，我國的模聯(lián)活動(dòng)不如奧地利廣泛。

    Otto做的是啟蒙工作，告訴聽會(huì)的19位代表，什么是模聯(lián)，模聯(lián)的代表規(guī)則，發(fā)言規(guī)則等等，沒有具體的實(shí)證研究，也沒有定性研究，但方法的介紹對于新手還是有用的，總的來說是一個(gè)不錯(cuò)的推介，很具體，操作性很強(qiáng)。對我則是有點(diǎn)浪費(fèi)時(shí)間了，中途出去很禮貌，只好等到結(jié)束。

不過結(jié)束后還是忍不住告訴他，中國有也不少學(xué)校開展模聯(lián)，并邀請他方面時(shí)帶團(tuán)到中國參加模聯(lián)活動(dòng)，為國家增加一點(diǎn)旅游收入哈。

而且遇到哈羅學(xué)校北京分校的一位外教，他們也希望與國內(nèi)參加模聯(lián)的學(xué)校聯(lián)系。

    上午最后一個(gè)session去聽了曾經(jīng)在劍橋的一個(gè)研修課程中給我講過課George Pickering的專題，講的仍然是管理專題，今天的重點(diǎn)是How to become an even better leader，內(nèi)容非常具體、使用，但又系統(tǒng)、全面，George 的講座還是那么風(fēng)趣、幽默，讓人感覺不到時(shí)間。一小時(shí)的內(nèi)容很快過去了，使我感受到非常實(shí)用的很多，比如find a critical observer for your leading at a programme or a conference, get 15 minutes a day to help members in your team等等。我想我會(huì)嘗試，當(dāng)然不大可能照搬。

    這個(gè)session的收獲主要在于理念、做法，而不是在于作為workshop的討論，所以其實(shí)這個(gè)內(nèi)容作為talk比作為workshop更好，因?yàn)檫@個(gè)話題作為workshop可能需要幾天的時(shí)間。

我深知，在我國，真正需要leadership and management培訓(xùn)的是教研員、教研組長。我在想，如果設(shè)計(jì)一個(gè)面向他們的這個(gè)專題，可能兩三天時(shí)間，學(xué)會(huì)設(shè)計(jì)、領(lǐng)導(dǎo)和組織一個(gè)研究項(xiàng)目，這可能是非常有效的，也可能價(jià)值超值。此前開展教研員的命題設(shè)計(jì)研修，在這個(gè)方面存在很多不足。當(dāng)然George不只是語言教學(xué)管理的專家，更是管理的培訓(xùn)專家。回國與這個(gè)領(lǐng)域的朋友再聯(lián)系聯(lián)系，或許可以重新設(shè)計(jì)一下培訓(xùn)內(nèi)容、方法、流程。術(shù)業(yè)有專攻，是然。

下午準(zhǔn)備5-6點(diǎn)參加的活動(dòng)的內(nèi)容，不再去session了。

我應(yīng)邀參與的活動(dòng)要我簡要介紹一下中國的考試改革。準(zhǔn)備好了，就是信息介紹，沒有任何研究信息，因?yàn)槲覀兊囊豁?xiàng)調(diào)查數(shù)據(jù)還沒出來。我介紹的主要內(nèi)容是：

Development of task-based testing in China

Background

China initiated a task-based national curriculum of English in 2001.

China’s college English test was strongly critised because the certificate holders could not use English in speaking, listening and writing in real-world situations.

Initial stage

Since 2001, task-based testing emerged as new test types in term summative tests.

Since 2003, task-based testing emerged as new test types in high-stake senior high school entrance tests by local examination authorities.

Some nation-level training on task-based test item writing offered by China’s MoE.

Turning point

2005, a task-based test type was introduced in nation-level fate-decisive matriculation test of English by China’s National Educational Examination Authority.

It is an informative words gap filling type for listening and reading.

Present

Task-based speaking test type was used in some provinces.

Over 10 task-based reading test types were widely used in China.

2 task-based listening test types were used in China’s CMET.

3 Task-based writing test types were used in China’s MET.

Test types for listening

Informative words gap-filling as listening tasks

Information matching

Test types for speaking

Self introducing

Question answering

Pair discussing

Situation describing

Test types for reading

Informative words gap-filling as listening tasks

Structure of passage building

Key informative word map building

Information matching

Question answering

Passage completing

Test types for writing

Reply writing

Summary writing and ideas presenting

Picture illustrating and interpreting

Examples

Examples

Examples

Examples

Positive backwash

Students are learning to use English instead of just about English.

Teachers started to learn how to teach for task-based testing.

From nation-level teaching demonstration, we can see the abilities for using English of students and teachers have been improving fast.

Ongoing development

Scholars are promoting task-base assessment in China. In the latest national curriculum, task-based test types were introduced.

Better task-based testing has been introduced in China. Trinity College London’s spoken English exam is becoming nation-wide popular.

Long way to go

No only-task test yet

Tasks but objective marking scheme because of the no-adding marking budget

介紹時(shí)因?yàn)闀r(shí)間關(guān)系，題型沒有詳細(xì)介紹。