Two pre-conference tutorials will take place on Fri morning, 23 Sept, from 0900 to 1200.

Tutorial 1. Is it really autumn now? Or what problems is my school going to face? Room "Venta".

Tutorial 2. The Let’s Think approach: How to develop your current curriculum challenges into higher order thinking. Room "Abava".

The fee for each tutorial is EUR 60 per person (EUR 50 if there are three or more participants from one organisation). It is possible to attend the tutorials without participation in the conference. The number of places for each tutorial is limited, so first-come, first-served policy will be applied. If you would like to attend one of the tutorials, please fill in the registration form.

Tutorial 1.  Is it really autumn now? Or what problems is my school going to face? 

When one faces a large number of bottlenecks in a system, the question of priorities inevitably appears. Which of the bottlenecks are more important? How do we know which area is going to be the best for our intervention? The purpose of getting familiarised with the model of seasons is to assist you in this process.

One of the ideas underlying the model is that of a life cycle that can be described by a bell-shaped curve. Originating in biology, “the bell curve illustrates that anything with life grows at a rate which goes over a peak halfway through the growth process” (Modis 2013,p. 23). This curve is used across disciplines to illustrate the life cycle. It is very close to the so-called normal distribution or the Gaussian distribution (ibid., p.24).

This tutorial is primarily aimed at managers. We will discuss possible ways of deciding where your organisation is going and the challenges it is likely to face. Our main focus will be the model of seasons developed by T.Modis. We will start by defining the season your organisation is currently living through. We will then look at different generic characteristics of each season and possible implications they might have for your organisation. Finally, the model of seasons will be considered in a larger context of systemic approaches to educational management and we will look at some models coming from the context of OTSM-TRIZ (General Theory of Powerful Thinking based on the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving) and research of D.Kucharavy on reliable forecasting. By the end of the workshop you will have at least one new perspective about the future of your organisation to be considered during the upcoming meeting with other members of the management team.

Modis, Theodore (2013). Natural laws in the service of the decision-maker. How to use science-based methodologies to see more clearly further into the future. Lugano: Growth Dynamics.

The tutorial will be facilitated by Dr. Alexander Sokol, academic director of TA Group, Latvia

Tutorial 2.The Let’s Think approach: How to develop your current curriculum challenges into higher order thinking. 

This tutorial will help you see how the materials of Let’s Think originated from the mismatch between the demands of the curriculum and the reasoning power of students. From this insight grew our successful attempts at cognitive acceleration, the Let’s Think approach.

After a review of the evidence supporting the Let’s Think approach we will experience some challenging Let’s Think activities and reflect on the experience of using the Let’s Think materials. Through this we will become clearer about what it is that the materials must contain and what it is that the teacher has to put in place to teach like a Let’s Think teacher.

Now the really useful and most difficult part of the session begins. For the last hour and a half you will work to create your own lessons that can be taught in the Let’s Think manner. This is a challenging task for any teacher new to Let’s Think and immensely rewarding. Stuart will coach the group to feel successful and be ready to teach their new lessons in their own subject and for their own age group when back in school.

The tutorial will be facilitated by Stuart Twiss, Let's Think Forum, UK