The Saturday School Forum was completed successfully on 17th July 2021. The theme of this year’s forum was experiential learning. Over 150 participants from different education levels registered for the event. Both local and international speakers were invited to share their perspectives and experiences in the areas of teacher education, community engagement, leadership and wellbeing. The forum received very positive feedback from all audience members, and we hope it can bring some novel and inspirational ideas to the education community and beyond.
Professor Colin Beard, Honorary Professor of EPL and Professor of Experiential Learning at the Sheffield Hallam University in the United Kingdom, was invited to deliver a recorded talk at the forum. His talk, titled ‘New Thinking on Experiential Learning Design’, introduced the theoretical development of experiential learning in recent years, as well as key principles and practical examples on the use of space and materials for embodiment that can facilitate experiential learning across different education levels.
Following this opening talk, Dr. Gail Yuen from the Department delivered her talk ‘Sketching a New teacher Education Classroom’ based on the latest attempt in transforming the teacher education classroom with the experiential learning approach. The course targets all pre-service teachers, encouraging them to rethink and reimagine education through different forms of engagement with bodies, materials and settings. The talk introduced the philosophy behind the design of the course with captured moments of students’ emotions and actions during various authentic encounters inside and outside the classroom.
(Introduction, Sharing Session)
The third session of the forum was a dialogue session titled ‘School Experimentation in Action: Village Mural Painting and Community Engagement’. Students and teachers from the Salesians of Don Bosco Ng Siu Mui (SDBNSM) Secondary Schools, as well as EdUHK students, were invited to share their experiences in a community engagement project. The project, co-organised by the Department, was situated at the Kwong Pan Tin Tsuen (光板田村), a rural village in Tsuen Wan that has existed for more than fifty years. The project aimed to bring students closer to the community through their embodied experiences of the land and people there. Another aim of the project was to re-decorate the area with new murals and paintings, one of the unique features of this village that has gained popularity among the public in recent years. Students from SDBNSM and EdUHK shared not only their learning experiences in the project over a period of two months’ time, but also their interesting encounters in the village when designing and painting the new murals. The session also discussed how students got inspired during the whole process and observations from teachers over the whole experience.
The final session of the forum featured Dr. Junjun Chan and Dr. Jiafang Lu from the Department. They delivered their talk ‘A Journey of Transformation: Establishing a School Well-Being Cascade’, focusing on the new 3-day leadership and wellbeing experiential learning programme co-organised with the Tsz Shan Institute for local leaders. The talk covered the impact and potential of experiential learning in facilitating the development of leadership capacity for the enhancement of individual, team, and organisation well-being in the school context. Dr. Chan and Dr. Lu also shared their vision for the upcoming plan to sustain and extend the impact demonstrated from the programme.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who joined the forum. We also look forward to seeing you again at the next edition of the forum!