SCHOOL, LISTENING TO THE PRESENT TO BUILD THE FUTURE. Reimagining the grammar of change

ASTRACTS 1st SESSION

Telmo Pievani – Change in nature

In evolution, the fuel for every change is diversity. Not the diversity of species, populations or groups, but the radical and irreducible diversity of every single living being. No two plants, animals or human beings are ever the same. This spontaneous force of diversity then encounters environmental and selective dynamics, which we must not associate with the stereotype of “survival of the fittest”. Successful strategies in evolutionary change are always multiple and ambivalent, conflicting and cooperative. Certainly, we would not be here today if we were not a species with a marked capacity for cooperation and altruism. War is by no means written in our DNA. Thanks to our imagination, we can expand the “us” towards whom we feel solidarity. Today, however, the human species suffers from short-sightedness: it disrupts the world around it and then struggles to adapt to a world it has changed and impoverished. Change in nature never produces perfect and definitive results. On the contrary, imperfection is the true mark of history. And the most fruitful imperfection of all has been neoteny, our remaining children longer than any other mammal, our being born as helpless cubs but capable of learning, imitating, playing and experimenting with innovations that no adult had ever thought of. Teaching and learning, this is what has made us human. We are baby monkeys who have transformed fragility into a force for change.

Patrizia Di Giulio, Liceo Vitruvio Avezzano – From the introduction of CLIL to ‘CambiaMenti’ and beyond, XXII Week of the Scientific Culture

Every year, the Liceo Vitruvio Pollione in Avezzano welcomes a large and highly diverse student population (approximately 1,300–1,400 students) from various municipalities in the Marsica area and from different socio-cultural backgrounds. This complexity represents a significant educational resource, but it also challenges the school to ensure inclusion, motivation and equal educational opportunities, not only in terms of academic learning, but also in terms of socio-emotional development and the development of trabsferable skills or soft skills.

Starting in the 2003/2004 school year, a group of teachers chose to “listen to the present” of their school community, questioning some of the assumptions of traditional teaching and experimenting with more participatory teaching methods, without compromising on the rigour of the content and the clarity of the educational objectives. This process also included the introduction of the CLIL methodology, and this shared reflection gave rise to Science and Technology Week, a laboratory-based teaching project that, over the course of more than twenty years, has gradually consolidated itself, now reaching its 22nd edition.

Since 2011, thanks in part to European projects and class exchanges, Science Week has opened up to an international dimension, creating a network of partnerships with foreign schools that actively participate with their own workshops, enriching the methodological and cultural exchange.

During this experience, the school reorganises its time, space and roles, transforming itself into a true educational community: teachers, students, managers, administrative staff and ATA collaborate in the design and implementation of activities, redefining educational relationships and the languages of learning. The presentation offers a reflection on this experience as an example of an approach to change that can influence students’ motivation and their approach to study, offering transferable ideas for rethinking the school as a future-oriented learning environment.

Wendy Kopp – Teach For All: from idea to global organisation

Teach for America was born from observing how and by whom the best graduates from the best American universities were being recruited. This gave rise to the idea of targeting them specifically and asking them to commit to two years of teaching in schools in disadvantaged communities. The idea came at the right time in the United States and received support. The aim was to select people with leadership skills and train and support them during the two years through an intensive in-service mentoring program. But it also followed up with those who wanted to continue working in education after the two years were over, aiming to create collective leadership capacity. In this way, it was able to have an impact on the entire school ecosystem, which in turn had an impact on the academic and other outcomes of students, schools, and entire communities. The experience of Teach for America over more than thirty years, and now the experience of Teach for All, with its various national organizations- including Tach for Italy – show the potential of this initiative, which continues to develop and spread.

Arnoldo Mosca Mondadori – Metamorphosis: the story of a wood chant

From the chronicle of migrant shipwrecks, witnessed by the wreckage of boats collected in Lampedusa, to the music of instruments born from the sea. The journey of those who allow themselves to be challenged by reality and are capable of initiating processes of metamorphosis, transforming wood into song while at the same time reshaping the trajectories of lives.

ASTRACTS 2nd SESSION

Alessandro Rosina – The disappearance of young people

The demographic situation in developed countries, and in Italy in particular, is currently characterized by a marked decline in the number of young people (ageing population), as a result of persistently low fertility rates. The decrease in the number of students should not be interpreted as an opportunity to cut resources and investments, but as a condition that makes it even more urgent to significantly improve the quality of education, starting with schools.

At the same time, there is a clear anthropological change taking place in the generations born in the 21st century, which is associated with the demand for a school that is not only a place for the transmission of knowledge, but also a context in which to feel good and a space capable of giving meaning to learning, accompanying the construction of life plans and providing tools to face a future marked by uncertainty and rapid change.

The main expectations concern the connection between knowledge and real life, the adoption of active and interdisciplinary teaching methods, the quality of educational relationships and attention to psychological well-being. In this perspective, school is also recognised as a fundamental safeguard for reducing social and territorial inequalities, as well as a privileged place for integration, encounter and comparison between cultural, social and gender differences. Overall, there is a demand for education that can enhance the potential of the younger generation, strengthen confidence in the future and contribute to social cohesion. These expectations highlight the need for a strategic repositioning of schools, so that they can strengthen and update their role as key players in the education of competent, responsible citizens who are capable of planning for the future in a society undergoing profound change.

Kathryn Parker Boudett – Data Wise: Educators collaborating so each learner thrives

Imagine a world where each learner gets the support they need to cultivate their own brilliance and live a life of purpose and fulfillment. How would schools and school systems need to change to support this vision? For two decades, the Data Wise Project has explored how collaborative data inquiry can empower educators and leaders to meet the needs of each learner.  The session will begin by describing the Data Wise framework and engaging participants in an interactive assessment of the extent to which equity-focused inquiry work is happening in their settings. We will then share the story of how, by using the Data Wise framework “on ourselves,” our team learned first-hand the value of listening with an open mind to the insights of educators at every level of the educational enterprise. We will conclude with examples of intentional collaboration that builds a community where hard truths grounded in evidence can be faced: a community where a shared commitment to action, assessment, and adjustment allows educators to adapt their shared practice to meet the moment.

Otto Scharmer – Theory U for Conscious-Based Change Leadership

Around the world, leaders are recognizing that the biggest challenges we face today cannot be solved with the same thinking that created them. In moments of disruption and rapid change, what matters most is not prediction, but the quality of presence we bring to a situation — our ability to slow down, see with fresh eyes, and connect with the emerging future rather than reacting from the patterns of the past.

In this keynote, Otto Scharmer introduces the core ideas of Theory U, a framework for leading change by shifting the inner place from which action arises. Drawing on two decades of action research across sectors — business, government, education, and civil society — he shows how leaders can move from reactive, siloed responses toward a more conscious, generative form of leadership rooted in awareness, intention, and connection.

Participants will explore how the three movements of Theory U — co-sensing, co-presencing, and co-creating — help teams and organizations navigate complexity, access deeper sources of intelligence, and cultivate the relational field needed for real innovation. Otto will highlight practical examples of how small shifts in attention and collective practice can unlock new possibilities for collaboration, regeneration, and systems transformation.

Rather than offering abstract theory, this session invites leaders to engage with a simple yet profound question: What is the future that is wanting to emerge through us — and what becomes possible when we learn to lead from that place?

Caromai Bouquet – Awareness as the basis for change

Mindfulness is the energy that helps us to know what is happening in the present moment, in us and around us.
As we practice mindfulness, we become more attuned with our bodies, our emotions, our mind, the people, and the world around us. It helps us cultivate a more stable, open and kind presence that will enable us to deal with situations in the present moment.
As teachers and educators, we always take care of other people. Mindfulness offers simple practices to take care of ourselves, and by extension, of our families, classrooms, and work environment.
In this session we will practice together and learn ways to take care of the present moment so that a beautiful future can emerge.

ASTRACTS 3rd SESSION

Andreas Schleicher – Future scenarios and trends for change at the system level

We have tried to draft possible scenarios for future education systems. But in a sense reality always surprises us. So while it is difficult to be accurate in predicting the future, we can understand and shape some of the drivers of this future. One such driver is in everyone’s discussion these days: Artificial intelligence. AI is transforming the world around us at an amazing pace. And it’s transforming education on two fronts: It changes what we need to learn to succeed in this world of AI, and it changes how we learn with AI. How can schools and school policy ensure that AI amplifies good ideas and good pedagogy rather than poor educational practice? How can AI create a truly level playing field that embraces the diversity of learners so that every learner will succeed, rather than superempower those with the right resources and dispositions and leave others further behind? How can AI empower teachers to become creative designers of innovative learning experiences, rather than disempower them to become slaves of scripted lessons plans or algorithms they no longer understand? How can AI help reduce human bias through better data, rather than amplify and entrench bias? And not least, how can AI connect people across geographic, linguistic or cultural boundaries, rather than sort us into echo-chambers that amplify our own views and insulate us from divergent thinking? The responses teachers, school leaders and policy-makers find to these questions will have a significant impact on the lives of the next generation and the society we will live in.

Hai Siang Chia – Singapore: school and AI – between adaptation and transformation

Singapore is implementing AI in Education (AIEd) through its EdTech Masterplan 2030 to transform Teaching and Learning.  Guided by 6 Ps – Problem, Principles, Pedagogy, People, Proxies and Product, its Ministry of Education and schools seek to tap on opportunities while managing the risks that AI poses.  The presentation will focus on how the country is able to nudge nuanced and evidence-based AIEd practices among its teachers and students through the design and development of its national learning system – the Singapore Student Learning Space (SLS).  It will highlight the pedagogical intent behind SLS’s various AI features such as Authoring Copilot, Adaptive Learning System, Feedback, Learning and Data Assistants (https://www.learning.moe.edu.sg/ai-in-sls/about-ai-in-sls/) and share some of the positive professional and learning gains they have brought about.    The presentation will end with a few suggestions for systems and schools lacking access to similar educational AI platforms, and a discussion of other emergent AIEd challenges that Singapore is preparing for.

Ron Berger – Beautiful work

My central passion during 50 years in education has been the idea that we vastly underestimate the power of students to do beautiful work. By beautiful work, I don’t just mean aesthetically beautiful work, but also mathematically, scientifically, historically, and ethically beautiful work. I believe that when students create academic or artistic artifacts or performances that are far beyond what they and their community thought to be possible, those students are never the same. They have higher expectations for themselves and for the world around them. They have a rekindled and passionate mission, vision, and sense of agency to lead their own learning.

I believe that beautiful work is transformational for individuals and academic communities. Schools worry that a focus on beautiful work will distract teachers and students from preparation for the high-stakes exams that are crucial for school success and students’ academic journey. I have found that school communities that cultivate beautiful work establish a culture of quality that is a tide that lifts all boats: students are more proud, more focused, study more intently, treat each other with more respect, and their performance on exams rises commensurately and often dramatically.

I am the founder of an open website that houses the world’s largest collection of beautiful student work from all ages and disciplines. I will share examples of student work from across the world, and the stories of those students and the success of their schools. I will share strategies for building a school culture of excellence, where beautiful work is the standard, and strategies to help us shift school routines and daily lessons to support students to create work of which they are deeply and justifiably proud.