Queensland education influencing Indonesian schools


The University of Sunshine Coast (USC) recently invited itc publications’ co-director Eric Frangenheim to present a three-hour Thinking Skills Framework workshop to 19 visiting lecturers from UKSW, a university based in Salatiga, Java, Indonesia. 

Eric’s workshop formed part of the group’s eye-opening four weeks with the International Project Group of USC to up skill their role as lecturers and administrators in the facilities of education and information technology. 

“It was an honour to work with this group and share itc’s Thinking Skills Framework and strategies,” Eric said. “And it was incredibly satisfying to see these lecturers eyes’ light up as they began to grasp the potential for simple thinking strategies to reinvigorate their teaching practice and challenge their students to think more creatively and critically. I spoke through a translator so it was interesting to see how freely our ideas and strategies can overcome language barriers and cultural differences.” However, many of the lecturers had a good command of English.

Eric and Dr Rosie Thrupp from the Sunshine Coast had the pleasure of meeting many of these educators two years ago when presenting keynotes and several workshops at the Agents of Change international conference at UKSW in Salatiga. ITC Publications then sponsored Indonesian lecturer Eunice Setyaningtyas and third-year Indonesian university student Elly Aryani to visit Queensland for three weeks in July 2014 and in that time introduced Eunice and Elly to educators at various schools and classrooms in Brisbane, Gympie, Bundaberg and on the Sunshine Coast. 

Eunice and Elly were inspired by the pedagogy they witnessed in schools, which encouraged engagement and the expressing of opinions on a regular basis in classrooms through the use of the Thinking Skills Framework and thinking tools. Dr Rosie Thrupp then sponsored Elly to return to Queensland again in the latter part of 2014 to complete her fourth year practicum at Siena Catholic College in Sippy Downs on The Sunshine Coast. Elly, who is a highly motivated and passionate teacher with excellent English skills, will soon graduate and begin her first teaching position at a top primary school in Bali.

 


Leave a comment

Comments have to be approved before showing up