Sixth Sino-German Didactics Dialogue Conference: IPN opens its doors for international encounters
The Leibniz-Institute for Science and Mathematics Education (IPN) is proud to have recently hosted the Sixth Sino-German Didactics Dialogue Conference, an international academic event whose realization saw the IPN teaming up with Shanghai’s East China Normal University (ECNU) and other organizations including the University of Oldenburg and the Institute for Educational Development in Schools in Schleswig-Holstein (IQSH). The Conference, which ran until October 11 and bore the title “Creativity, Didactics, School Development”, centered on ways of promoting students’ creativity in the day-to-day life of schools, current teaching practices in China and Germany, and potential visions for the future of schools in the two countries.
The two days prior to the Conference’s official opening provided ample opportunities for the participants to forge international connections and focus on the daily realities of teaching in Germany during visits to a total of four schools in Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg, where they witnessed lessons and engaged with school leaders, teachers and administrative staff.
Alongside the visits to schools, the second day had a special event on offer: the “Come Together”, a forum for Master’s students and doctoral researchers from China and Germany to discuss their research topics and issues of interest in pairs formed of one student from each country, before returning to the whole group to share their thoughts and talk about what they hoped to gain from the Conference.
The Conference opened officially an October 10 with welcome addresses from Prof. Dr. Olaf Köller, the IPN’s Managing Director of Research, Prof. Peng Zhenmei, director of East China Normal University’s Institute of International and Comparative Education, and Prof. Dr. Markus Hundt, vice-president at Kiel University.
Participants looked forward to a highly varied program of keynote addresses by international experts of outstanding repute in their field, including Prof. Peng Zhenmei and Prof. Li Zhengtao of ECNU, Prof. Evelyn Kroesbergen from Radboud Universität Nijmegen, Netherlands, and Prof. Dr. Barbara Moschner of the University of Oldenburg.
Alongside these, panel discussions chaired by international guests from around China and Germany and poster sessions gave attendees opportunities to enter into dialogue with others about their research interests and showcase their own current projects. An accompanying program of events enabled them to experience the city of Kiel and connect with other participants.
Summing up the Conference’s aim, Olaf Köller stressed that it was meant “not only to promote academic and scientific dialogue between China and Germany, but also to provide vital inspiration for advancing the practice of teaching in schools.”
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