Educating curious minds and critical thinking with Melina Furman at SIMO EDUCACIÓN 2018

This year’s programme of seminars at SIMO EDUCACIÓN 2018 will include a session given by Melina Furman during the morning of Wednesday 14 November entitled “Educar mentes curiosas: la escuela como espacio de formación del pensamiento” (‘Educating curious minds: schools as spaces for training thought’), posing the question: How do we turn schools into spaces that foster curious, creative and critical thinking in children and young people? Using classroom examples and contributions from educational research, Furman will analyse the importance of questions, working with stories and other teaching strategies that position students in an intellectually active role and contribute to the development of skills for life.

Furman asserts that it is important to praise effort, rather than talent. She also suggests that we are teaching children ‘not to think’. Against this background, Furman advocates for awakening curiosity in students, both in classrooms and at home, because ‘the important thing is not the answers but teaching them to have wonderful ideas’.

In addition to her doctorate in Science Education from Columbia University (USA) and her research post at CONICET, Argentina’s National Scientific and Technical Research Council, Furman has led the Natural Sciences team from the Escuelas del Bicentenario project, a Unesco and OEI programme aimed at improving disadvantaged schools in Argentina. Her other achievements include writing and presenting the children's television programme La casa de la ciencia (The House of Science), her appointments as scientific coordinator of Postgraduate Science Education at the Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO) and head of the training programme ‘Urban Science Education Fellows’ at Columbia University. She is also the author of several publications, including ‘Educating curious minds: training scientific and technological thinking in children’.

The programme of seminars at SIMO EDUCACIÓN will also feature speakers Francisco Vico, professor of IA at the University of Malaga, who will present the seminar ‘Leer, escribir, programar: cómo los pequeños dominarán la inteligencia artificial’ ('Reading, writing, programming: how children will master artificial intelligence'); Christian Negre, teacher at the Escola Pia de Calella (Barcelona), who will offer attendees the opportunity to experience for themselves the latest classroom trend in escape rooms; Joan Domenech, teacher and author of the book ‘Elogio de la educación lenta’ ('In Praise of Slow Education'); Anna Forés, specialist in neuroeducation; Jordi Adell, professor at the Department of Education of the Universitat Jaume I in Castellón; Salvador Rodriguez Ojaos, educator and consultant in educational innovation; and José Carlos Ruiz, Professor of Philosophy and Intermediate-level Education at the University of Córdoba.