Future Minds Forum

The Board of the Central Ranges Local Learning and Employment Network and its partners, takes great pleasure in extending a warm invitation to our "Future Minds" International Forum on Friday July 6th 2007 with Professor Howard Gardner from Harvard University.

Since an historic meeting of all school councils in the Central Ranges region in April of 2005, and then our "Three Pillars" Industry Forum and Annual General Meeting, we have been working in a partnership with local schools, the Department of Education and local business and community members to consider new ways to structure post-compulsory education and training, new roles and partnerships for business and community stakeholders and specifically, new opportunities for young people and the communities in which they live.

This will require a review and reform of many of our existing structures and practices and we invite teachers, trainers, business owners, parents, students and community leaders to join us in planning for the future.

Professor Gardner, from Harvard University has agreed to spend two days in Victoria as the exclusive guest of the Board of the Central Ranges LLEN in partnership with the Department of Education's Hume and Loddon Mallee regional offices, The Department of Education, and our member schools from across the LLEN region.

Professor Gardner is the John H. and Elisabeth A. Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.  The author of over twenty books translated into twenty-two languages, and several hundred articles, Gardner is best known in educational circles for his theory of multiple intelligences. He also holds positions as Adjunct Professor of Psychology at Harvard University and Senior Director of Harvard Project Zero.

Howard has received honorary degrees from twenty-one colleges and universities, including institutions in Ireland, Italy and Israel. In 2004 he was named an Honorary Professor at East China Normal University in Shanghai.

In 2005 he was selected by Foreign Policy and Prospect magazines as one of 100 most influential public intellectuals in the world.

A team of principals from State, Catholic and Independent schools in our region, along with the Hume and Loddon Mallee Regional Offices, have partnered with the LLEN and have been working to convene this outstanding opportunity.

This is a"once in a decade" opportunity and not to be missed.

Our programme will include senior educators from across the State, Catholic and Independent school systems in Victoria, as well as many practising teachers and some of their students, providing an honest and practical insight in to the challenges and opportunities facing those wishing to prepare young people for a rapidly changing and complex world.

Some of the very practical questions this forum will consider includes:

• What is intelligence?
• How do people learn?
• What should be taught?
• How should it be taught?
• What structures and methods are required to prepare young people for the future?
• What role do Business, Industry and the community play in the learning and community institutions of the future?

For a full outline of the programme, registration and booking information, please point your web browser to:

www.centralrangesllen.org.au/forum2007

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