Professor Patricia León, an educator in the U.S. and Colombia working in the field of professional development for teachers, will be the keynote speaker at the Grupo Educar International Seminar “From Knowledge to Learning” (Del Conocimiento al Aprendizaje) to be held in Santiago on Wednesday, June 17, at Auditorio Fundación Telefónica (Providencia 119, Providencia) from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and in Viña del Mar on Friday, June 19, at Universidad Santo Tomás (Avenida 1 Norte 3041) from 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
León will address issues of best practices and key concepts to develop and encourage a culture of thinking in the classroom based on the premise that “learning is a consequence of thinking.” The event is free and open to the public. (Register at www.grupoeducar.cl/capacitacion/#seminarios).
In addition to her keynote presentations in Santiago and Viña del Mar, León will hold meetings with universities and vocational-technical training centers, and workshops with teachers, school principals and administrators of Grupo Educar schools located in underserved areas of Santiago and in rural towns.
Since 1996, Professor León has been an academic at Harvard’s Project Zero Classroom designed to help educators create classrooms, instructional materials, and out-of-school learning environments that promote students’ efforts to understand important content, encourage students to think critically and creatively, and assess student work in ways that further learning. She also teaches online courses offered by WIDE World, a program of the Harvard Graduate School. Prof. León has worked extensively in the curriculum reform movement directed to teaching for understanding in Colombia, Spain and other Latin American Countries. Several years ago, she founded the Center for Social Development and Education (FUNDACIES) in Bogotá, Colombia.
Professor León travels to Chile June 16-19 under a grant from the Public Affairs Section at the U.S. Embassy to Grupo Educar, a non-profit NGO that for over twenty-five years has provided support on a wide variety of topics to schools and teachers in disadvantaged areas throughout Chile.
