In a press conference yesterday, the organisers of the conference said this year's theme reflects how education encompasses a variety of worlds such as home, school, university, the workplace and industry, situated within the national and the global communities.

The resulting tensions and competing paradigms in these worlds of education provide a rich framework in which to explore and examine strategies necessary for their resolution. The conference, therefore, is aimed at providing a platform for participants to share and reflect on

The conference is also said to be beneficial as a whole, as sharing is valuable to bring about new ideas in education and by attending the conference, participants will be able to network with other colleagues in the educational sector.

The conference will commence on May 21, to be officiated by the Minister of Education, Pehin Orang Kaya Seri Lela Dato Seri Setia Awg Haji Abdul Rahman bin Date Setia Haji Mohamed Taib who will be the guest of honour. A total of 166 papers and three workshops will be presented at the conference by international and local speakers. A total of 36 papers will be presented in Malay and 130 papers will be presented in English.

Some 233 teachers from the Ministry of Education are expected to attend the conference, including academics, university researchers, practitioners and policy-makers.

This conference is also open to any parties who are interested in the education system, at a registration fee of BND$170 for locals and US$200 for international participants. Three keynote speakers will be presenting their working papers during the conference — Professor Amy Tsui, Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Vice President Teaching and Learning), Chair Professor (Chair of Language and Education), University of Hong Kong on her paper `Teachers' Professional Learning in School-University Partnership' ; Professor Maurice Galton, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge on 'Building Bridges: I Smoothing the Transition When Pupils Move Schools'; and Professor Stuart McNaughton, Professor and Director of the Woolf Fisher Research Centre, Faculty of Education, University of Auckland on The Properties of Connections to Increase Instructional Effectiveness at Two Levels'.

The conference will be also touching on other sub-themes such as bridging home and school, connecting school and community, connecting across subject areas in the school curriculum, linking the school curriculum and the workplace, linking standards and the needs of individual learners, linking educational practice and national development, linking educational policy and global imperatives, forging school-university partnerships, forging university-industry partnerships, connecting worlds through technology and education and balancing accountability and innovation in education. There will also be a conference exhibition featuring booths that include local suppliers and ICT providers, non-government organisations such as SMARTER, tourism operators and the Cambridge University Press from Singapore. It will also showcase teaching and learning aids by SHBIE students.

Details and registration forms can be obtain at www.ubcl.edu.bninews/conferences/webice09/home.htm.  -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin