Keynote speaker Dirk de Boe

His keynote:

“Transforming Schools by putting students in the centre of their learning process”

If one looks at the websites of schools in the world, all of them are putting the student in the centre. In reality it is often the system and the structure which are the most important. Still few schools place the student in the centre of his learning process. That means that the student is having impact on all the important elements of his learning: the learning content, the way of learning, the evaluation, the learning time, the physical environment, the network in which he learns, the learning material and the organisation of learning. If a school wants to realize a sustainable transformation, it will have to apply a systemic approach and focus on all of these elements. However, each of these elements contain fixed patterns which make innovation and transformation slow and difficult. If a school wants to prepare for the future, it will have to break negative patterns and replace them by challenging alternatives. In his keynote Dirk De Boe will explain how the EduNext transformation wheel can help students, teachers, directors and parents to rethink education in their school and how it can enable a blueprint of a school where children – thanks to great and collaborating teachers – grab the steering wheel of their education. Dirk will also focus on the skills and the culture which is needed to make and keep the transformation wheel turning.  

His CV:

Dirk De Boe is an independent expert in creativity, innovation and transformation. For the last ten years he has been stimulating the innovation and transformation of the education system in Belgium (Flanders).

He is co-author of the book Edushock and wrote recently the book EduNext. This book shows how you can transform a school from inside out by putting the students in the center of their education process. Dirk is one of the driving forces of the yearly EduNext Learning Festival in Flanders where innovative teachers and directors show how they are transforming their school.

Dirk is also a teacher. He has been lecturing entrepreneurship in the highschool of Ghent and is now lector school development in highschool Odisee in Brussels.

(Photo by Kevin Feignaert)