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Lectures/Discussions

Play and Intrinsic Motivation in the Process of Learning | Discussion

18.04.2016
Americké centrum, Tržiště 13, Praha 1 – Malá Strana
Fee: free, please, register by clicking at Sign Up above the picture

About the Event

Panelists will discuss the latest findings from neuroscience, psychology and pedagogy. Following the visit of the American developmental psychologist Peter Gray, they will address questions such as: Can public education in its current form ensure a safe learning environment for children? What is a safe environment in which learning occurs? What is the purpose and the objectives of education, learning? Is awareness of compulsory school attendance compatible with personally motivated learning? Is voluntary self-direction of the learning process precondition for a full potential of personal self-development of children, and also adults? What are the personal implications of learning directed by internal or external motivation? What is play, and when and how it leads to the implementation and use of its mechanism in the learning process?

Peter Gray, research professor at Boston College, is author of Free to Learn (Basic Books, 2013) and Psychology (Worth Publishers, a college textbook now in its 7th edition). He has conducted and published research in comparative, evolutionary, developmental, and educational psychology. He did his undergraduate study at Columbia University and earned a Ph.D. in biological sciences at Rockefeller University. His current research and writing focus primarily on children’s natural ways of learning and the life-long value of play. His own play includes not only his research and writing, but also long distance bicycling, kayaking, back-woods skiing, and vegetable gardening.

Jana Nováčková, psychologist with experience in counselling work and also in psychological research. She has published many articles in specialised and popular press that bring ideas to the public regarding changes in schools, for example series Myths in Education in Lidové noviny, which was published in 2001 as a book. She is a co-author of the course Respect and be Respected and the book of the same name, which is one of the best-selling titles about communication. Since 1990 she is dedicated to tutoring and educational activities in the field of parenting and education.

Karel Rýdl, Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Pardubice. He is a historian of schooling and a teacher. He supports innovative and alternative processes and trends in the field of parenting and education in both theory and practice. He is a co-founded and evaluator of "liberal" and reform schools at home and abroad. He is committed to the professional and personal training of teachers. He currently works at the University of Pardubice, where in cooperation with domestic and foreign physicians and psychiatrists he helps to develop within resocialization pedagogy and teacher training topics from the field of neuropedagogy.

Klára Šimáčková Laurenčíková is a special education teacher, she worked as Deputy Minister of Education, Youth and Sports for the agenda of inclusive education, residential care and prevention of risk behavior in schools. She is chairwoman of Czech professional society for inclusive education, lecturer at the Department of Special Education at Charles University. She operates in advisory team of the Minister of Education and Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, the chairwoman of the Governmental Committee on the Rights of the Child and the chairperson of the board of Assistance, o.p.s. She worked in Jedličkův institution and schools with children with disabilities and Caritas of Czech Republic. She is intensely interested in the quality and openness of education systems; she is also active in transforming the system of care for vulnerable children. She studied abroad in the Netherlands, Scandinavia and the UK. She is married and has two children.


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