On 19th November, EQ played host to a surprisingly large group representing Ruse’s educational community.
The venue was our new office in Dobrudja Street which was being used as we intend to continue using it – as a welcoming, informal meeting place for presentations, training and discussions.
Svetla Mejri greeted the audience and introduced the speakers – David and Galina Bisset – who intended to talk about “games and adventures”. This is how we refer to an extensive repertoire that has developed over the years – myriad ways of working with children in group contexts. We have published a book (a cpendium) on the subject which was also presented on 21st November by David, Galya, their daughter, Annie and Elena Petkova to an audience from the educational and social services communities in Razgrad at an event hosted by the director and staff of the city library.
None of the activities described in the publication is particularly startling or groundbreaking but there is a philosophical basis for the eclectic mix and we believe our approach has educational and therapeutic value. EQ subscribes to Howard Gardner’s model of multiple intelligences and our approach pats heed to his two core principles – – Individuation and Pluralization.
Individuation: There is no rational basis for teaching and assessing individuals in an identical way because those individuals have different intelligence profiles defined in terms of the 9 types of intelligence.
Pluralization: Important ideas, topics, theories and skills ought to be taught in more than one way and – while being assessed – students should be able to communicate their understanding in more than one way.
We also place emphasis on the close relationship between adventure and play and the capacity for creativity these processes provide.
