On the 26th of March, the seeds for an Education (R)evolution were planted during TedX Amsterdam Education. It was the third time the event was organized, and we were lucky enough to be invited. It was an inspiring day with great speakers and an eager audience consisting of teachers, educators, education entrepreneurs and students.

Our pick: 5 amazing talks

In case you’ve missed the event, these were our five favourite talks of the day.

What happens when classrooms meet higher order thinking - Dylan Hyman

Dylan Hyman gave a talk on how to challenge and engage children through stimulating their higher order thinking skills of analyzing, evaluating and creating. As a teacher at the Day a Week School, Dylan has inspiring examples of how to do so and makes a strong case for teaching all our children this way.

Vulnerable honesty - Yoram Mosenzon

Yoram Mosenzon, a nonviolent-communication trainer, gave a funny and personal speech on how most of us are incapable of recognising and expressing our emotions. This very important communication skill is not being taught at our schools and Yoram makes a strong case for changing that!

Ask the “Why” question - Claire Boonstra

Why do we organise education the way we do? Claire Boonstra, founder of Operation Education , showed that the way to change education is to start with the oh so important “why?” question. Watch this talk and get your mind asking very important questions about education!

 

Watch out, Silicon Valley. We’re coming for you - Deborah Carter

We were really happy with this talk by Deborah Carter who advocated for teaching children the basics concepts behind technology: How it works, why it works and how to think in order te create new solutions. She founded NewTechKids to help children become technology literate.

Curious minds, serious play

And completing our list is the talk by seasoned and awarded educator Jan de Lange, who shows how play and stimulating toys can grow kids’ brains. By supplying children with the right toys and asking them the right questions, we can help them grow their skills in logical reasoning, creative problem solving and out-of-the box thinking. Plus, he shows some really fun toys that you want to start playing with immediately : )

For a full overview of all the talks of TedX Amsterdam Education, go to tedxamsterdamed.com/talks