From 5 to 7 November, more than 60 scholars gathered at the Faculty of Education Sciences as part of the academic congress ISCAR, an international event first organised in 1986 and which this year took place at UIC Barcelona. Lecturer and researcher Margarida Romero is the regional coordinator for the Southern Europe and Middle East delegation and was charged with organising the meeting on the Sant Cugat Campus.

Under the title “Towards Equity, Peace and Sustainability in Times of Crisis”, experts, primarily from the field of education, shared and discussed their research over the course of three days of lectures. “Despite the current tensions, research brings us together to find joint solutions to today’s challenges,” explained Margarida Romero, an expert in the use of technology in the classroom.

The opening lecture was delivered by Silvie Barma, member of the teaching staff at Université Laval in Quebec (Canada), full professor of Science Education, specialist in teaching science and recipient of the award for best science teacher in Canada. “We must challenge the way the sciences are being taught in classrooms and bring it more into line with sociocultural approaches,” explained Barma in an interview with the University. In this context, Barma praised how science is taught in Europe. “The humanities are more integrated into science teaching, while in Canada and the United States, our teaching model remains quite traditional. Here, you start teaching science at any early age, and that is a strength,” she contended.

In today’s global context, Neus Lorenzo, president of the Catalan Society of Pedagogy, posed the need for an education system that “transcends boundaries”. “We must start to recognise micro-competencies, micro-skills which serve to validate what you know or what you’ve done. A person who spent three years in Germany or two in Arab countries, for example, brings experience that may not be officially certified but which constitutes significant human capital,” cited the expert and congress participant by way of example.

AI and the use of technology in the classroom

Training teachers in tools like artificial intelligence was a central focus of the ISCAR Congress. Thomas Frøsig, an educational technology consultant and holder of a PhD in Artificial Intelligence and Education, shared insight into the latest research on the application of AI in the classroom. “All academics, from Finland to the United States, are studying how to use AI without substituting the teacher,” he asserted, further adding that, “while it has proven to be an effective tool for teachers when planning lessons – helping them save time and find creative solutions –it is not yet useful by itself in classroom instruction.”

The organiser of the congress, lecturer Margarida Romero, and the dean of the UIC Barcelona Faculty of Education Sciences, Enric Vidal, presented the results of a research project on the use of tablets at two Catalan schools with over 500 students. “We observed that the devices led to tension among teachers, due to uncertainties surrounding their benefits. The tablet was like a little monster that the teachers had to constantly modify to adapt to the classroom; the students would then take it home and try to unlock it,” shared the authors of the study. “Technology by itself does not lead to innovation; education must always put human relations and learning standards above all forms of technology,” they concluded.

ISCAR, an international congress

Margarida Romero, president of the Congress’s organising committee, highlighted the continued relevance of the academic event. “Despite the current tensions, research brings us together to find joint solutions,” she remarked. The International Society for Cultural-historical Activity Research (ISCAR) is a congress that was first organised in 1986, yet which became formally established in 2002 in Amsterdam, with a view to fostering research in educational and professional contexts and among different types of organisations.