HAPPY NEW YEAR 2011

 

from the leadership and members of the

 

KINGSCOURT FELLOWSHIP LEIPZIG

Introduction

Seminars are a key part of the vision of Kingscourt Leipzig. Through seminars we intend to tackle the prevalent conflict between what we hear and how we live.

The idea is to fashion our real life experiences to better help us in learning and in engagement with bodies of knowledge. To this end we invite highly gifted and experienced speakers to facilitate our learning process.

This learning process is part of our development and it drives us into long term learning. To improve our life through learning we have to see the relevance of what we learn. Theory devoid of context becomes irrelevant. By contextualising our learning in our own experiences we can take what is seemingly irrelevant and make it what can better inform us of our experiences – knowledge becomes alive.

Purpose

Seminars have their basis in the Latin word for "seed." In the ancient Greek era, seminars were meetings of scholars for the purpose of sharing and nurturing the seeds of ideas. We therefore expect all participants to come together and reflect and dialogue about the theme of the seminar at hand. This encourages ‘active skills’ -- skills required to produce your own ideas and thoughts about the subject area.

In a sense, you are make the knowledge your own thereby reaching you own conclusion. Attending our seminars is therefore not a passive experience--everyone should have a way to contribute.

Most importantly we should come into the seminar considering it a chance for communication, as communication is at the heart of learning. This communication is grounded in dialogue, a dialogue that seeks to nurture critical thinking, a critical reflection on shared lived experiences. This nurtures us as effective learners.

The goal of our seminars is to encourage and to develop us as critical, reflective, independent and autonomous learners. It’s about making knowledge our own!