AEMASE III - African-European-Mediterranean Academies for Science Education

The AEMASE network, launched in 2013 by the science academies of France, Italy, Morocco and Senegal, and the Egyptian Bibliotheca Alexandrina, aims to sensitize decision makers and other partners of educational systems about the urgent need to improve science (STEM) school education across the African-Mediterranean-European (AME) region.

A sound science education at compulsory school shapes the minds of young citizens for rationality. It is critical for strong economies and sustainable development relying on innovation and technical progress. To overcome the big global challenges, i.e., climate change, hunger, health, etc. an interdisciplinary science education is also crucial. Achieving these goals implies in-service professional training of science teachers in the lines of well-tested pedagogies such as inquiry-based science education (IBSE). Such a training requires a co-construction between scientists and teacher educators.

After the AEMASE I conference in Rome in 2014, then AEMASE II in Dakar in 2015, where pedagogical methods and strategic expertise have been shared among the AME region, the present Paris AEMASE III conference ambitions to put a step further by launching a network of innovative training international and multilanguage centres called CESAME (Centres for Science Education in Africa, Mediterranean and Europe).

There, short international sessions will introduce local teachers and educators of science teachers to the IBSE pedagogy. These teacher educators will adapt the IBSE pedagogy and efficiently spread it over their own countries. It is hoped that this conference will permit the launching of a concrete and ambitious project: with a strong support from governments and sponsors a network of CESAME centres should emerge from this conference.

For more information and a draft programme, please see here.