On 28 April 2022, a first training session of the LTTA1 on Dialogic Gatherings was held in an online format. More than 50 educators from 6 different countries participated in this first session which took place over 4 hours.
The creator of the Dialogic Gatherings and first scientist in the world in the social impact rankings, Professor Ramón Flecha, opened the session by encouraging participants to implement educational actions based on scientific evidence that has already demonstrated sustained educational improvements in different contexts. Professor Flecha also shared insights from decades of research on how providing the best knowledge to discuss, especially to the most vulnerable groups, can transform their life chances.
María Vieites Casado, a researcher at CREA, explained the step-by-step implementation of the DGs in their most practical aspects. She also discussed and justified the type of works that are used in these Gatherings, the best universal works of culture and science. Her intervention was accompanied by two testimonies from practitioners who have been implementing DG for years. First, Rachel Snape, Headteacher at Milton Road Primary School in Cambridge, UK, shared the successful results achieved with the implementation of the DG in Primary education; then, Pedro Filipe Matos also intervened to present his experience and good results at academic and coexistence level achieved by the rigorous and sustained implementation of the Dialogic Gatherings in Secondary Education.
Each of the sessions was followed by an extensive Q&A session in which participants could clarify content and share their doubts and contributions. All participants were able to speak in their mother tongue as simultaneous translation was provided throughout the session.
The event culminated with a Dialogic Literary Gathering, in which participants debated selected pages from Chapter XII of Homer’s Ulysses. Relevant subjects such as friendship, death and burials, learning from mistakes and solidarity were discussed.