The Yidan Prize Conference was held in partnership with the Department of Education, University of Oxford, was a half-day virtual session on 28 May 2021. The conference honored the achievements of the Yidan Prize for Education Research Laureate 2020, Professor Carl Wieman, and the Yidan Prize for Education Development Laureates 2020, Ms Lucy Lake and Ms Angeline Murimirwa from CAMFED (Campaign for Female Education). The conference also featured speakers including Dr Sobhi Tawil, Director, Future Learning and Innovation at UNESCO, members from the Yidan Council of Luminaries, Ms Vicky Colbert, Professor Larry Hedges, and Professor Thomas Kane; and speakers from the University of Oxford, Professor Sibel Erduran, Professor Harry Daniels, and Dr Susan James Relly.
At the conference, Professor Sibel Erduran raised the following questions: What are the implications for teachers and teachers’ learning when the goals of the curriculum shift from delivery of facts to appropriation of more complex skills? What does research on teacher education tell us about how teachers’ learn innovative pedagogical strategies? She has explained that the OARS Project has been focusing on professional development of science and religious education teachers, and that the project is finding that even in subjects such as science and religious education that are traditionally positioned in opposition to each other, there can be opportunities for cross-curricular links and sharing of pedagogical skills.