This third PBPR-conference draws participants from all over the world. Keeping this global perspective means that the English language will be used during this event. For presenters who are not native speakers of English, it is in your best interest to communicate as clearly and effectively as you can in English. Try not to speak to fast and take your time for the presentation. If a native English speaker is available, it is a good idea to ask him/her to listen to your presentation before the conference. For those whose first language is English, it helps to keep in mind that many non-native English speakers will be in the audience. It is best to avoid long, complex sentences as well as regional colloquialisms, jokes, or puns that are difficult for someone outside your culture to understand.
Paper presentations and symposia
A paper session is an oral presentation that takes maximum 40 minutes. The participant presents his/her paper in 15-20 minutes. After the presentation, there will be a question-and-answer period of 20-25 minutes, where listeners have the opportunity to ask questions, give their opinion or share experiences.
A symposium exists of 2 to 3 papers that address the same issue from different perspectives. The duration of a symposium is 80 minutes including at least 25 minutes for discussion. This discussion will be chaired by a member of the conference committee.
The keys to a good presentation are organisation and clarity. When preparing the presentation, think carefully about what you would like – and reasonably expect – the audience to learn in the time allotted. Put down the main ideas so that you have a backup in case you lose track of the ideas. All speakers are kindly requested to strictly observe the allotted presentation time. Every paper session will be attended by a chairperson who will monitor the time and signal when there are 5 minutes left to present. Each paper session room will be equipped with a beamer, a flipchart and a PC. If you want to give a PowerPoint presentation, make sure to bring your presentation not only on USB-stick but also on CD-ROM (floppy disks cannot be used!). If this is not possible, you can e-mail your presentation to tonia.davison@ped.kuleuven.be no later than 20 October. Bring around 20 copies of your paper for the audience. In addition (or alternatively), you can bring hand-outs of one A4 page containing the title, abstract, and your contact information, so that people can e-mail you after the conference when they are interested in reading the full paper.
Interactive Poster presentations (roundtables)
Poster presentations are displays on poster boards. The poster is usually a mixture of a brief narrative paper, intermixed with tables, graphs, pictures and other presentation formats. By writing concisely and with a few areas of focus, the presentation can communicate your research and help synthesise your main ideas and direction of research.
Each participant will be assigned a poster board of 1m by 1m. Pins will be available at the conference venue. Materials must be easy to read from a distance of four feet. Each poster should include the title of the presentation, the author(s) and affiliation(s).
We recommend nothing smaller than 14-point bold lettering to be used anywhere on the poster. It is better to use 18 to 24 point lettering for your main text. The use of colour to organise sections of the paper is effective. Colour graphs and/or coloured borders around black and white figures can be especially effective in making your poster easy to read. You need to be creative and present only clear, readable data tables and graphs. you can bring hand-outs of one A4 page containing the title, abstract, and your contact information, so that people can e-mail you after the conference when they are interested finding out more about your presentation.
You will be asked to set up your poster during the first day of the conference and exhibit it during the first two days of the confernce. During the time it is displayd, spectators are invited to post questions or comments in your 'posterbox'. During the last day of the conference, Friday 28 November, you are invited to chair a roundtable on your poster.
The slot foreseen for the round tables on Friday will be divided up accordingly:
40 minutes to give the participants the chance to go around and take another look at the posters. Poster presenters can answer questions from the public.
10 minutes for the presenters to explain their poster to the interested participants in the round-table discussion.
40 minutes as discussion period to discuss the 3 propositions which were included in the conference submission proposal. The presenter may bring a hand-out for the participants of the round-table discussion. About 10 participants may take place at the round table, which makes this a very interactive format, for in-depth discussions.
Workshops
This format provides 90 minutes for a highly interactive, collaborative session that shows the application of the outcomes of a research project. It can, for instance, demonstrate a tool that has been developed through the research, a new teaching method that emerged as a result of the project, an illustration of collaborative inquiry strategies used in the research that proved effective – such as a demonstration of an innovative way to collect information or to analyze information. Workshops should provide a hands-on experience that involves the conference participants in in-depth active learning. During the workshop, the participant can make use of a beamer, a PC and a flipchart. If hands-on computer training is provided, participants who anticipate attending these sessions should bring along their own laptop.
Presenters who want to provide additional information about the workshop, are requested to bring their own copies of handouts. Other materials needed during the workshop must also be brought by the workshop presenter.
