Trapti Trivedi
Masterclass: Creating engaging classrooms through the integration of technology
Trapti began her teaching career in India before taking her first international post in Guangzhou, China. She has been based in Singapore for the past 13 years and has taught a wide range of subjects, including English as a second language, IGCSE (International General Certificate of Secondary Education), and Middle Years Programme (MYP) and Diploma Programme (DP) science subjects. Trapti is an experienced IB educator. Currently, she is the IB Diploma Programme Extended Essay Coordinator and teaches theory of knowledge (TOK), DP environmental systems and societies (ESS) and DP biology at Overseas Family School, Singapore. She is also a workshop leader for multiple DP and MYP subjects, a member of the IB environmental systems and societies curriculum team, and an IB environmental systems and societies Internal Assessment Team Leader and extended essay examiner.
Benjamin Zonca
Masterclass: Understanding and practicing leadership for teacher agency
Benjamin is Assistant Principal and a Grade 6 teacher at Auburn South Primary School in Victoria, Australia. His core interest in the school setting is to develop his own and others’ capacity to understand how we might better teach and lead to provide the conditions for innovation and creativity. This focus is informed by Ben’s own PhD research that, although placed within the policy analysis field, aims to understand the complex ways that teachers’ identities are affected in relation to the cultural, structural and material conditions of their school setting. All of this is brought together by a keen interest in adult learning approaches. Ben is focused on how we can work with adults in an ethical, caring and future-focused way to produce school environments befitting the extraordinary capacity of the young people in our care and the community that surrounds and supports them.
Dr Nick Palmer
Masterclass: The world in us: Advancing practical global citizenship education
Dr Nick Palmer is an IB Jeff Thompson Research Award winner. He is currently a full-time Teaching Scholar at Deakin University’s Warrnambool Campus in Victoria, Australia. Nick’s PhD thesis, conferred in 2021, is titled Navigating global citizenship education: Activating an allosyncratic framework. His research details conceptions of practical global citizenship education and international-mindedness in an IB school. Nick began his IB career in Germany in 1999; since then, he has taught in IB schools in Hong Kong, Angola and Azerbaijan. He is an IB workshop leader, school visiting team member and a private consultant supporting schools worldwide to develop United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals. His research is published in several leading international education journals.
David Secomb
Masterclass: The Compassionate Systems approach
For the past 16 years, Dave has worked in schools throughout Australia, Asia and Europe as he strives to be a compassionate global citizen. Most recently, he has joined Tokyo International School as Whole School Principal. In his professional career, Dave has held positions as a homeroom teacher, physical education specialist teacher, curriculum coordinator, assistant principal and principal. His work highlights include the development of curriculum frameworks that focus on intercultural understanding; the implementation of pedagogies that are responsive, inclusive and dedicated to deep learning; and the development of a model of professional growth that focuses on teacher well-being as the core of personal development. Dave is first and foremost a practitioner, and he is passionate about helping every learner find and nurture what is most important to them.
