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Sharing expertise in educational support for gifted and motivated youth - notes and recordings |
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Sharing expertise in educational support for gifted and motivated youth
Notes and recordings prepared by Elizabeth Mc Donnell
A: Presentation themes
Theme/ Topic |
Features/ purpose/interest |
Challenges/ questions |
Centres of excellence |
- Informing business by knowledge from students
- Network of companies (international)
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Better policies towards young people
Dealing with the political /state system |
- Importance of contacts and meetings/ involvement
- Personal stories – politicians and policy makers with personal experience/ motivated to act
- Wider impact – cannot do everything or work alone
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- To what end? Better than?
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Summer schools/camps |
- Focussed and intensive
- Across a range of disciplines or one e.g. mathematics
- Taste of the ‘real thing’
- Can be creative and innovative (not constrained by institutional needs/norms)
- Mentor-student ratio high
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- Mentors may lack skills /training (pedagogical, group-work, psychological)
- Limited capacity – funding for accommodation/ travel
- Reliance on volunteers
- Limited collaboration with schools; limited community reach (PR)
- Different levels of prior learning
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Cross-sector knowledge transfer |
- Between business and academia
- Transfer of knowledge from universities to economy
- Talented young students / schools connect with universities and business
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Connecting scientists/ science to the school curriculum
Collaboration between scientists and teachers |
- Recognition/ fits school agenda
- Buy-in from teachers / school
- Start close to curriculum / build relationship then innovate – make curriculum contemporary
- Interdisciplinary/ multidisciplinary approach?
- Improve communication between scientists and teachers
- Improve science communication skills
- Make use of e-platforms and online repositories; update to maintain interest
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- Balance between working with existing curriculum and adding something new
- Some subjects way outside school curriculum / little match
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Scientific workshops |
- Undergraduate students and young scientists develop and facilitate the workshops
- Training and support
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- Better means of mentor training
- Evaluation – knowing what works, impact?
- Working with primary school children. Older age groups?
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Physics for gifted students |
- School-Institute of Physics, each provides input
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- Students motivated but teachers? Scientists? What do they get out of it?
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Science Academy/ choosing careers |
- Helping students to know what they want to study, their options
- Connect high school students with the professions
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- How to measure efficiency of e.g .orientation meetings?
- (in Croatia) perception that university education will lead to high salaries; vocational education least attractive yet skilled young people needed
- Self-perpetuating loop- vocational teachers ‘second rate’
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Grow knowledge and skills of teachers in educating young people |
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Rethink education at university level |
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Open Curriculum / autonomy of schools |
- School can design a curriculum suited to local context; work with local economy, community
- Blend of state-defined curriculum, extensions to it and new additions
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- (Slovenia) confined to secondary vocational and technical schools/ not mainstream
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Self-paced learning |
- Young people who like to learn (motivated and gifted?) but hate the school system
- Responsibility for own learning
- Independency- do not accept given knowledge/ challenge
- Learning skills
- Joy of discovery
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- ‘giftedness’ isn’t enough for doing science; different competencies
- Change in role: from teaching to guiding; from assessing to tracking
- Extracurricular is not an alternative curriculum
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Inquiry –based learning |
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Working in difficult social conditions |
- can be innovative; work outside institutional requirements
- children/ young people as agents of change?
- Building skills, self-confidence, awareness
- Science as empowerment
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- Social purpose of science – to bring about change? Do good?
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Working with students from very different backgrounds |
- More possibilities to work with disadvantaged students if move to student-centred and active learning?
- Need for students to experience success
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- Challenging social situations
- Change in culture – from passive to active learning
- Teacher resistance; lack of skills
- Changing government policy
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Science and conflict management |
- Indirect – not work directly on areas of conflict
- Build relationships, networks
- Skills and aptitudes of relevance in conflict management?
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- Focus on children – is this enough?
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B: Ideas
Swapshop |
- Individuals swap between disciplines – new group, new area
- Challenges, different experience
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May not participate well or be interested |
Interactive lectures |
- Meeting with experts in the fields
- Able to ask questions, interact
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- Does it favour the more confident? How interactive?
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Teaching and research through games |
- Open up learning in different ways; through play
- University students
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- Perception of students – waste of time, don’t recognise their own learning
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Self-determination |
- Listening to young people/ children – letting them decide
- Set limits / boundaries
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Dancing molecules |
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Slash mob |
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Scientists in schools |
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Teacher education on science workshops |
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Competitions |
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C: Ideas developed following sharing and discussion (26th Feb)
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Idea for an activity |
Key elements |
Outcomes/ purpose |
How to start? |
1. |
Exchange/ volunteering |
-abroad
-pupils or teachers |
-practice a language
- behind the scene of an event (festival, camp)
- discovering a new culture |
-exchange emails and personal contacts |
2. |
Share educational material/ projects |
website/ collaborative for teachers/ mentors
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-share methods of teaching/ subjects
-improve teaching |
-who is in charge?
-project proposals
- who is working on it?
-is it international or not? (language problem)
Build on existing/ online repositories of teaching materials, open source |
3. |
Case study-based collaborative strategies |
-perspectives (approaches)
-problems faced
-solutons |
- advisor group, database? |
Forum- focus question (i.e. evolution for students of 8-12 years) |
4. |
Science teacher exchange/ primary school
Collaboration with national agencies to help dissemination of results |
-gathering teachers to improve class experience
-exchange (and create) an international curriculum
-observing real classes in other countries
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To provide better teaching to students |
Duration of 3 hrs or more
Find us the money!
(EU Lifelong Learning programme – Leonardo) |
5. |
Project or curriculum based on student inquiry/ questions/ ideas |
-introduction to the topics
- develop questions or ideas of projects
- perform the projects
-long-term project in class or advanced-level after summer camp |
-go further with what we do
- for all youth?
Obstacles
-we don’t know / not skilled yet
-time and money
-organization
-can’t do the all program
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6. |
Travelling science playground |
-cheap creative equipment
-kids can freely play with this
-teachers are allowed to watch them but there are separate activities for them
-playground travels from school to school
- international mentors |
-raising interest in science experiments through game
- identification of motivated kids and teachers |
Collaboration with the county in fall 2012 |
7. |
Joint education for mentors and teachers |
-teaching us for us
-get professional help
-use old experience |
-better mentors
-more mentors
-good documentation
-refresh knowledge |
In Zagreb, SSF people already do it.
- online communication |
8. |
International exchange of mentors |
-money
-joint planning
-language |
-diversity of workshops
-perspective |
-schedule of calls for mentors
-money! |
9. |
Seeing Maths as an experimental science |
-computer
-good problems
-games (board games, card games, strategy) |
- ‘see’ the maths
-aid some clever pupils who are not ‘math’ orientated (in a traditional sense) |
-find the place
-the problems |
10. |
Annual newsletter of activities |
Individually towards schools AND pupils |
Better communication towards schools |
Annual plan in advance |
D: Discussion topic: What do we mean by ‘gifted’/ ‘motivated?
(Recordings from group discussion of Sat 25th Feb.)
Gifted: talented, highly-capable, intelligent, clever; above average, fast learner, communicator;
Motivated: hard-working, wanting to change one’s life; driven, passionate, curious, interested,
Issues/ questions
- Identifying motivated is easy; identifying gifted is?
- Gifted is hidden, you can see motivation; motivation is variable, you can modify it. Context-dependent
- Gifted are, by definition, motivated?
- What is our real goal when we work with gifted/ motivated kids? To help them or to recruit them?
- Experts can define gifted – we should listen to them, have criteria. Don’t agree – expert criteria my not work/ be right. Do we need to define/ follow the official line? We are working with unofficial education.
- Do we see gifted as a ‘dirty’ word? That we should not tell them that they are gifted? Acknowledge that they exist/ not all the same ability.
- Gifted can create problems – social/ egos/ self-absorbed; gifted have their own way of thinking.
- Balance – encourage v be realistic, not all can/ will realise their dreams.
- What is the role of the teacher?
(Recordings from group discussion on Monday 27th Feb)
Gifted/ motivated
- we don’t know what ‘gifted’ is – won’t use the word anymore; motivated we know
- there is a clear difference between gifted and motivated
- we work with motivated, gifted may be amongst them
- in Croatia, must use the term ‘gifted’ for funding purposes, not motivated; in France, must not use gifted, use motivated (national context); buzz words
- not important that kids are gifted but important that they are motivated; recognize that some are gifted
- motivation can be developed, gifted is inherited
- working with science for social action, focus not on gifted
- need to work on motivation
- unrealistic social expectation from gifted (Croatia); not helpful
- gifted and motivated should appear together – need both
Purpose in working with gifted / motivated
- develop skills; motivation needs developing- be curious, ask questions ok to be wrong
- ‘good’ qualities of children often lost through the education system
- See a need to do something different to the official educational system
- Need to be specific on what you want to achieve (France)
- Too much emphasis on initial purpose may miss added value / emergent, unexpected outcomes
- Keep up level of motivation – it spreads; work with those with the potential for motivation
E: Different organizations – exploration of similarities and differences in activities / projects
SSF – science workshops; Uni Paris 11 – interdisciplinary BA; PMF Zg- chemistry education, inquiry-based; Os Spinut- facilitating teaching; CERI- games in education, research in education
MNM- math workshops, projects
Similarities: small groups; project work; we experiment with teaching; kids think themselves; critical and creative thinking developed
Different but generalizable.
Similarities: Become a ‘researcher’; experimentation, present your results; meeting with scientists; difficulties to work in schools without teachers; diversity: mix of social / geog. Backgrounds
Specificities: local, national, international – scope of target; cost of mentor- volunteers, paid; type of actions- camps, long-duration projects, festival.
Similarities:flexible approach (personalised approach); small groups; active and interactive programs; directed to motivated students
Differences: Collaboration with local business needs?; different ways of communication with students and teachers in gov. schools; competition
F: Discussion of issues identified by group members (25th and 26th Feb)
- Continuity/ irregular attendance
- Give responsibility, students have a choice
- Create sense of community – use internet/ keep link, contact between sessions
- Be prepared to say ‘ bye bye’ (both to students and to mentors)
- Funding
- Small organizations need to collaborate
- Apply for projects that have a wider appeal than one’s own target group
- Start small/ gradual, then increase
- Attracting children from socially-deprived backgrounds
- Go directly to where people are from such backgrounds are
- Market your work- use visuals
- Language may be a barrier (lack of confidence)
- Ask on website to fill out a short form/ leave info – build up a database of direct contacts
- How to persuade politicians and policy-makers of the value of our work?
- Get politicians involved in the project in some way
- Involve media e.g via involvement of a celebrity / well-known person
5. How to empower and not impose?
- Have activities to collect ideas and get thoughts
- Do not push too hard – help in expressing ideas and thoughts
G. Summer school discussion (27th Feb)
- Meeting / learning with different people; not necessarily different methods
- Education in school not good enough, say it!
- Not our job to change the curriculum – that of government but not doing it; civil society and teacher doing it (Croatia)
- Working outside the system but want to change the system
- Whose job – gov? civil society
H: Action planning (27th Feb)
Participants wanted to go further and develop some of the ideas from the previous 2 days.
Proposals
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Title |
Strengths |
Potential |
Concerns |
1 |
Change the policy about ‘giftedness’ |
So we won’t need to work ‘in the dark’; do the good stuff without the buzzword stuff |
To change how we are funded and to strengthen our reach |
How to communicate it to politicians; how to articulate our arguments (it’s abstract) |
2 |
Develop project-based curriculum |
For deeper understanding of the subject, methods – reusable knowledge, increasing motivation, increasing awareness of usefulness of science |
Complement of traditional teaching methods |
Teachers’ constraints more expensive? More time-consuming |
3 |
Influencing the Ministry/ Regional authorities to support the SSCs |
Together we are stronger |
‘normalising of the work; growth, sustainability, visibility |
Lack of political will and envy of the official systems (science competitions); lack of straightforward indicators of the value of SSCs. |
4 |
Mind Twister Workshop
Incorporation interdisciplinary scientific workshops into summer schools |
Easy to design and perform
Adaptable and reusable ideas/format |
Motivating students for exploration of various areas of science
Adaptable to any age
Additional diversity in summer schools |
Design of challenging workshops for advanced student
Lack of mentors (exchange!)
Possible lack of interest(unlikely) |
5 |
Retired Educational Hobby |
Inclusion of ‘grand’ people and grandchildren
Quality time together
Memory from childhood |
Using experience (skills and knowledge)
Transferring tradition/culture |
Quality
Training of them
Not easy |
6. |
Workshops with families |
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Participants split into 2 groups. One group developed topic 3 (influencing the Ministry/ Regional authorities) and the other, topic 4 (Incorporation of interdisciplinary workshops into summer schools).
I: Useful websites
- MERLOT: academic repository for teaching materials; professionally curated
- comPADre: academic repository for teaching materials in physics; professionally curated
- Scienceamusante.net (in French, Google translator is your friend): teaching materials in chemistry/ physics; very detailed in all aspects; activities, security, materials
- howtosmile.org: use of science activities by museums of science
- instructables.com: practical step-by-step tutorials on how to make or do stuff; it’s free and open; anybody can post stuff
- USTREAM: simple iPhone/Android phone applications for live video streaming and recording
- Khanacademy.org: short, simple teaching videos explaining basic maths
- www.artofproblemsolving.com : forum and a repository of maths problems and solutions
- salto-youth.net and otlas.eu: websites for finding partners for international projects of non-formal education (part of the Youth in Action programmes)
- Teacher blogs: Dan Myer – maths; Think, Thank, Thunk – mostly physics but more; Ira Socol- special education and tech in school
- Action-Reaction (Frank Noschrence) – modelling physics
Elizabeth Mc Donnell
[email protected]
http://ifacilitate.co.uk/
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