Ei dian otsikkoa

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Talented Students
Professor Kirsi Tirri University of Helsinki
Stanford University http//www.helsinki.fi/ktirri

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Presentation

• Gifted and Talented
• Finland-the PISA country
• Olympiad Studies
• Actualizing Talents in Finland
• Päivölä Boarding School Community for the
  talented

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Academic achievement in Finland

• Finnish 15-year olds score above the OECD average
  in their performance (PISA)
• Finnish students score highest in all tests
  measuring mathematics literacy
• Finnish students ranked number one of all
  participating 32 countries in reading literacy at
  both 9 and 14 years of age (IEA)

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Educational policy

• The school law (1998) acknowledges individual
  differences and allows the schools to arrange
  teaching according to the abilities of the
  students
• The national curriculum (2004) only provides the
  general guidelines

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Educational climate

• Individuality and the freedom of choice
• Flexible decisions in acceleration
• Parents can decide whether their children will
  begin school at the age of six or seven
• Ungraded school
• The rights for the parents to choose the school
  which their children attend
• Academic competitions in the secondary level

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Holistic education

• Holistic view to education development of the
  whole person
• Intelligence and character
• Excellence and ethics
• Life-long learning learning to know, learning to
  do, learning to be, learning to live together
  (UNESCO 1996, 85-97)
• Spirituality purpose and meaning of life

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Giftedness and TalentCommon beliefs

• Giftedness Talent as SYNONYMS
• Giftedness gtTalent
• Giftedness Intelligence
• Talent arts, sports, technology
• Talent Potential
• Giftedness Adult achievements

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Definition of Giftedness (Gagne, 2008)

• Giftedness is the possession of high natural
  (untrained) abilities (called high abtitudes or
  gifts)
• in at least one ability domain
• to a degree that places individual among the top
  10 of age peers

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Definition of Talent (Gagne, 2008)

• Talent is the outstanding mastery of
  systematically developed competencies (skills and
  knowledge)
• in at least one field of human activity
• to a degree that places individual among the top
  10 of age peers who are (or have been) active in
  that field

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Defining talent development (Gagne, 2008)

• The talent development process is the systematic
  pursuit by talentees
• over a significant period of time
• of a structured program of activites
• leading to a specific excellence goal

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Olympiad Studies

• national research project USA, Germany, Finland,
  Taiwan, Korea
• what factors help or hinder the Olympians to
  actualize their talents?
• 166 Finnish Olympians in mathematics, physics and
  chemistry from the years 1965-2000
• 169 parents
• majority of the Olympians were 21-40 years old

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Research methods

• questionnaires to Olympians and their parents
  (70 answering rate)
• open questions
• personal interviews with the Olympians
• telephone interviews with their parents

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Birth order
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Educational level of fathers
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Mothers income levels
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Gender distribution amongOlympians
Taiwan N32
USA N238
Finland N166
Germany N235
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Contributing factors

• The parents rated all the contributing items
  (N14) more important to the development of
  academic talent than the Olympians
• home atmosphere was very conducive to learning
  the most important factor in talent development
• good teacher(s) the second important factor
• my active use of library, self-discipline,
  my early learning in maths and reading, my own
  inner drive, desire to compete, hate to lose

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Hindrances

• Very few hindrances
• Not enough challenge, Courses were taught at
  too low a level for me.
• Envy of other children, bullying,
  harassment, ignorance
• The Finnish educational system with its emphases
  on equality

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The interviews of Olympians (N28)

• Childhood, youth, current life, future plans
• Professional and personal life
• Critical events in talent development
• Interviews lasted 1-3 hours (Spring 2001)
• Interviews were recorded and transcriped

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Qualitative data

• 6 female Olympians
• every female was chosen to have a male Olympian
  from the data that represented the same age group
  and professional orientation than the female
• one to two hour in-depth interviews
• childhood experiences, school experiences, the
  choice of career, job, spouse, life-style,
  friends and hobbies
• curriculum vitae

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Analysis methods

• critical events in the life histories of the
  Olympians
• experiences that helped the Olympians to identify
  their talent or to succeed in their career
• a content analysis was used to analyze the themes
  of critical events
• reliability of coding categories (interrater
  reliability.90)

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Critical events
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Critical events
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Critical events
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Critical events
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• Private and independent boarding school in the
  countryside of Valkeakoski
• Nokia supports the school so that it is almost
  free for the students
• Mathematics program started in 1994
• The school selects annually 20 students according
  to the excursion weekend tests
• Students are mathematically talented 15-18 year
  olds and they graduate from the senior secondary
  school in 2 years instead the average 3 years in
  Finland

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• 37 personal interviews
• Päivölä students (N20 11 girls, 9 boys)
• Maunula students (N17 1 girl, 16 boys)
• Families, hobbies, school experiences, reasons
  for choosing boarding school, expriences in
  boarding school
• The values they find important in life and in
  scientific research
• The interviews were conducted in the schools
  where the students attended
• Each interview lasted 40-60 minutes and was
  tape-recorded and later transcribed

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• Questionnaires to students and their parents
• Personal interviews with students (N20) and
  teachers (N9)
• Test on moral reasoning (DIT) (N19)
• Test on intelligence (WAIS III) (N20)
• Comparison group with students (N17) and
  teachers (N10) from Maunula

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• All the interviews were analyzed inductively
  according to the main themes discussed in the
  interviews. In all the relevant questions Päivölä
  students were compared to Maunula students

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• Twelve Päivölä students out of twenty reported
  mainly positive earlier school experiences.
  According to these students studying and learning
  had always been fun and they had liked their
  schoolmates and teachers

In elementary school I had very nice teachers
even though I knew many things better than them.
Teachers were very encouraging to me especially
in mathematics. School was easy and I had friends
that made it fun. It was nice to learn things so
fast and easy. (Päivölä girl)
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I have always liked school and almost all the
teachers. I think the relationship between a
student and a teacher has a big effect on how you
enjoy school in general. Teachers have been good
role models for me on how to live in this world.
I have not had friends who do not like the
school, I always spend times with those who like
school and take it seriously like me. (Päivölä
boy)
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When I started the school I already knew how to
read and write. .I also knew the math we were
doing. The teachers didnt allow me to do more
exercises or advance in my own tempo. I have
changed schools many times. I never studied a lot
but still got good grades. I stopped studying
math in the 5th grade (Päivölä girl)
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Eight students from Päivölä reported mainly
negative school experiences. Five of them had
been bullied in their previous schools and they
had been socially isolated. What are friends?
I had terrible school experiences and no friends.
I got along with the teachers but all the
schoolmates bullied me. Elementary school was the
worst and in the secondary school things got
easier when teachers stopped the
bullies.(Päivölä boy)
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Teachers have always been good. I am an
intellectual type, not an athlete type, and enjoy
the company of similar friends. In secondary
school the special curriculum in mathematics
attracted similar people like me and I have been
friends with them (Maunula boy)
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1) Finish the school in two years (N9) 2)
Curriculum (N9) 3) Sister or brother in Päivölä
(N6) 4) Invited or recommended (N4) 5) Social
relations (N1) 6) Nokia (N1)
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1) Social relations N13 2) Studying is fun
N11 3) Studying is fast N6 4) Independence
N4 5) Challenging N4 6) No homework N3 7)
Nokia N2
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Implication for talent development

• Different talents need to be identified in order
  to develop them in the best possible ways
• We need different ways to support the talent
  development of our students
• Gifted students need a community to be able to
  become talented students
• Gender issues in talent development need to be
  acknowledged
• Gifted girls have a tendency to fear success and
  underestimate their academic abilities
• Ethical and spiritual aspects need to be
  considered in counselling the gifted students
• Gifted and talented students need the permission
  to be different!