Keynote Speakers
Sponsored By
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First Day (Wednesday: July 2, 2008)
Living With Gifts and Talents
Joan Freeman
Middlesex University, London, UK
Wednesday July 2, 2008 (09:30 - 10:30)
Trying to understand children without concern for their personal worlds is like studying fish behaviour without considering the water. Although the two life forces of the individual and their cultural circumstances are neither separable nor clear, together they influence how each one approaches life and make the vital difference in his or her life-long achievement. Certainly, all children develop images of themselves through both their genetic dispositions and their experiences, but there are differences for the gifted and talented. For them, it often means dealing with the special reactions of others to ideas of giftedness and consequently how they are treated. How does it affect a gifted ten year-old, for example who is listened to as a fount of gifted wisdom at home yet receives constant put-downs in class as a nuisance ‘know-all’? This presentation looks at what can happen to the gifted and talented throughout life as they change from babies to mature adults. It examines how pressures, promises and opportunities influence the way individuals approach the world and how that affects the development of their exceptional potential.
Future Possibilities for Education and Learning by the Year 2030
Jerome Clayton Glenn
Director, the Millennium Project (www.millennium-project.org)
Wednesday July 2, 2008 (13:30 - 14:30)
2030 is 23 years from now. Looking back over the past 23 years can give a sense of the rapidity and magnitude of the changes we experience today and that are likely to accelerate in the future. How many would have believed that the Republic of Korea by 2007 would successfully compete with the United States in some areas of the transportation, information, and communications industries? Or that its economy would be larger than Russia’s? The factors that made those changes are accelerating. As a result the changes over the next 23 years will be even greater. Twenty-three years ago what Ministry of Education had the objective of connecting their school children to the Internet? What Ministry of Education had the objective of preparing students to participate in the global knowledge economy? Imagine two countries back in 1984. Both were about the same in all things except that one declared a national objective of cooperating with international computer networks to connect their educational systems into an international knowledge system in order to improve education for all in their country. Now, 23 years later – today – which country would be in a better position for the emerging global knowledge economy? And which country would have produced more students ready for today’s complexities and opportunities? Today educational policymakers face the same kind of choices: to look far ahead seeking emerging educational opportunities or just make moderate innovations that appear creative. What might surprise us today about 2030? If we don’t know that something is possible, then we will not try to make it happen. What are some of the educational and learning possibilities by the year 2030? What might we do today to take advantage of these emerging possibilities? Since the implementation of new ideas can turn out differently than expected, it is also wise to ask what could make them turn negatively as well as positively. To answer these questions, the Millennium Project reviewed futurist thought to design a Real Time Delphi which collected the judgments of 213 experts around the world, selected by the Nodes of the Millennium Project.2 This study assessed 19 possibilities: 1. National programs for improving collective intelligence; 2. Just-in-time knowledge and learning; 3. Individualized education; 4. Use of simulations; 5. Continuous evaluation of individual learning processes designed to prevent people from growing unstable and/or becoming mentally ill; 6. Improved individual nutrition; 7. Genetically increased intelligence; 8. Use of global on-line simulations as a primary social science research tool; 9. Use of public communications to reinforce pursuit of knowledge; 10. Portable artificial intelligence devices; 11. Complete mapping of human synapses to discover how learning occurs and thereby develop strategies for improvement of learning; 12. Means for keeping adult brains healthier for longer periods; 13. Chemistry for brain enhancement; 14. Web 17.0; 15. Integrated life-long learning systems; 16. Programs aimed at eliminating prejudice and hate; 17. E-Teaching; 18. Smarter than human computers; 19. Artificial microbes enhancing intelligence These possibilities present a broad array of policy choices and options which can inform the policy-making process. Each possibility was rated by an international panel in terms of its likelihood. What steps should policymakers consider today? To answer this, the respondents were encouraged to provide judgments about factors that could help or hinder the possibilities, and assuming they occurred, to conjecture about consequences that might follow. The panel’s estimates of the educational situation in 2030, and a distillation of the pattern of both positive and negative features of these possibilities will be presented.
Educating for Creativity (Hogrefe sponsored keynote talk)
Robert J. Sternberg
School of Arts and Sciences, Tufts University
Wednesday July 2, 2008 (17:00 - 18:30)
Educating for creativity can change for the better the way students think. It is therefore alarming that most schools, if anything, discourage such education. I will first describe some basic principles of educating for creativity. Then I will describe results of studies on (a) teaching for creativity and (b) assessing for creativity, showing that concrete empirical data support the viability of educating for creativity. Finally, I will discuss general implications for education and society, including the tragedy of cognitively rigid leaders who put the world in peril on a daily basis.
Second Day (Thursday: July 3, 2008)
Application of the Schoolwide Enrichment Model
Joseph S. Renzulli,
Director, The National Reseach Center on the Gifted and Talented The University of Connecticut, USA
Thursday July 3, 2008 (08:30 - 10:00)
"Differentiation" is the contemporary buzzword in curriculum and instruction, but the reality is that most teachers simply do not have the time necessary to do it well! Remarkable advances in instructional communication technology (ICT) have now made it possible to provide high levels of enrichment services to students who have access to a computer and the Internet. This presentation will describe a theory based and research supported program plan called the Schoolwide Enrichment Model and an Internet based application that is built on a learning theory that focuses on the development of creative productivity through the application of knowledge rather than the mere acquisition and storage of knowledge. The program, called the Renzulli Learning System (RLS), goes beyond the popular "worksheets-on-line" or courses on line that, by and large, have been early applications of ICT in most school situations. The RLS is a comprehensive program that begins by providing a computer-generated profile of each student's academic strengths, interests, learning styles, and preferred modes of expression. A search engine then matches Internet resources to the student's profile from fourteen carefully screened data-bases that are categorized by subject area, grade level, state curricular standards, and degree of complexity. A management system called the Wizard Project Maker guides students in the application of knowledge to teacher or student selected assignments, independent research studies, or creative projects that individuals or small groups would like to pursue. Students and teachers can evaluate the quality of students products using a rubric called The Student Product Assessment Form. Students can rate each site visited, conduct a self-assessment of what they have gained from the site, and place resources in their own Total Talent Portfolio for future use. Teacher functions allow downloading of hundreds of reproducible creativity and critical thinking activities as well as numerous off-line resources for lesson planning and curricular integration. Management functions allow teachers to group students by interests and learning styles, place teacher-selected resources in student portfolios for classroom or special project use, and oversee all student activity including where and when the students have been on-line using the RLS. The system can be used at home and during the summer, and parents can view their own son's or daughter's work on the system. The principal or designated project manager can also examine all activity taking place in a given building or program.
Recognizing and Nurturing Talent in At-Risk Populations
Ken McCluskey
University of Winnipeg, Canada
Thursday July 3, 2008 (17:15 - 18:15)
This session focuses on several made-in-Canada projects in which Creative Problem Solving and mentoring have been employed effectively with at-risk populations: Lost Prizes turned around the lives and increased the productivity of many talented but troubled dropouts; Northern Lights increased the graduation rates of needy Native youth; and Second Chance markedly reduced recidivism among Native inmates. Current mentoring initiatives targeting students at risk for school failure, dropping out, alienation, and gang involvement are also considered.
Third Day (Friday: July 4, 2008)
The Science of Creative Thinking (Central Test sponsored keynote talk)
Steve Smith
Department of Psychology, Texas A & M University, USA
Friday July 4, 2008 (11:15 - 12:30)
Although the concept seems vague and elusive to most people, creativity can be studied scientifically. Creativity encompasses many different cognitive structures, such as conceptual combinations, preinventive forms, and mental sets, and processes, such as analogical transfer, restructuring, abstraction, and remote association. There is no Unitary "creative process;" the science of creative cognition deals with the complex interacting components of creative thinking, as is done in other areas of cognitive experimental science, such as memory, language, or decision-making. Dr. Smith will consider these cognitive elements of the creative process, focusing especially on cross-disciplinary principles of creativity and innovation, and he will address several common paradoxes of creativity.
Dr. Smith will describe experimental studies of creative cognition, many focusing on the question of how creative ideas pop into one's head. His approach has focused on the theory that moments of insight represent escape from initial fixation, and that fixation can be caused by implicit memory processes that are difficult to deliberately overcome. So-called 'incubation effects' can be caused by escape from fixation, when seductive but obstructing approaches initially used are finally forgotten. Dr. Smith will also describe studies that align experimental methods across levels of complexity, ranging from naturalistic settings to controlled laboratory conditions; such alignment permits laboratory studies to make more ecologically valid conclusions.
Dr. Smith and his colleagues have published numerous research articles on theoretical and applied aspects of creative thinking, and he has given invited addresses on the subject around the world, including England, Spain, and China. His books on creative cognition include Creative Cognition: Theory, Research, and Applications (1992), The Creative Cognition Approach (1995), Creativity and the Mind: Discovering the Genius Within (1995), and Creative Thought: An Investigation of Conceptual Structures and Processes (1997). Dr. Smith's applied research in creativity, funded by the National Science Foundation, has dealt with creative conceptual design in engineering, and with information discovery in computer science. His research on the creative design process has examined design fixation, incubation effects in ideation, and alignment of creativity research across levels of complexity and ecological validity.
Recognizing and Nurturing Creativity: Powerful Tools for Managing Change
Donald J. Treffinger
President, Center for Creative Learning, Inc., in Sarasota, Florida, USA
Friday July 4, 2008 (14:30 - 15:45)
The contemporary Creative Problem Solving (CPS) model, drawing on more than five decades of theory, research, and practice, has evolved into a powerful, multi-faceted system for enabling individuals and groups (of all ages and in all settings) to think creatively and critically, solve complex problems, and deal effectively with the realities of rapid change. This presentation addresses methods and tools that build on research and provide practical guidance for individuals and groups in education, business, or other organizations.
ACTIVE LEARNING AND PASSIVE STUDENTS
Douglas A. Bernstein
Education Advisor, School of Psychology, University of Southampton, UK
Friday July 4, 2008 (15:45 - 16:45)
This is a talk for faculty and/or graduate teaching assistants who are looking for ways to combat the passivity of students who expect to do no more than sit and listen during class. A variety of classroom active learning methods will be suggested for use in teaching introductory to advanced courses.
Email: douglas.bernstein@worldnet.att.net
Website: http://www.douglasbernstein.com