Ella Cosmovici Idsøe

Professor in Psychology

Norwegian Centre for Science Education

University of Oslo

Side 1

……. is not the filling of a pail

but the lighting of a fire

William Butler Yeats (1865 – 1939)

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Why should we support these children?

The nordic perspective

What happens in Norway?

Steps towards future developments in nordic countries

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We need solutions to new challenges

Prevent mental health

All children have the right to learn something new in school

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European teachers usually make their own decisions about a student’s potential to reach excellence and any need for special education.

Little use of acceleration in Europe-70% of teachers refuse grade-skipping; 59% offer an advanced curriculum; 42% offer a faster pace

Gifted education mostly in mixed classrooms

Generous extra-curricular provision everywhere in Europe

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The law of Jante (Janteloven)

“Equality” is the heart of the Nordic/Norwegian educational policy.

Students in all these three Scandinavian countries receive the same education even though some may have a higher potential (Persson, 2011).

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Most efforts and initiatives addressing the needs of the gifted have been on a voluntary basis provided by parents or by the Mensa organisation.

Nordisk Talentnettverk ble stiftet den 30. august 2013. Starting with 2014 both Denmark and Sweden promoted new laws and

school reforms that put giftedness and talent development on the agenda.

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Jøsendalsutvalget

A Norwegian White Paper on giftedness that came in 2016 (Ministry of Education and Research, 2016), accompanied by a literature review of the field (Børte, Lillejord, & Johansson, 2016) are the most important steps in the Norwegian policy towards officially recognizing these children and their educational needs.

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Students with high learning potential (10-15% of school population)

and students with extraordinary learning potential (IQ from 130 and more 2-5%)

Side 10

1. Schools do not adjust the learning to the needs of the students with high learning potential

2. Schools do not use the existing pedagogical and organizational possibilities

3. The whole educational system in Norway needs a common base of knowledge in order to support the needs of these children

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There is a big loss of human potential and negative consequences for Norwegian society by not supporting these children:

drop out and underachievement

social stigma

bullying

sorrow/depression

misdiagnoses or late identification

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Need for more knowledge about this group of students and that they need adjusted learning according to their potential.

Need to include this topic in teacher training and professional development for teachers

Need for more research regarding teachers attitudes about these children and research on different teaching strategies suited for these students.

Cooperation among the whole educational system and developing in and out of school possibilities to develop the potential.

Side 13

Another Norwegian White Paper (St. meld. 16 from 2016-2017),

“Culture for Quality in Higher Education” opens for developing various

forms of support for talented students in higher education. Among

them, a big emphasis is on Honors Programs.

Side 14

Talent Centers in 4 big cities (extend to 13 in the following years)

More and more municipalities developed guidelines for identification and support, conferences across the country, research environments

On line competence package for teachers (Realfagsløyper & Språksløyper)

Professional development for teachers (it will come for spesped.)

Honor Talent programmes at University of Oslo (it will come in Bergen and Stavanger also)

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The Norwegian Sciences Association and 4 regional Sciences Centers (Oslo vitensenter – Norsk Teknisk Museum, Vilvite – Bergen vitensenter, Vitensenteret i Trondheim og Nordnorsk vitensenter i Tromsø) , received from Ministry of Education the request to start a pilot project on Science Talentcenters (2016-2019).

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https://www.dropbox.com/s/f4z6awowttympsi/2019-BRG-VILVITE-

TALENTSENTERET-SONJA-SS_MASTER_3-2_FACEBOOK.mp4?dl=0

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The National Reading Center was responsible for developing the package:

Språkløyper

http://sprakloyper.uis.no/category.php?categoryID=23467

The National Science Center and Mathematics Center developed Realfagsløyper

http://realfagsloyper.no/barnetrinn/vurdering-og-tilpasset-opplaering/modul-1-kjennetegn-og-identifiseringsstrategier

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The first professional development course for teacher will start in Oslo between sept 2020 until may 2021

It will be a 15 poeng study credit and it has 30 places

It is for teachers working in primary schools

Main objective-to develop knowledge and skills in identification, differentiation and evaluation of students with high potential-extra focus on realfag.

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Change in teachers' classroom practice

Change in students' learning

outcomes

Change in teachers beliefs & attitudes

Professional development

activity

The program is developed as cooperation between The Faculty of Humanities and Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences and will have two lines of study: one in science (10 students) and one in humanities (10 students).

The program is a three-year bachelor program consisting of a bachelor-degree (180 ECTS) with an honours addition (30 ECTS) for a total of 210 ECTS.

The program has an interdisciplinary focus – aiming to provide students with new perspectives on their own disciplines and how it interacts with other disciplines.

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En kompetansesatsing på ulike nivåer:

Grunnutdanning. Tema stort læringspotensial må inn i grunnutdanning for barnehage- og grunnskolelærer og også inngå i master i spesialpedagogikk.

Etter- og/eller videreutdanning. Universiteter og høgskoler over hele landet bør ha tilbud om etter- og videreutdanning på tema stort læringspotensial.

E-læringsmoduler for lærere innenfor små, avgrensede tema.

Lærerkurs over hele landet. Eventuelt inngå i en skolebasert utvikling.

Etablering av lærende nettverk over hele landet. Digitalt nettverkstilbud for rurale skoler.

Utvidelse av talentsentersatsningen til flere kommuner gjennom å ta utgangspunkt i erfaringer fra piloten.

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Behov for et nasjonalt kontaktpunkt og regionale kompetansepersoner

En systemisk og systematisk kartlegging og tilbud for disse elevene fra barnehage til høyere utdanning

Muligheten til at kartleggingsprøver og nasjonale prøver eller lignende kan bearbeides med ulike nivåer slik at de bidrar til å identifisere stort læringspotensial.

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Det bør vurderes å ha en egen del i veiledning til læreplan som anbefaler kompetansemål som egner seg for disse elevene

En nasjonal håndbok/veileder med rutiner for både identifisering og tilpasninger for elever med stort læringspotensial

Det bør etableres en virtuell nettskole og elever som ønsker det kan søke opptak ved.

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A couple of rigorous studies suggest that enrichment programmes, combined with self-directed/targeted instruction, have positive effects –for eks Booij et al. (2016, 2017); Reis et al. (2005).

This is supported by cognitive research, which suggests that already high performing individuals perform better using discovery based pedagogy-Sekowski et al. (2009). .

Research also suggests gifted children tend to have the characteristics required to benefit from such pedagogy.

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Enrichment models predicated on self-directed/individualised instruction thus appear most promising for realizing the performance of gifted children.

Specific countries that have implemented models including these characteristics, such as Singapore, may be worth investigating in future research.

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It is important to note that it is far from straightforward to identify gifted children due to measurement error and differential developmental speed.

While there is no perfect solution to these problems, research suggests it is possible to decrease their importance by employing different identification metrics, local norms of what it means to be gifted, universal screening, and continuous reassessments.

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Given the relatively poor state of the research in this field (e.g. Adelson et al. 2012; Preckel et al. 2017), and the lack of research in nordic countries- we suggest research projects that should test different types of gifted education programmes – and ways of identifying gifted children –in a randomised fashion in nordic schools in order to find out what works for us in our nordic culture.

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We therefore believe there is a strong case for the nordic governments to fund the establishment of an independent nordic organisation with a remit to fund randomized trials investigating what works in gifted

education specifically in our countries.

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Børte, K., Lillejord, S., & Johansson, L. (2016). Evnerike elever og elever med stort læringspotensial: En forskingsoppsummering. . Oslo: Kunnskapssenter for Utdanning. www.kunnskapssenter.no.

Guskey, T. R. (2002). Professional Development and Teacher Change. Teachers and Teaching: theory and practice, 8(3/4), 381-391.

Kunnskapsdepartementet. (2016a). Mer å hente. Bedre læring for elever med stort læringspotensial. Oslo. Oslo: Kunnskapsdepartementet.

Kunnskapsdepartementet. (2016b). Talentsentre for høyt presterende elever. Oslo: Kunnskapsdepartementet.

Kunnskapsdepartementet (2017). Kultur for kvalitet i høyere utdanning. (Meld. St. 16 (2016–2017)). Oslo: Kunnskapsdepartementet.

Persson, R.S. (2011) Ability climates in Europe as socially represented notability. High Ability Studies, 22, 79-101.https://doi.org/10.1080/13598139.2011.576086

Touron,J. & Freeman,J.(2018). Gifted Education in Europe: Implications for Policy Makers and Educators. I S. Pfeiffer (Red.), APA Handbook of Giftedness and Talent (s. 55–71). Washington, D.C.: APA.

Side 30

Idsøe, E. C. & Skogen, K. (2019). Spesialpedagogikk for barn med stort læringspotensial I E. Befring, K.B. Næss & R. Tangen (red.): Spesialpedagogikk (s. 570-589). Cappelen Damm Akademisk. ISBN 978-82-02-59205-9. 19 s.

Idsøe, E.C. (2019). Barn med stort læringspotensial i barnehagen. Cappelen Damm Akademisk. ISBN 978-82-02-62538-2. 121 s.

Idsøe, E.C. (2019). Læringspotensial og psykisk helse, I: Mirjam Harkestad Olsen & Kjell Skogen (red.), Læringspotensial. Cappelen Damm Akademisk. ISBN 978-82-02-59812-9. kapittel 5. s 94 - 107

Idsøe, E. M. C. (2018). Motivasjon og tilpasset opplæring for elever med stort læringspotensial. Naturfag, (1), s. 20–24.

Idsøe, E. C. (2014). Elever med akademisk talent i skolen. Oslo: Cappelen Damm.

Idsøe, Ella Maria C. (2014). Tilpasset opplæring for elever med stort akademisk potensial, I: Mette Bunting (red.), Tilpasset opplæring- i forskning og praksis. Cappelen Damm Akademisk. ISBN 9788202419011. 8. s 165 - 178

Idsøe, E. C. & Skogen, K. (2011). Våre evnerike barn. Oslo: Cappelen Damm.

Olsen, M. H. (2017) Elever med stort læringspotensial – tilpasset opplæring. Pedlex Norsk Skoleinformasjon ISBN 978-82-8372-051-8

Smedsrud, J. & Skogen, K. (2016). Evnerike elever og tilpasset opplæring. Bergen: Fagbokforlaget.

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