How to Develop Innovators: Lessons from Nobel Laureates and

Great Entrepreneurs. Innovation Education.

Professor Larisa Shavinina

Université du Québec en Outaouais, Canada

E-mail: larisa.shavinina@uqo.ca

Innovation-based economy

• needs innovators.

• What is innovation?

• What is creativity?

• Innovation gap.

This presentation

is based on the preliminary findings from 3 ongoing projects:

• early childhood and adolescent education of Nobel laureates in science (supported by the SSHRC grant),

• their academic acceleration (supported by the IRPA grant, The University of Iowa), and

• the phenomenon of individual innovation (supported by the FQRSC grant)

The common goal of 3 projects

• how to fully develop scientific talents and innovative abilities.

• The concept “innovative abilities” refers to a range of talents necessary for successful implementation of (new) ideas into practice in the form of new products, processes, and services. They include entrepreneurial giftedness, exceptional creativity, intuition, wisdom, excellence, managerial talent, and leadership.

The main finding of the first project

• Nobel laureates in science had at least one GREAT teacher.

• What does it mean?

• What are applications for gifted education? Gifted children should be taught by gifted teachers.

Lessons learned from today’s children: the case of my son

• Kids are interested in why not all Nobel laureates in science were good boys or girls at school (1st degree of interest).

• This initial interest motivates kids to learn more about laureates’ discoveries (2nd degree of interest).

What are the outcomes?

• Result: kids are becoming seriously interested in science (3rd degree of interest).

• By-product: he is going to write a book on how “supposed” delinquent boys and girls in school still managed to make great scientific discoveries and became Nobel laureates (4th degree of interest).

• Final outcome: deep involvement in science (the highest degree of interest)

The phenomenon of individual innovation

refers to a rare group of individuals, who possess by a unique ability to both generate great ideas and to implement them into practice in the form of new products, services, and processes by putting into place all the necessary organizational, human, and ‘environmental’ structures.

The main characteristics of innovators

• ability to implement things into practice (the essence of innovation)

• unique vision (the essence of giftedness)

Great innovators are characterized

by a unique combination of entrepreneurial giftedness, exceptional creativity, practical intuition, applied wisdom, excellence, managerial talent, and leadership (www.innocrex.com).

Entrepreneurial giftedness refers to

• talented individuals who have succeeded in business by creating new ventures with at least a minimal financial reward (fulfilled entrepreneurial giftedness) or

• who demonstrated an exceptional potential ability to succeed (prospective entrepreneurial giftedness).

The two directions of my research on entrepreneurial giftedness

• Its early signs

• Micro-social factors in its development

Early manifestations of entrepreneurial giftedness

• Special: do real, practical projects and implement their ideas into practice, etc.

• General: initiative, creativity, risk-taking, competitiveness, perseverance to succeed, hard working, etc.

Micro-social factors in the development of entrepreneurial

giftedness

• parents (i.e., nuclear family),

• other relatives (i.e., extended family),

• “significant others,” and

• great contemporaries

Innovation education: a new direction in gifted and general

education • It refers to a wide range of educational

interventions aimed at developing and transforming child talent into adult innovation. That is, those societal actions aimed at preparing (gifted) children to become adult innovators.

• Such educational interventions should include, but should not be limited to, the seven interrelated components.

Structure of innovation education

• The existing programs for the gifted, which proved their effectiveness.

• New programs, which can be based on the latest advances in the field of giftedness (e.g., research on Nobel laureates).

• The essentials of deadline management.

Structure of innovation education (cont.)

• Programs aimed at the development of metacognitive abilities of the gifted. That is, special emphasis should be made on the fostering their abilities to implement things: the so-called executive abilities.

• A general ‘know-what’ and ‘know-how’ about innovation science, the basics of innovation.

• Courage-related issues. For innovators to succeed, the courage is compulsory.

The immediate tasks for advancing STEM agenda

encourage school principals and teachers to attend 2 workshops:

• How to develop scientific talents of Nobel calibre: Lessons learned from early childhood and adolescent education of Nobel Prize winners, and

• Innovation education as a way to develop innovators (www.innocrex.com).

Thank you!

• Questions?

• My e-mail address:

Larisa.Shavinina@uqo.ca