GIFTED & ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION FOR ALL
(GEEA)
Antonius Tanan
EPSY 5194
2010
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
This
conception is developed for the context of Indonesia education system which has
three aspects to be considered. Firstly is the national standard of Indonesian
curriculum, it is stated that the national curriculum provides only a minimum standard. It means, the national curriculum open
for any rational and local enrichment. Secondly, the present policy to accommodate
gifted students is limited to acceleration and a pull out program especially to
prepare those who are gifted in math, science and biology to enter the Olympiad.
Thirdly there is a new strategy of the government to include entrepreneurship education
in the national curriculum starting in the academic year 2010/11.
CONTEXT & DEFINITION
Since
Indonesia is a very vast country of 235 million people (USA has about 310 million
people), has 17.508 islands and with a total land area of about 2 millions km2
(USA has about 9.83 millions km2), this conception is prepared especially for the schools in urban areas of Indonesia. They are the
schools that have parents from middle to upper class of social economy, they
can be convinced on the importance of gifted and entrepreneurship education and
they have financial capability to invest more in the education of their
children.
FROM INTEREST TO GIFTEDNESS TO TALENT
Firstly is interest, interest is an activity that create
attention, concern, curiosity and engagement of students. Secondly, for giftedness and talent, a definition of Cagne
(Cagne, 2004) is adopted. According to Cagne giftedness designates the
possession and use of untrained and spontaneously expressed superior natural
abilities (called aptitudes or gifts), in at least one ability domain, to a
degree that places an individual at least among the top 10% of his or her age
peers. And Talent designates the superior mastery of systematically developed
abilities (or skills) and knowledge in at least one field of human activity to
a degree that places an individual within at least the upper 10% of age peers
who are or have been active in that field or fields. The development model is as follows:
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STAGE
1: Celebrating Student Interest
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STAGE
2: Specific Gifted
Enrichment
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STAGE
3: Specific Talent
Enrichment for Mastery
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For all students in the school
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For a specific number of students (in
school services)
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For a very specific number of students (out of
school services)
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The purpose of this conception and its educational model firstly to create an
educational opportunity for all students to explore various interests and create a
creative product entrepreneurially based on their interests. Secondly, this model provides an opportunity to identify students’
talents through the exploration of their interests and their creative products. Thirdly, this model provides a specific curriculum modification for those identified as gifted students. Students can
move from in the school enrichment program (stage 2) to out of the school
enrichment program (stage 3) if they can achieve the top 10%. However
in the last stage the role of parents become dominant. Parents must actively
assist their children and financially invest their money for a very specific
learning program. Fourthly, this model provides an
opportunity for parents as the first care givers to involve in the educational
process of their students.
STAGE 1: Celebrating INTEREST
Stage 1 is created to
accommodate the principle of making schools places for talent development for all young people
(Renzulli, 2009). In this stage 1 a series of theme is created to
provide an opportunity for the development of giftedness and talent across the
school years from Kindergarten to grade 12.
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KINDERGARTEN
(2 years)
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EXPLORING
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School will facilitate students to have
various exploration opportunities on the expression of talents in the human
life (e.g. visiting museum, factories, arranging
demonstrations, trips, and/or performances. Using varied materials such as
films, slides, videos, print and non-print media)
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EMPOWERING
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Schools
will facilitate students through the development of Interest Group to have an
opportunity to enhance the selected interests.
Students
will be grouped base on the Product Planning Guide (Renzulli,
J.S., Leppien, J.H., & Hays,T.S,
2000). They are Artistic Products Interest Group, Performance Products Interest Group, Spoken Products Interest Group, Visual Products Interest Group, Models/Construction Products Interest Group,
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ELEMENTARY
(6
years)
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EMPOWERING
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It
is the same as above however for elementray students there is additional
Interest Groups they are Leadership Products Interest Group, Written Products, Math Interest Group, Science Interest Group.
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EXPERIENCING
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Schools
will facilitate students in the Interest Group to perform in the school or
other public area as volunteers
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JUNIOR
HIGH SCHOOL (3 years)
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EXPERIENCING
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It is the same as elementary but in the junior high
school years the performance can be in a more crowded area.
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ENTERPRISING
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Schools
will facilitate students in the Interest Group to have an experience a profit
seeking by selling their performance/products/services within the boundary of
the school.
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SENIOR
HIGH SCHOOL (3 years)
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ENTERPRISING
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It is the same as above.
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EXPOSING
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Schools
will facilitate students in the Interest Group to have an experience a profit
seeking by selling their performance/products/services in a real market
place.
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There are three main benefits
of this creation of theme. Firstly it allow all students to explore various
interest, to decide one or more interests to be developed and to have an
opportunity to bring their creative product/service into the market place for a
financial transaction in an ethical way. Secondly it allow students,
teachers and parents to watch carefully the progress of students along the K12
years and they may find a talent bloom at any time as Renzulli ever stated that
gifted behaviors can be developed in certain people, at certain times and under
certain circumstances (Renzulli, 2009). Thirdly it will allow all students to
experience gifted behavior exploration and training.
THE IMPLEMENTATION OF STAGE 1
There are two main programs to
implement the Stage 1. One is Entrepreneurship Week; it is a week program
within one semester of school period to do an exploration as Type 1 and Type 2
Enrichment Triad Model. Two is Entrepreneurship Month, it is a typical Type 3
Enrichment but it has an entrepreneurship approach as described in the above
Entrepreneurship Project in the school.
With this model every students will experience two times of
Entrepreneurship Week and one time of Entrepreneurship Month every year.
SOME NOTIFICATIONS
This model cannot accommodate
those students who have talent on sport or a very specific talent due to the
limitation of school facility.
STAGE 2
The Stage 2 basically is a
Pull Out Program, students who are identified gifted are removed from regular
class rooms for a certain amount of hours in a week or in a month to receive a
specific training from a specific domain trainer or a gifted specialist. They
may have compacting curriculum experience or single-subject acceleration.
STAGE 3
Students who show superior
performance according to the domain trainer and a scholar in the domain can
move from Stage 2 to Stage 3. The presence of a scholar is very important as what
Subotnik and Jarvin ever stated that from
expertise to scholarly productivity or artistry, relies on the opportunity for
master teachers (Stenberg & Davison, Eds, 2005.) The
Stage 3 learning experience will take place outside the school and the parents
will bear most of the financial cost. School may give some exceptions for these
students for not attending some programs in the school. This Stage 3 type
program was a common practice in Indonesia especially when preparing students
for Physic Olympiad. Students live together with their scholar trainer in the training
center for months.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
EDUCATION
Entrepreneurship Education
becomes an important issue in developing countries since the the unemployment
rate of youth ages 15 to 24
has increased significantly. It is also becoming a specific theme of President
Obama in building a new relationship with MMC (Moslem Majority Country).
President Obama has invited more than 250 delegations from more than 50
countries to attend The Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship in Washington
DC at 26 and 27 April 2010, the main discussion was how the US government can
empower entrepreneurship in MMC and Indonesia has been selected to be a Pilot
Country together with Egypt.
Entrepreneurship
education is an education to assist and facilitate students to have an ability
to turn idea into reality creatively, or to turn “garbage” become “gold”. In a broader concept it is an education
for entrepreneurial mindset, attitudes/characters, skills and knowledge,
which can be practiced in the various aspect of human professions (business,
government, schools and society), therefore; it promotes the development of personal
qualities that are relevant to entrepreneurship such as opportunity creation,
creativity, risk-taking and responsibility. In a more specific concept it is training
in how to create a new business or venture. The training will include
the knowledge of various business functions such as market survey, promotion,
selling, financial literacy and people management.
Entrepreneurship Education in the context of Gifted
Education aims to help student to be a creative producer in a real market
setting and can create a profitable transaction.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION AND THE
ENRICHMENT TRIAD MODEL
I would like to extend the enrichment model of Renzulli into an entrepreneurship
education model because the model is very supportive to entrepreneurship
learning especially for these five reasons: it has a process of deciding a
target audience, it has a life skill and thinking skill training (Type 2
Project), it has a project base learning process (Type 3 Project), it enhances
creativity and lastly it provides the presence of mentor. However to put those learning experience
closer to entrepreneurship three more additional steps are added. One, a survey
to the target audience for the purpose to understand the real needs of the
target audience, secondly a verification process, it is a process to verify the
product idea to the target audience before the product itself will be presented
to the target audience, thirdly the opportunity to do a financial transaction process.
The following procedure will be the standard process
of developing an Entrepreneurship Project (Entrepreneurship Month) within the schools;
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1. The
selection of Target Audience
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· Students
must discuss and decide the selected target audience. This is a common
practice in the real market place.
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2. The
survey of the Target Audience
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· The
products or the services or the performances must serve the real needs of
target audience. The purpose of the survey is to find and understand the real
needs of the target audience.
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3. The
Creative Process
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· This
is the process of exercising all possible creative and new product
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4. The
Entrepreneurship & Production Training
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· This
is training on entrepreneurship and how to produce a creative product from a
real expert.
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5. The
Market Experience
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· This
is the event that are arranged to provide opportunity for students to market
their product in a real market setting situation. Students must set a price,
do marketing and seek a reasonable profit ethically.
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6. The
Report (financial report
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· Students
will make a financial report and will learn financial literacy.
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7. The
Reflection.
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· Students
will learn from each others this entrepreneurship experiential learning.
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How does this conception of giftedness
compare with other conceptions?
There
are three uniquenesses of this
conception and model compare to others. One, it has an entrepreneurship
education approach, two it involves parents in the development of the students
and lastly it has a series and continual theme from Kindergarten to High
School.
How should gifted individuals be
identified?
The Stage 1
is a learning process to enrich gifted behavior for all students, there is no
identification in this stage. The identification plan will be applied for
students to enter the Stage 2 (specific gifted enrichment in the school) from
Stage 1. The identification will include school achievement, test of general
intellectual ability, creativity test, product portfolio and nomination from
teachers, parents, peers and the students themselves. From Stage 2 to Stage 3,
students must show a superior performance among their peers and a scholar of
the domain will involve in the identification process.
How should gifted
individuals be instructed in school and elsewhere?
There
are three main places of learning and growing for gifted students, they are the
family (home), the schools and the specific learning centers for the gifted
(Stage 3). There are four “teachers” for this educational process; they are the
gifted specialist, the domain trainer, the parents and the scholar of the
domain who will act as a mentor. The gifted specialist will assist the students
and parents to develop a career goal, a road map and a curriculum modification
for the students. The domain trainers can be teachers who have specific ability
to help students to move from Stage 2 to Stage 3. The parents will act as a
motivator, life skill trainer and character trainer for their children and the
scholars will act as mentors. The involvement of
all these people is very crucial and Felhusen ever stated that genetic ptentials unfold in interaction with
stimulating experiences structured by parents, family, home, schools, teachers
and curricula (Sternberg & Davidson, Eds, 2005)
The
gifted potential must be transformed to gifted performance
and it needs a larger skill than the domain itself. Students need Task Skill
(communication and human relations skill) and Task Character (perseverance,
determination), schools should develop the development of Task Skill and the Task Character within the curriculum for
all students because it will benefit all students. Gifted specialist and
parents of the gifted can develop “a curriculum” for the development of Task
Skill and Task Character in the family and parents actually must learned and
trained to be a life skill coach and character trainer for their children.
Task Skill and Task Character are
important for both employability and entrepreneurship reason. Employers taking part in National Association of Colleges and Employers or NACE’s Job Outlook 2010 survey, ranked communication
skills at the top of the skills they seek in potential employees. Rounding out
the top five were analytical skills, the ability to work in a team, technical
skills, and a strong work ethic (http://www.naceweb.org/Press/Releases/Employers_Rank_Communication_Skills_First_Among_Job_Candidate_Skills_and_Qualities_%281-21-10%29.aspx).
Gallup Survey among successful people
of America (Gallup, Jr & Gallup, 1986) found out that these traits or
characters are the character of successful people: being a hardworker, not
afraid to pursue new ideas, ventures, take risks, caring about other people,
not afraid to be different and ambition. It is a real challenge for all people
who nurture the giftedness of our children to be able to act as a character
trainer as well.
How should the
achievement of gifted individuals be assessed?
I
propose two kind of assessment. Firstly is scholar examination. A legitimated
scholar or a group of scholars can evaluate the performance of the gifted. Secondly is market acceptance. The success of
the gifted is evaluated base on how they are successful bringing their products
to the market place. Both assessments can be placed
as a separate assessment or as a unified assessment. For entrepreneurship
purpose it is important to have a market acceptance. By doing this we make sure
that the creative products of the gifted have successfuly created values (profit, people & planet bottom
line). It is a financial profit to sustain the operation, it
is a respect to the dignity of human being and it is an ecological
Reference
Cagne, F, A Diffrentiated Model of Giftedness and Talent
(DMGT), 2004
Crouse R, Krutila D, Waterman C, Gifted Education Program
Review, Peel District School Board, May 2009.
Gallup
G,Jr, Gallup, A.M, The Great American Success Story, Dow-jones Irwin,Illinois,
1986.
Renzulli, J.S., Leppien, J.H.,
& Hays,T.S. The Multiple Menu Model, Mansfield Center, CT:Creative Learning
Press, 2000.
Stenberg.
R.J, Davidson,J.E (Eds), Conceptions of Giftedness, New York, Cambridge
University Press, 2005.
Renzulli,
J.S, Gubbins, E.J, Mc Millen, K.S, Eckert, R.D, Little, C.A, Systems &
Models for Developing Programs For The Gifted & Talented, 2nd edition, CT,
06250, Creative Learning Press, 2009.
