AIMS
THE COURSE AIMS AT MAKING THE STUDENTS FAMILIAR WITH THE CONTEMPORARY
RESEARCH - TRENDS AND RESULTS - ON GIFTEDNESS, SOCIETY AND ECONOMY IN AN
INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE, WITH A SPECIAL FOCUS ON CHINA.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
Knowledge
- being familiar with the overlapping fields of giftedness, society and economics in an
international perspective with a special focus on China
- understanding the relevance of „talent war” in economics and social development
- knowing the global and cultural aspects of the topic of the course
Skills
- asking relevant questions on the topic
- improving academic writing skills
Attitudes
- being open to G/T as an academic issue
- being open to the cultural differences in the topic of the course.
MAIN TOPICS
- definitions and models of giftedness/talentedness (G/T)
- G/T in the social arena: education, economy
- the "Talent war"
- individual and team creativity
ACTIVITIES
- The course is based on the teacher’s recorded and live prelegation sessions (both 1st and 2nd weeks) and the students’ PPT presentations (only 2nd week)
- The first lesson will be an introductory lesson to the topic and also an organizing period of the work of the course.
- Each students must choose a team and a topic for presentation
- Also the students will be expected to prepare
questions
swot analysis
an essay
Since the early 90-ies one of the most influential terms in economy is „war for talent” – because in knowledge intensive economies human talent is the main resource which is needed both in highly developed and already developing economies. However, up until today many economists are not very well informed on the nature of talent (or giftedness) and therefore they hold not very professional but rather weak and lay ideas on the nature of giftedness/talentedness and on the interrelated relationship of talent and economy. Actually, this is a deficiency for them in the "economic battle for the talents" .
The main goal of the course is to shed light on the mutual relationship of giftedness/
talentedness and economy. To build up this knowledge, at first students have to learn about the most influential theories and models on giftedness/talentedness, which are concentrating mainly on three basic human, individual components which traditionally are taken as stable components of human personality: intelligence, creativity and motivation. Then we turn our attention towards the more complex and dynamic theories and models of giftedness/talentedness which conceptualize giftedness/talentedness as socially and culturally constructed phenomena. From this point we already can concentrate on the most important details of giftedness/talentedness in social context: eg. which way they are conceptualized and socially constructed by different cultures and societies, and how they are developed and supported, controlled or restrained in given social contexts. Partly we will examine a number of important national examples from the West and the East on the relationship of education and economy in a broader sense and national „gifted-policies” – USA, Israel, Singapore, Germany etc. -, and also we will examine some important general issues in a worldwide perspective: eg. the identification methods of the most able youngs by the most effective teaching institutions all over the world, gifted/talented nurturing programs in higher educational institutions, and the transition processes from the educational institutions to the world of economy, also in an international perspective.
Finally we will concentrate on Chinese society and economy, since „talent war” for this rapidly emerging society and economy is a particularly important issue (as it was already shown by a series of McKinsey-researches and other investigations). We will learn about the history and traditions of gifted/talented identification processes and nurturing methods in China respectively from the ancient times up to the present, and also about the contemporary situation in this field. Still our main focus will remain the overlapping fields of giftedness/talentedness and economy today.
