1 / 31

Talent development for secondary students and teachers : Junior College Utrecht

Talent development for secondary students and teachers : Junior College Utrecht. Presentation to the summer school Science and Mathematics Education 2013 Ton van der Valk, Freudenthal Institute for Science and Mathematics Education/ JCU a.e.vandervalk@uu.nl ; www.uu.nl/jcu.

martina-oriole
Download Presentation

Talent development for secondary students and teachers : Junior College Utrecht

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Talent developmentforsecondarystudentsandteachers: Junior College Utrecht Presentation to the summer school Science and Mathematics Education 2013 Ton van der Valk, Freudenthal Institute for Science and Mathematics Education/ JCU a.e.vandervalk@uu.nl ; www.uu.nl/jcu

  2. The programme • 11.00 – 11.40 Introduction: • Why special attention to talent development? • JCU: what is it, its activities, who are its stakeholders? • Developments in JCU, from 2004 to 2013 • 11.40 – 12.00: a look at JCU student material for upper secondary • 12.00 – 13.00: Lunch • 13.00 – 14.00: Experiencing student activities for age 15 • 14.00 – 14.30: the JCU teacher programme • 14.30 – 15.00: discussion: what components of the JCU approach can be applied in your home countries?

  3. Talent development in the classroom • In Dutch science classes, teachers give much time and attention to the less able students • However, the more able students can get bored by repeated explanations, too easy exercises etc. • How to challenge them? Change in teaching in needed: differentiation • From ‘everybody in the class should reach the minimum level’ • To: ‘Everybody • should optimally develop his/her talents • should spent an equal amount of time on school work • is entitled to get equal time and attention from the teacher’

  4. The Dutch educational system • three levels in secondary education: • VMBO = preparing vocational • HAVO = higher general • VWO = pre-university • JCU focuses on VWO, grade 11, 12 • Maths, Phys, Chem, Bio optional in grade 10 – 12 • Grade 12: national exams give entrance to universities

  5. Junior College Utrecht (JCU) • What is JCU? • Partnership UU and 27 secondary schools • Science and Mathematics education to talented students • Why JCU? • to connect upper secondary to university education • to support talented secondary school students in their development towards excellence • to support their teachers and schools • How does JCU work? • A working place for improving the quality of science education • Including a teacher/school programme

  6. JCU stakeholders • Talented students (and their parents) • Challenging science education • Orientation to future science studies • Secondary science teachers • Recognition of potentially excellent, motivated students • Differentiation and enrichment • School principals • A school culture of excellence (instead of mediocrity) • Universities, science faculties, university teachers • Better connection between secondary and university education • Selection for honoursprogrammes • Higher efficiency rates; preventing drop-out • National policy • Higher PISA scores; more science students

  7. Empowerment and promoting talent development • Talent development asks for ‘empowerment’ People feel challenged, part of a team, having valuable contributions empowerment dimensions • Competence • Meaningfulness • Impact • Choice (Thomas & Veltman 1990; Frymier & Shulman 1996) • Teachers • are main stakeholders in promoting talent development • empowering by other stakeholders needed

  8. How has JCU empowered its stakeholders? Three stages in the development of JCU: • JCU 1.0: 2004 – 2007: start and settlement of campus programme • JCU 2.0: 2008 – 2012: dissemination of JCU lesson materials; towards talent programmes in the schools • JCU 3.0: 2012 - …. : connecting the campus and the school programmes

  9. Start of JCU • 2003: Initiative from staff of Utrecht University College • Support from Executive Board of UU, staff and FIsme • JCU director with connections to Executive Board • Visits to principals and science depts. of secondary schools • Financed by UU, schools • Support from gouvernmentalorganisations e.g. Platform Science and Technology  Empowerment of school and university teachers, but also some resistance  JCU 1.0: student programme

  10. JCU student programme2004 – ‘13 • Selection of students: by school and by JCU • 2 day a week at the UU-campus, 3 days in their home schools • 2 years: grade 11 and 12 • Maths, Phys, Chem, Bio • In 2004: start with 22 grade-11 students from 12 schools • In 2005: 50 students from 26 schools (+ 22 grade-12) • Since 2006: 50 grade-11 and 50 grade-12 students • At the end: regular national examinations + a JCU certificate

  11. Activities JCU 1.02004- 2007 • Programme development for Maths, Phys, Chem, Bio lessons • Syllabuses taught by selected upper secondary teachers (accelerated) • ‘enrichment modules’, by UU-teachers (FoS; GEO, MED) • Research projects in UU science departments • Community building • Adapting modules using student evaluations • Frequent contacts with Schools (teachers, parents), Faculties and Platform about progress • Students: good results; felt empowered • Growing enthusiasm of teachers; resistance faded away

  12. Developments 2007/08 • UU – Faculty of Science starts honours education • Curriculum reform: introduction of some new subjects, a.o. Nature Life and Technology (NLT) • Integrated science • Opportunities for making students acquainted with recent developments in science • New insights in JCU: • group of students is less homogeneous than expected (empowerment study: van der Valk et al. 2012) • Growing readiness in school for sharing JCU experiences • JCU implementation strategy applied to NLT modules: JCU  tested on partner schools  nationwide dissemination  JCU 2.0

  13. Activities JCU 2.02007 - 2012 • JCU embedded in Faculty of Science • JCU teacher programme: testing and adapting NLT-modules • 12 NLT modules developed, tested and nation wide (e.g. The Molecules of Life) • Differentiation and choices in JCU curriculum • ‘differentiation assignments’ developed and implemented (e.g. balancing bowls) • Choices between optional NLT-modules  Partner school teachers empowered • School principals see opportunities for further development • Faculties: experience impact JCU on schools and on students

  14. Activity: take a look at JCU teaching material • Make your choice: NLT-modules • Geosciences: ‘the dynamic earth’ • Biochemistry: ‘the molecules of life’ Optional assignments • Physics: Balancing Bowls • Chemistry: Molecule of the Month • Mathematics: Boardgame for Two What characteristics of the material are suited for promoting talent development?

  15. Developments towards JCU 3.0 • Honours colleges in all UU faculties; from 1st Ba year on • Policy makers: promote excellence and science in secondary schools • JCU schools: • Start developing excellence trajectories in the school • Participate in JCU teacher professionalization course • Talent development for all ages and streams • Matching for 1st year universityhonours • Faculty of Science wants to attract more students, in particular the excellent

  16. JCU 3.0: U-Talent • Aim: talent development trajectories for science and maths in JCU schools grade-7 to grade-12 programmes • Grade 7 – 10: a school programme + a small campus programme (one or twodays a year) • Grade 11 – 12: U-Talent Academy: a school programme + a 2-days-a-month campus programme

  17. U-Talent Academy starts in 2013 • 23 schools have selected 100 grade-11 students • Increase: 2014 to 27 schools, 2016: 150 students • School programmes including: • Differentiated teaching of syllabus topics (sciences, maths) • Enrichment ‘projects’ (60 hours a year) • Preparation for campus meetings • Community activities • Campus programme of 2 days a month • ‘University’ modules • Research projects • Community activities

  18. U-Talent for grades 7 - 10 • School programmes are being developed • Some schools: non-science subjects included • Other schools: not limited to the VWO-stream • Campus programmes started in 2011 • One or two days a year • Students can choose • University students are involved • Activity for you: bacteria in the hospital Some experiences: • Many students apply, more than expected • Enthusiastic reactions • More than 600 participants

  19. Activity: identification of bacteria in hospital • A U-Talent campus assignment, developed in 2013 • For grade-9 students (age 14/15) • One out of five orienting assignments, done on the first day • On the second day: students do investigation on the topic they have chosen. • Workshop by Robert Tatsis

  20. Characteristics of material suited for talent development It should reflect the following phases in the teaching: • Making a choice: what topic would I like to go into? Give short information about the options offered • The assignment (3 is an optimal group size) • orientation: what is the content, time, activities, ...? • Refreshing prior knowledge and application in a context • Gather new relevant knowledge (e.g. using Internet) • Apply new knowledge in an open setting (investigating, designing, …) • Completion: student groups • make a ‘product’ (poster, ppt, demo experiment, ..) • Present it to classmates, parents, … • get ‘reward’ e.g. by meaningful feedback (teacher, peers)

  21. The JCU teacher programmes Presentation to the summer school Science and Mathematics Education 2013 Ton van der Valk, Freudenthal Institute for Science and Mathematics Education/ JCU a.e.vandervalk@uu.nl ; www.uu.nl/jcu

  22. Goal of the teacher programmes • To empower science teachers in their teaching • To professionalise science teachers and their principals in: • Recognising differences in abilities, interests and learning preferences in the classroom • meeting these differences, in particular, meeting the needs of talented science students • stimulating students to fully explore and develop their science talents • acting in a inquisitive and reflective way • cooperating with their colleagues and principals in realising these goal

  23. Whatshould a teacher programmeinclude? • Discusswithyourneighbour: • Whatshould a teacher professionalisationprogrammeabout talent developmentinclude? • Write down different topics/ideas/activities • Select onevery important one

  24. Short plenary exchance • Report your most important idea/topic/activity for the teacher course

  25. Four programmes • Teacher development teams • Principal development teams • U-Talent Academy workshops in the schools • Course ‘promoting excellence in science classes’

  26. Teacher development teams • Teams of 10 – 15 teachers from different schools • guided by a staff member of JCU • Developing talent programme activities in their schools and classrooms • Exchange experiences from school and from their lessons • Frequency: 5 meeting a year • Products: • Teaching materials • Posters for the annual JCU-teacher conference, e.g. a poster about Archimedes in physics and maths lessons

  27. Principal development teams • Principals from JCU schools meet 5 times a year, for 2 hours • guided by a staff member of JCU • Discuss and develop common issues, in ‘12/13 • Differentiation • Learning community • U-Talent certificate • Report to the JCU conference • E.g. poster working towards an excellence certificate

  28. U-Talent Academy workshops in the schools • JCU reforms its curriculum into ‘U-Talent Academy’ • Schools have to develop a U-Talent Academy school programme • To stimulate this development, JCU staff has given workshops on all participating schools, about • differentiation in the classroom • realising a learning community • connection between school programme and campus programme • enrichment projects • Result: schools develop their U-Talent Academy school programme

  29. Professionalisation course ‘promoting excellence in science classes’ • An intensive course (two 24-hours conferences and four full day meetings) • Groups of ±20 science teachers from different schools • With guest speakers from the Netherlands and abroad • Topics: • What is excellence, talent; how can you recognise it • How to start a talent-promotion trajectory in the school? • How to convince your colleagues? • Models for compacting and enriching • How to motivate your talented students? • Cooperation with institutions for higher education • Intensive exchange of experiences with peers

  30. Thank you for your attention • a.e.vandervalk@uu.nl Sites: • www.uu.nl/jcu English • www.betadifferentiatie.nl • www.betavak-nlt.nl  English

More Related