The Student Equity and Talent Management Unit

(SETMU) Psycho-Social-

Educational programme Selection

Presentation format

•Background and context

• Selection process

• Lessons

• Tensions

Up to 2007 2008 2009

Numbers in 1999; Grades 3 and 2 respectively

~ 1 000 000 1 194 425 1 223 529

Reach Grade 12 ~ 500 000 533 561 44.67%

551 940 45.11%

Pass Grade 12 ~ 300 000 231 857 19.41%

334 718 27.35%

Qualify for University ~ 80 000 107 462 8.99%

109 697 8.96%

Qualify for STEM Studies ~ 25 000

Table: SA Schooling system, class of 2009 comparisons

National: Context and Need (cont.)

Student Equity Projects

• The Targeting Talent, Investing in Excellence, Facilitating Success Programme (TTP). 2007 – 2009; 2010 – 2012; 2011 – 2016)

• The Bale Scholarship Programme (BALE). (2007 – 2013)

• Go to University to Succeed Programme (GUTS) (2010 – 2013).

• The Leadership, Educational and Development Programme (LEAD) (2008 – 2010)

The Targeting Talent,

Investing in Excellence, Facilitating Success Programme (TTP)

Programme Goal

GOAL: To increase the academic, social and psychological preparation of first generation, academically talented learners from socio-economically disadvantaged and backgrounds and well resourced schools for admission to and success (retention) at South African selective universities

AIM: the programme aims to achieve this goal through the following phases Identification and selection of academically talented learners from socio-

economically disadvantaged backgrounds and well resourced schools.

• Working with the same cohort of academically talented learners over a three year period (grades 10, 11 and 12) in order to increase their academic, social and psychological preparation for admission to and success at South African selective universities.. GUTS programme for two years (grade 11 and 12)

- Tracking the TTP cohort for the duration of university and/or career destinations

LEVEL 1

Grade 10

• Rigorous academic winter 2 week residential programme for learners - Curriculum includes math, science, English language, computer science , forensic Science, information literacy, life skills, molecular literacy, art, dance and sport,

- Career exploration and workshops via Centre for Counseling and Career Development

• Winter educator 1 week residential training programme -Upgrading subject-specific and subject-didactical knowledge of teachers - Mentoring

• Community project • Family and community workshops •March and September supplementation – school curriculum

LEVEL 2

Grade 11

• Rigorous academic winter 2 week residential programme for learners - Curriculum includes math, science, English language, computer science , forensic Science, information literacy, Social Research, life skills, molecular literacy, music, dance and sport,

- Career exploration and workshops via Centre for Counseling and Career Development

• Winter educator 1 week residential training programme – Upgrading subject-specific and subject-didactical knowledge of teachers – Mentoring

• Community project • Family and community workshops •March and September supplementation – school curriculum

LEVEL 3

Grade 12

• Rigorous academic winter 2 week residential programme for learners - Curriculum includes math, science, English language, computer science , forensic Science, information literacy, Social Research, life skills, molecular literacy, music, dance and sport,

- Career exploration and workshops via Centre for Counseling and Career Development

• Winter educator 1 week residential training programme – Upgrading subject-specific and subject-didactical knowledge of teachers – Mentoring

• Community project •Family and community workshops •March and September supplementation – school curriculum

GROW TALENT, DON’T MINE IT

• Definitions of talent- tends to overlook or even be indifferent to most of the tensions, complexities and controversies associated professionally with the word.

• Two distinctions- broad versus specific, and potential versus accomplishment

• Any answer to the question of who is talented and who is not-tells as much about our values as it tells about the person we are labeling.

• Talent is both content and context dependant- and whether one’s knowledge and skill is recognised as talent depends on how much that knowledge or skill matters to others (cf. Csikszentmihalyi & Robinson, 1986 ).

• By arguing that ability is part of the individual-environment transaction, we take the potential out of the hands(or heads) of a few and instead treat it as an opportunity that is available to all although it may be actualised more frequently by some)

“It is very unlikely that we will ever discover a test that can be administered in childhood that will reliably predict eventual adult outcome.”

Michael Howe (1995)

Can tests accurately measure potential?

The shift from innate characteristic to alterable variable

• Bloom (1985), promoted the shift of talent from innate characteristics to alterable variable for two reasons:

1. In his research studies he was unable to find the innate qualities or characteristics that would identify talent early in childhood

2. The data collected by his team told a story again and again of a long term development of talent

• Critical variables for individuals in the Bloom studies became a commitment to talent over a long period of time, persistence, stick-to-itiveness, motivation, willingness to perservere even in the face of periods of failure

How to improve your IQ

• Writing • Reading • Watching Fiction • Changing Hobbies. • Solving Puzzles • Playing

Competitive Games • Breaking Routines • Exchanging

Cultural Views • Debating • Teaching

What do we know IQ?

"When it comes to improving intelligence, many researchers concluded that it was not possible.

Our findings, however, clearly show that this is not the case. Our brain is more plastic than we think.”

Professor Deborah Eyre

Jaeggi (2008)

.

Creating access for students with potential or talent? • Many students who have the potential for academic

excellence do not meet the criteria of high current achievement, but are most likely to develop their potential if given extra assistance.

• Lohman (2005) recommends that one should clearly distinguish between the academic needs of students who show high levels of current accomplishment and those who show promise for developing academic excellence.

• I would argue that it is for the latter group that access opportunities have to be created.

Professor Deborah Eyre

SELECTION PROCESS

• Multi-modal criteria approach

• Teacher nomination and observation ratings

• Learner biographical questionnaire +essay

• School results (range top 5% - 20%) – to measure learner’s school related performance)

• Parent nomination and observation rating

• Marker evaluation

• Selection committee discussion for each learner

Biographical critical tool

• The biographical allows for the `presentation of self' (Goffman 1959) in a way that empowers applicants, in contrast to the representation afforded by other instruments that measure scores, such as in English language achievement tests, which may objectify and so disempower the applicant.

The BQ allows an applicant to present • herself within the context of her own

experience and, in so doing, to reveal the traits or characteristics which correlate with success at university and provides opportunities for an applicant to reveal them.

Interpreting the BQ

• The BQ provides an understanding of the educational, economic, family, language and personal circumstances of each applicant.

• Context of financial and educational affluence are regarded as very different to similar results achieved in a context of disadvantage and hardship.

• Many candidates describe educational, economic and personal contexts characterized by conditions far from conducive to study

• The tendency to attribute the causes of events to issues over which one has control, is interpreted as an internal locus of control, in contrast to explaining events as beyond one's control. Such beliefs would enable a student to approach future tasks positively and purposefully.

Qualities identified • Evidence that a candidate has dealt in a

resourceful way with challenges in his/her own background

• Capacity for self-reflection

• Internal locus of control

• Evidence of achievement within own context

• Goal-directedness and career focus

• Awareness of community/political/social issues

• Ability to reflect critically on topical issues

• Evidence of English language and cognitive abilities

continued • Through the adaptation of the BQ for our programme

we have achieved an 80% admissions rate to H.E primarily because of the acute awareness that :

• Firstly, measures of achievement such as matric exams, language proficiency tests or psychometric tests lend themselves to a deficit interpretation of student performance.

• The BQ has enabled applicants who otherwise would not have gained admission to University the opportunity to present a narrative of their backgrounds comparable to those who are admitted to the university on the basis of matric scores which, for most students, are problematic as predictors of success at university.

Identifying the Talented Poor Schools need to:

• Move from relying on cut-off scores to looking at a preponderance of evidence;

• Move from asking teachers for recommendations to asking for their perceptions;

• Move from nominating selected students to whole-class screening; and

• Move from identifying gifted students only on the basis of schoolwork to factoring in environmental factors that affect school performance.

Slocumb + Payne (2000)

.

Lessons

• Identifying high potential in learners is a complex task

• Consideration of many factors (beh’s expressed at home, response to school tasks, economic contexts that may hinder demonstration of true potential) is important to determine a fair and equitable process

• Tensions between transformation and equity agendas

Zena Richards,

Project Manager: Student Equity and Talent Management Unit

University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg

Tel: 011 717 8662

Email: Zena.Richards@wits.ac.za

CONTACT DETAILS