TDC – Steenbeek (lecture 5)
The dynamics of children‘s science and technology talents: A conceptual
framework for early science education
• Talent Power – initiative to promote science and technology skills and interest in young
children
◦ unexplored talents in children
◦ knowledge about brain development and neurocognitive processes are important
• aim of paper: discuss theoretical framework of improving and evaluating science education
for young children
Major concepts
• concept of (science and technology) talent
◦ advantage:
▪ takes a positive stance and focuses on the existing talents of young children, instead
of associating aim of improving science education to a deficit approach (e.g. lag
behind other countries)
◦ assumes every child is talented
◦ disadvantage:
▪ most people see talent as rare gift → giftedness (talent and gifted often treated as
synonyms) → entity or dispositional view on talent
• such view hampers development and reduces efforts in learning and teaching
◦ incremental view: ability can grow and develop as consequence of education effort
▪ increases learning oriented activities, higher development
◦ view of teacher on talent is of practical importance → need for usable, developmentally
oriented notion of talent
• adult’s ability to see talented reasoning, acting and exploring of young children in context of
science and technology problems
◦ expert has ability to intuitively pick up educationally relevant information in child’s
behavior → not about explicit knowledge or ability to carry out highly protocoled chains
of action
◦ advantage:
▪ forms starting point for empowerment-oriented way of professionalizing teachers,
which must lead to better informed intuition and immediate and adaptive action
◦ disadvantage:
▪ emphasis on perceptual aspects of expertise → lead to belief that seeing alone is
enough and that learning and development will take care of themselves
◦ educational action and perception are coupled in continuous dynamic loop → still need
to figure out how establish loop
• science talent map
◦ defined as evidence-based instrument that provides insight int question which science
talents children have
▪ not clear if explores child’s science learning potential or intended to describe status
quo based on standard testing results
◦ map is needed of potentials of children as well as educators, which help practitioners to
stimulate development and explore new ways instead of confining action to wrongly
interpreted normative data
→ talent is an emergent, distributed and dynamic property
, TDC – Steenbeek (lecture 5)
The scientific context
• successful programs are based on mix of active and inquiry learning, the child’s self-
regulated exploration and questioning and educational guidance and teaching by teachers
with high-level educational skills
• in successful science learning and education the professional quality of teach is key factor
• complex dynamic systems theory:
◦ explains how processes self-organize in interaction between short-term dynamics of
action and long-term dynamics of development
• models in educational context:
1. dynamic model of (short-term) joint action:
▪ activities emerge through intertwining of actions of agents that participate in this
event with particular interests or concerns, evaluations, communications and tools to
realize their interests
• major interests: competence, autonomy, relatedness
• concerns are self-organized in interaction (teacher and children)
2. dynamic model of (long-term) scaffolding and co-adaption
▪ growth, learning and development are deeply transactional processes
▪ “push-me-pull-you” processes → child’s progress triggers adult’s adaptive action to
child which forms primary condition for child’s development
▪ transactional processes / co-adaption: successful and unexpected growth, as well as
stagnation and decline of development
Explaining the development of science talent in young children
• child’s science and technology talent takes form of dynamic skill
• studies on physical and technological phenomena have shown that teachers hold mental
models with a variety of misconceptions and are thus, likely to transfer these misconceptions
to their students → active reconstruction is needed
• How can child’s dynamic skills in science and technology become more complex and more
autonomous and competent in performance of this skill?
◦ Skill employs in concrete here-and-now situations which is each time new, assembled
out of elements retrievable from the person’s memory and elements emerging in actual
context of concrete actions
◦ scientific reasoning skill: take form of science and technology activity that emerges in
dynamics between child, adult and materials that unfolds in real- time
→ instead of focusing on talent assessment one should focus on educational context (e.g.
classroom)
• dispositional position describes talent as person’s ability or collection of abilities that will
enable person to reach excellence in particular domain if ability/abilities are put to proper
use → talent is a property (collection of properties of particular person that determine
effectiveness of learning events or experiences)
◦ excellence: relational property → one excels relative to some standards
• giftedness is talent that is not yet observable
• talent result of extended effort → talented people intrinsically motivated
• talent is multidimensional phenomenon consisting of variety of components which can
differ in same domain between individuals
• talent is a developmental and dynamic property
◦ same talent may emerge at different point in development for different persons, and
maybe eventually disappear
▪ development of talent is a non-additive interaction between talent-promoting aspects
and properties (multiplicative model/multiplier effect)
The dynamics of children‘s science and technology talents: A conceptual
framework for early science education
• Talent Power – initiative to promote science and technology skills and interest in young
children
◦ unexplored talents in children
◦ knowledge about brain development and neurocognitive processes are important
• aim of paper: discuss theoretical framework of improving and evaluating science education
for young children
Major concepts
• concept of (science and technology) talent
◦ advantage:
▪ takes a positive stance and focuses on the existing talents of young children, instead
of associating aim of improving science education to a deficit approach (e.g. lag
behind other countries)
◦ assumes every child is talented
◦ disadvantage:
▪ most people see talent as rare gift → giftedness (talent and gifted often treated as
synonyms) → entity or dispositional view on talent
• such view hampers development and reduces efforts in learning and teaching
◦ incremental view: ability can grow and develop as consequence of education effort
▪ increases learning oriented activities, higher development
◦ view of teacher on talent is of practical importance → need for usable, developmentally
oriented notion of talent
• adult’s ability to see talented reasoning, acting and exploring of young children in context of
science and technology problems
◦ expert has ability to intuitively pick up educationally relevant information in child’s
behavior → not about explicit knowledge or ability to carry out highly protocoled chains
of action
◦ advantage:
▪ forms starting point for empowerment-oriented way of professionalizing teachers,
which must lead to better informed intuition and immediate and adaptive action
◦ disadvantage:
▪ emphasis on perceptual aspects of expertise → lead to belief that seeing alone is
enough and that learning and development will take care of themselves
◦ educational action and perception are coupled in continuous dynamic loop → still need
to figure out how establish loop
• science talent map
◦ defined as evidence-based instrument that provides insight int question which science
talents children have
▪ not clear if explores child’s science learning potential or intended to describe status
quo based on standard testing results
◦ map is needed of potentials of children as well as educators, which help practitioners to
stimulate development and explore new ways instead of confining action to wrongly
interpreted normative data
→ talent is an emergent, distributed and dynamic property
, TDC – Steenbeek (lecture 5)
The scientific context
• successful programs are based on mix of active and inquiry learning, the child’s self-
regulated exploration and questioning and educational guidance and teaching by teachers
with high-level educational skills
• in successful science learning and education the professional quality of teach is key factor
• complex dynamic systems theory:
◦ explains how processes self-organize in interaction between short-term dynamics of
action and long-term dynamics of development
• models in educational context:
1. dynamic model of (short-term) joint action:
▪ activities emerge through intertwining of actions of agents that participate in this
event with particular interests or concerns, evaluations, communications and tools to
realize their interests
• major interests: competence, autonomy, relatedness
• concerns are self-organized in interaction (teacher and children)
2. dynamic model of (long-term) scaffolding and co-adaption
▪ growth, learning and development are deeply transactional processes
▪ “push-me-pull-you” processes → child’s progress triggers adult’s adaptive action to
child which forms primary condition for child’s development
▪ transactional processes / co-adaption: successful and unexpected growth, as well as
stagnation and decline of development
Explaining the development of science talent in young children
• child’s science and technology talent takes form of dynamic skill
• studies on physical and technological phenomena have shown that teachers hold mental
models with a variety of misconceptions and are thus, likely to transfer these misconceptions
to their students → active reconstruction is needed
• How can child’s dynamic skills in science and technology become more complex and more
autonomous and competent in performance of this skill?
◦ Skill employs in concrete here-and-now situations which is each time new, assembled
out of elements retrievable from the person’s memory and elements emerging in actual
context of concrete actions
◦ scientific reasoning skill: take form of science and technology activity that emerges in
dynamics between child, adult and materials that unfolds in real- time
→ instead of focusing on talent assessment one should focus on educational context (e.g.
classroom)
• dispositional position describes talent as person’s ability or collection of abilities that will
enable person to reach excellence in particular domain if ability/abilities are put to proper
use → talent is a property (collection of properties of particular person that determine
effectiveness of learning events or experiences)
◦ excellence: relational property → one excels relative to some standards
• giftedness is talent that is not yet observable
• talent result of extended effort → talented people intrinsically motivated
• talent is multidimensional phenomenon consisting of variety of components which can
differ in same domain between individuals
• talent is a developmental and dynamic property
◦ same talent may emerge at different point in development for different persons, and
maybe eventually disappear
▪ development of talent is a non-additive interaction between talent-promoting aspects
and properties (multiplicative model/multiplier effect)
