talent and education

Talent and education

Catalonia has an educational system that does not assess norencourage talent and excellence. The structure of its schools keepsan organisation that is still following the traditional principles of agegroups and a rigid subject-related timetable. The school curriculum isbare of interdisciplinary proposals and effort is not linked to thepupil’s cognitive interest. Teachers often do not have the rightprofessional competence to serve the immense diversity in theirclassroom and get the best out of most pupils’ learning capacities.Given this scenario, a shift in the educational standard is necessary.Schools clearly need to go for not only being inclusive but also forexcellence so current homogeneity is replaced by a large variety ofdidactic methods including an effective use of LKT*. The newpedagogic model shall not place the deficit, difficulty or problem butthe talent potential everybody has inside at its core.

ENRIC ROCA

* Learning and Knowledge Technologies.

Can education make better brains?The answer is emphatically yes.

Blakemore & Frith, 2007

Introduction

Once the educational systems in Western coun-tries have achieved the key goal of ensuring ba-sic compulsory education for the whole of thepopulation, one of the main demands currentlyposed by society to the educational system isquality – «quality for all», as the OECD educa-tion ministers called for in 1991.

Our educational system is unable to recognise talent, it is notprepared for this. Being unable toeven diagnose it, it cannot fosternor take advantage of it.

There is no doubt that the concept of quality ap-plied to education has countless connotationsand refers to multiple variables with different ef-fects. However, we all agree that educationalquality is forcibly linked to a good level of learn-ing and training results of its beneficiaries, i.e.pupils. Such a level ensures the acquisition ofbasic curricular competencies for the maximumpossible of compulsory school pupils on the onehand, and allows the excellent to stand out onthe other. Especially, it shall allow the vast ma-jority of schoolchildren to make maximumprogress in those contents for which they haveor could have talent.

Generally speaking, the educational system hasa maximum 10% of highly skilled or overgiftedpupils, but it can help that a much higher rate oftalented comes up. This is the big challenge, butalso the great opportunity to improve our edu-cational system has, at least in Catalonia, oncestating the results of the latest reports on thesituation of education in our country, with verypoor excellence rates.

We are not doing well in excellence nor are wein medium-high performance.1 Our educationalsystem is unable to recognise talent, it is notprepared for this. Being unable to know and di-agnose it, it cannot foster nor take advantage ofit. The result is that we have pupils concentrat-ing in the mid range of the spectrum. Althoughwe do not have a very large proportion at thebottom either, officially admitted school drop-out rates approach 30% at the end of compulso-ry secondary school, which is also the end of basic education for the whole of the population.These figures are very worrying and require adetermined, courageous reaction to invert thistrend with everybody’s aid.

The reaction needs to take place on many frontssimultaneously. We need to raise the excellencethreshold in the system, increase both quantita-tively and qualitatively the rate of pupils rangingtop in educational performance and –most im-portantly– able to deploy all their talent poten-tial at school without hindrance.

Highly skilled pupils at our schools will need to be properlyassessed and coached, but it isespecially necessary to takeadvantage of the potential orexplicit talent shown by the vastmajority in a given school subjector any other activity in life.

A distinction needs to be made between a tal-ented and a highly skilled or overgifted pupil(CASTELLÓ & MARTÍNEZ, 1999, pp. 11-12; ROCA,2007, p. 38). Differently from the latter, the former can be talented in a very specific areaor in a subset of that area, but in the others–especially academic ones– they can even dopoorly. This does not usually occur with pupilswith high cognitive abilities. It is obvious thathighly skilled pupils at our schools will need tobe properly assessed and coached, but it is es-pecially necessary to take advantage of the po-tential or explicit talent shown by the vast

Talent management114

majority in a given school subject or any otheractivity in life (social, cultural, sports, artistic,emotional, etc.).

In the following sections we will go through thedifferent components of our educational systemand look if current institutional and social or-ganisation, management and culture are readyto recognise and foster talent or if they ratherhide, do not foster or simply do not perceive it.

Does the structure of theeducational system andschools foster talent?

Despite different reforms undertaken in the lastdecades, the structure and organisation of theeducational system is directly rooted in the Industrial Revolution and thus the 19th century.Schools with many pupils, especially in second-ary school, criteria to distribute schoolchildrenby age only, curricula based on age-old tradi-tional subjects, a basically disciplinary teachingstructure, final certification entitling to a degreeonly valid with the legitimacy of the system it-self, etc. – in such a structure the main goal ofwhich was originally to ensure basic literacy tothe whole of the population so they could maketheir way through a society and labour marketwhere reading, writing and counting skills wereabsolutely indispensable, entering the 21st cen-tury with still the same structure and requiringadditionally interdisciplinary functional skillsfor demanding professional capacity-buildingas well as skills in personal and social maturityis like expecting to win a Formula 1 race withan old Mini.

We all agree that to provide accordingly trainedpeople and professionals to enter a competitive,advanced society with a good deal of addedvalue, we need an educational system encour-aging entrepreneurship, innovation, talent,commitment and excellence. Can our schoolsmeet this target without tackling with couragethe deep change necessary to do it at structural,

organisational, curricular and institutional andprofessional culture level? What is the environ-ment like in our current schools and classroomsto make us think that we are going the way ofeffort, innovation, self-discipline and wish toprogress?

To provide accordingly trainedpeople and professionals to enter acompetitive, advanced society witha good deal of added value, weneed an educational systemencouraging entrepreneurship,innovation, talent, commitment andexcellence.

However, a close look at the reality of our class-rooms shows that most pupils are careless, withno enthusiasm for study and even less for ef-fort, showing routine-like and lazy attitudes. Itis a kind of pupils who, according to E. Miró,«have too many difficulties in listening, toomany difficulties in reading, too many difficul-ties in finishing what they start» (MIRÓ, 2008,p. 41). The work pattern given priority at ourschools very often conveys the idea to school-children that working means to fill out sheets,do exercises, endless tasks, either individuallyor in teams, etc. and once these things aredone, «they confound having done it withknowing how to do it» (PUJOLÀS, 2008, p. 7).The question is: is school to study, learn andunderstand different contents, or is the mainactivity producing for the sake of producing, i.e.that thing called «activities»? In this respect, itshall not come as a surprise that when lookingat how productive results have evolved, with atypical assessment that has traditionally beenused to «measure» the IQ (WISC test), it comesout that there has been an eighteen-point in-crease within 55 years on the overall resultscale. However, the increase is just a mere threepoints in the more scholastic subjects (vocabu-lary, arithmetic and information), while it is 28points in Raven’s progressive matrices and 24 insimilarities (FLYNN, 2008, pp. 32-33).

115paradigmes / Issue no. 1 / December 2008

Social, spatial and adaptive intelligence hasmade spectacular progress. And yet the resultsmost typically connected with school have stag-nated. Why? Isn’t it that the educational systemhas not managed to adapt to new cultural, so-cial, economic and any other change our societyhas experienced?

The question is: is school to study, learn and understanddifferent contents, or is themain activity producing for thesake of producing, i.e. that thingcalled «activities»?

Why have we made progress in some fields butnot in others? Although it may seem paradoxi-cal, perhaps it is because in some there was noother way than doing it under social pressure,under the need of putting in dedication and efforts, perseverance and heart, while in themore scholastic issues the very institution hasprevented significant innovations.

Effort is necessary to achieve excellence and getthe best out of our talent skills, and constant incentives and interest are necessary as a driverof effort. But is present-day school able to createan interest among our schoolchildren? Do tradi-tional curricular subjects act as true incentivesof personal and collective effort? We must notforget that «there is not a single relevant personin arts, culture, sports, etc. who has achievedthe degree of excellence they have in theirfield without an enormous amount of tenacityand consistency at work» (MIRÓ, 2008, p. 41).Is this tenacity fostered and ensured by the educational system?

We humans make efforts out of our needs orpriorities. Either we need what we believe wewill achieve with effort, thus putting in tenacity,consistency, patience and work, or we give priority to targets the achievement of which weconsider relevant for our life so we also turnthem into vital needs. Hence, when someonesays that we need to retake the concept of effort

in relation to education, we need to be careful.Effort for the sake of effort will not ensureany relevant result nor will it awake any hiddentalent.

The situation in many present-day classroomsneeds to be analysed with care. Why do we havesuch a high rate of youngsters with no interestfor the curricular contents, which they do notperceive as necessary nor vital so the effortneeded to acquire it is considered not worth it?How can we revert this situation?

The organisation of schools in formal educationdoes not really encourage such interest and effort – mathematics from 9 to 10, social sciencefrom 10 to 11, Catalan from 11.30 to 12.30; ateacher for mathematics, another for social science, another for Catalan; teachers who canbe the standard teacher or a substitute, or a sub-stitute’s substitute, or the teacher on duty be-cause the standard teacher did not show up, etc.

Subjects are often taught with a target, contents,methodology and assessment criteria equal foreverybody, abstracting the existing great individ-ual differences, the different learning pace, thediverse potentialities and talents we have in theclassroom. Under such circumstances, there isoften no other way than leaving apart the pupilslagging behind and the highly skilled ones.

For all that, we need a new turn in the organisa-tion of the educational system in general and inthe organisation of schools in particular.

Are teachers ready to recognise and fostertalent?

There is very few specific preparation for start-up training in current curricula as to fosteringthe talent of schoolchildren, both in teachertraining and in secondary school. Considerationof diversity has earned a place in the teachertraining curriculum, especially in continuing


training, once it has been stated that school ab-sorbs 100% of the population under 16.

Diversity in the classroom is so apparent andobvious that it has become necessary to set upcompelling training to offer some type of peda-gogic response to such heterogeneous and di-verse classes. What concerns most a teacher firstare pupils who do not follow at all, who evenseem to have forgotten how to read and count,as well as those who, faced with difficulties tofollow the subject or to keep a minimum atten-tion and interest, show a disruptive behaviourso as to upset even experienced teachers. Undersuch circumstances, lack of specific teachertraining becomes apparent and the demand oftraining to cater for such diversity has thus be-come a constant in the last years. Given thisurge basically focused on pupils with morelearning difficulties, there has been less room

left for the demand for specific training torecognise, assess, coach and guide talentedschoolchildren and those with other skills aswell as for acting on it.

For the vast majority of teachers, their trainingmakes it very difficult to recognise talent in theirpupils as they often have a very discrete attitudein class. The same occurs with highly skilledpupils, with the aggravating circumstance thatlack of recognition can enhance the camouflageattitude such pupils already tend to. This makesoften the teacher assess the pupil far below theirtrue abilities. The teacher usually believes thatthe pupil does not well because of shortcomingsin their learning.

This downward assessment may eventually leadto drop-out, which will do nothing else thanfeeding back the circle of bad results while


�For the vast majority of teachers, their training makes it very difficult to recognise talent in their pupils.

strengthening the teacher’s wrong view that thispupil has a poor learning capacity. Therefore«teachers make a mistake when they equalovergift to high performance» (FISCHER, 2008,p. 50). One thing is having high abilities andalso talent for one subject, and something com-pletely different is reaching high academicachievement. School assessment usually looks atthe pupil’s performance in responding to a setof standard-based requirements. It seems thatpupils with talent or other abilities do not meetsuch requirements and fail, but maybe they areresilient to contents they perceive to be off con-text, outside their vital, professional and aca-demic reference system.

One thing is having high abilitiesand also talent for one subject, andsomething completely different isreaching high academicachievement.

If overall teacher training is poor to create com-petition to cater for diversity in general and tal-ent and excellence in particular, specific training

in coaching skills is often even more precarious.A schoolchild who is not assessed according totheir learning potential, own abilities, attitudesand motivations will not manage to set freetheir talent or get the best of their intellectualpotential at school if they are not coachedthrough a process of confidence and reassertionof their self-esteem.

There are pupils suffering a lot at class. They doso in silence because they believe their abilitiesare not «normal» as they do not fit into thosestandards considered suitable for that specificsubject, age, curricular level, etc. They then try tohide their talent, their potential, and very oftenthe lack of an observant teacher able to assessand redress this situation can cause an irrepara-ble wrong, lead the pupil to drop out or havethem fall into suffering, insecurity, isolation, etc.

Likewise, the absence of a teacher aware of allcircumstances affecting that specific pupil canlead the school to take wrong decisions, such aspremature promotion to respond to their highabilities in some curricular subjects, which couldlead the pupil to suffer in silence in their newclass as they feel inferior to their new mates inall other subjects they do not excel in (FISCHER,2008, p. 51). Tutorials are essential to ensure aneducation that allows to have all cognitive,physical and affective possibilities of our school-children come out.

Does the school curriculum foster talent?

The school curriculum is supposed to be themain tool of formal education to conveythe main cultural assets of a society. If wenow know that cultural and educational con-tents change the mind, that our brain is extraor-dinarily plastic –not just in childhood as it wasformerly believed– and that every time welearn something the brain changes somehow(BLAKEMORE & FRITH, 2007, p. 271), we cannotgo on founding the school curriculum on astructure that has been left almost unchanged


�One same book cannot serve for all kinds of pupils at the same time.

for the last 200 years. If a person died one cen-tury ago came back to life, a school would perhaps be the only place where they couldfind a shelter to remind their own time.

The current school curriculum does not fostertalent because it does not take it into consider-ation. It does not stimulate but shuns it. Thecurriculum is supposed to get homogeneous responses to mostly closed, solved and shownideas. It does not foster research, experimenta-tion, innovation and discovery. In spite of exceptional praiseworthy experiences exploitingloopholes in a stiff, uniform curricular system,most curricular proposals – not to speak of textbooks translating them into homogeneity – set school curricula in relation with statisticallybased theoretical populations that ratify theeconomic plan making in turn the product prof-itable. It is impossible to make a book for everyschoolchild, and more so for each of their different talents, but one same book cannotserve for a pupil with attention troubles, onehaving cumulative learning retardation, one tal-ented in the subject and a highly skilled pupilat the same time. This is clearly not feasible.Textbooks are addressed at the standard givenby statistical normality. Of course this problemcan be solved in times of LKD (learning andknowledge technologies).

One same book cannot serve for apupil with attention troubles, onehaving cumulative learningretardation, one talented in thesubject and a highly skilled pupil atthe same time.

However, the essential are not specific materialsused to apply a curriculum but their backgroundconcept, the curricular theory sustaining them.It is here where curricular flexibility should allow for true individualisation of every school-child’s learning pathway and pace based ontheir specifics and also their different talents.Divergence from their peer group should beavoided to prevent a breakdown of their social

and affective development, but the pace, depth,style, innovation and experimentation inherentto their character, abilities and motivationsshould be very open and independent in orderto allow the pupil to build up their learning following their own pace and intensity.

However, they should be guided and coachedby the tutor teacher and have space and oppor-tunities to socialise their acquired knowledgewith their peers. These peers would in turn con-tribute to increase the value of knowledgeadding in their own distinct talents.

Some suggestions for aneducational policy fosteringtalent and excellence

Considerations regarding organisational measures at inclusivequality schools

We need inclusive schools to make possiblethat all their pupils can be catered for accordingto their needs and peculiarities. But what or-ganisational structure should such a schoolhave? According to P. Pujolàs, «a school decid-ing to be inclusive needs to distribute school-children according to criteria of heterogeneityand needs to develop a cooperative teachingand learning structure in all its classrooms [...]so all pupils become able to learn next to andfrom each other in common classes» (PUJOLÀS,2008, p. 6). The increasingly frequent trend atCatalan schools –especially secondary schools–towards homogeneous organisational forms(very often breaching explicitly legislation)therefore takes us far from the inclusive educa-tional model defined by being able to turnschool into a place for everyone, no matter theircharacteristics and potential, bringing about«a social process the purpose of which is havingschool members learn to live with and in factlearn from difference» (AINSCOW, 2002, p. 73).An inclusive culture and the strive for equity


are fully compatible with quality and excellencefrom both a school (ROCA, 2007, p. 41) and aneducational system perspective.2

Some could think that heterogeneous groupsmay encourage pupils with learning difficultiesor with cumulative or acquired retardation ordeficits, but not gifted pupils or such showing aspecial talent in one or several subjects as wellas those with high learning skills. Some wouldsay that homogeneous groups would be betterindicated for such pupils as they could makeprogress without limitations imposed by theneed of waiting for intellectually less giftedclassmates to understand an explanation, finishan exercise they did in five minutes, having tostand ingenuous questions by many of thosepupils with comprehension difficulties, etc.

An inclusive culture and the strivefor equity are fully compatible withquality and excellence.

However, most experts in dealing with individ-ual difference among schoolchildren recom-mend for highly skilled pupils to attend schoolin ordinary classes mixed with other pupils andnot to leave the natural reference group(GENTO, 2007, p. 593). Another thing is the ideathat this inclusion into an ordinary class doesnot need to include the whole timetable underany circumstance.

Teacher training to allow coachingtalented skills of pupils

The teacher wishing to foster the developmentand expression of talents of their pupils cannotplay a role of a mere knowledge transmitter, ex-pecting that every schoolchild will assimilate thecontents passively. On the contrary, «rather thanbeing a mere transmitter of knowledge [...], theprofessor creates and lays out learning environ-ments and situations. All in all, they create theneed to learn in the pupil» (ESTEVE GIBERT,2008, pp. 26-27). Without this main function, theteacher would not justify their profession.

Training a teacher with such features requires anew curricular standard. Teachers need tocome to terms with how the brain works to understand the learning potentialities of theirpupils at any age, to even understand thatnew neurones can grow in an adult brainthanks to learning, for instance in the hip-pocampus, which is one of the areas having abiggest share in learning and memory processes.The future teacher needs to deepen into a new«interdisciplinary learning science based onneurophysiology, psychology and education,and consider that learning lasts the whole life»(BLAKEMORE & FRITH, 2007, p. 270).

One of the most explicit demands ofschools aiming at implementinginclusive education projects isto have specialists for eacheducational need they detectwith pupils.

One of the most explicit demands of schoolsaiming at implementing inclusive educationprojects is to have specialists for each educa-tional need they detect with pupils (GENTO,2007, p. 591). Such an explicit want of specificspecialists for each need implies the acknowl-edgement of a lack of training as teachers to of-fer a response adjusted to their pupils’ diversity.And this diversity also includes that of pupilshaving a special talent for school subjects orother abilities in general. They simply veryoften do not know what to do with such school-children. Teachers claim that they have not been«prepared» to face these specific demands.Hence the easy way out is to ask for a specialistto take care of this.

They do not ask for specific training to tacklethe problem but for that white-collar personwho, being a specialist, is able to solve it. This isa clear symptom of an obsolete, non-functionaltraining standard. A change of mindset is need-ed and initial and continuing preparation asgood professionals is required to understand thedistinctive features of pupils, their diverse ways


of learning and resulting difficulties, but alsovery importantly the implicit and explicit possi-bilities, potentialities and abilities of eachschoolchild. The professional duty of any goodteacher is to get the best out of them.

To do so there is no need of specialists foreverything but training that, together with applicable expert advice, helps them take uppersonally the responsibility of coaching allschoolchildren in their charge through thelearning process.

Criteria to create and manage acurriculum fostering maximum learningand innovation competencies

We know that top performance of some pupilshas a genetic base. However, it relates with itsenvironment from its origin, creating what J.R.Flynn calls «feedback loops». Put in differentwords, high performance has an immediate effect on requiring a more stimulating environ-ment, which causes the performance to furtherincrease, and so on. In this respect, the fateof those pupils featuring a better school per-formance is directly associated to what Flynnand his collaborator W.T. Dickens have called«individual multipliers» (FLYNN, 2008, p. 34) asthe talent of the individual is subject to succes-sive «multiplications» due to the need of havingan increasingly stimulating environment for talent and performance. According to Flynn, wealso need to consider a social multiplier that hasacted decisively in the last decades as a result ofa higher social demand on performance atwork, in leisure, in handling technologies, etc.As mentioned previously, both effects combinedhave led to «a spectacular surge of cognitiveabilities within one generation» (FLYNN, 2008,p. 34-35).

School cannot influence directly the geneticbase of its pupils but certainly the personal, so-cial and learning environment facilitating bothindividual and social multiplying effects. If theenvironment able to generate the school organi-sation, curriculum and classroom management

fosters a high performance, all pupils will seetheir demand for increasingly better and de-manding results multiplied, which in turn willrequire increased adaptation to requirements bythe school and all its professionals, but also thewhole school environment and in families. Thisdemand needs to be an intrinsic attitude atschools, which have to be able to feed it back totheir environment and the rest of the schoolcommunity, especially parents.

If the environment able to generatethe school organisation, curriculumand classroom management fostersa high performance, all pupils willsee their demand for increasinglybetter and demanding resultsmultiplied.

The curriculum should foster from the firstkindergarten years a true programme to train attention at all levels. Sequences of silence, listening, talking, back to silence, listening,maximum concentration, etc. would allow chil-dren to become used to the first condition ofadequate performance – attention. Then thehabit of continuing effort needs to be acquired,with scaled incentives and stimuli and a cleartarget, goal or challenge to reach, realisticbut based on effort and work. Such activitiesshould combine coached and autonomous indi-vidual tasks, tasks in group, teams and couples,cooperative,3 coached peer, mixed age, etc.tasks. Moreover, every pupil should be giventhe possibility of acting as a teacher of a fellowpupil or group of pupils.

The teaching and learning methodology shouldcombine different techniques:

� Trial and error, which gives the pupil room tomake mistakes, and «these mistakes allow themto face frustration, make them aware of theirlimitations and think of strategies to improve.Without frustration, without a minimal failurethere is no way to progress, to mature.» (MIRÓ,2008, p. 41).


� Introducing progressive de-learning to learnprogrammes. As E. Punset (2005) states, de-learning should bring about an educationaleffort to «clean» certain cerebral structuresbased on wrong concepts or explanations butstill maintained as a mental base to link or asso-ciate new concepts, theories, etc., which causesan enormous confusion and misuse of energy asthey stand on false or simply obsolete grounds.De-learning wrong abilities or concepts requiresa big effort for the individual. But without effec-tive de-learning to learn programmes it will notbe possible to optimise really significant and fully updated learning.

Without effective de-learning tolearn programmes it will not bepossible to optimise reallysignificant and fully updatedlearning.

� Going for enrichment programmes withinthe ordinary group or in projects requiring anown space for some hours a week, avoidingaccelerated learning with compelling level skip-ping as a rule.4

� Visual culture dominating our society needsto be used to foster problem-solving methodsbased on visual perception (such as Raven’stest) already with young children. The abilityof our environment to foster visual and spatialstimulation needs to be the gateway to items ofincreasingly deep symbolism and abstraction.

� No more time can be wasted without makinguse of LKT in class, in every classroom and withevery schoolchild. We are not only referring todigital blackboards in every classroom but alsothe use of laptop computers or individualscreens for every pupil from a certain age, withcoached programmes on the different curricularsubjects based on an interdisciplinary approachincluding the possibility of enlarging knowledgeaccording to the specific aptitude and interestsof each pupil. The programmes should allow todo systematic work in which the discovery, the

problem-solving methodology5 should be applied,besides devoting some intensive time to readingin silence, comprehension and relation of con-cepts, etc. LKT – or ICT – enlarge the spectrumof learning possibilities with all pupils, thoughit needs to be «clear that ICT alone do not im-prove the learning process, but all good pupilsuse ICT systematically in their learning process»(ESTEVE GIBERT, 2008, p. 28). It becomes neces-sary to do the conversion from an analogue todigital school model6 in which the important isnot introducing LKT into school or the class-room but implementing teaching and learningprocesses compatible with such LKT in theclassroom and the whole school, homes andother social institutions.

Towards a new educationalstandard

An education wishing to take advantage of thetalent of each of its pupils – leaving nobody behind (equity) – and the transfer potential ofhighly skilled pupils to increase the overall per-formance of the class needs to change its peda-gogic focus, leave behind traditional care oflearning difficulties and focus specifically onpotentialities for maximum learning.

What we propose is a change ofparadigm. It is not about leavingaside the pupils with most needs;on the contrary, it is about assumingthat everybody has learningdifficulties if the learning target isto get the maximum performance outof everybody.

What we propose is a change of paradigm. It isnot about leaving aside the pupils with mostneeds; on the contrary, it is about assuming thateverybody has learning difficulties if the learn-ing target is to get the maximum performanceout of everybody, based on the interaction of


particular circumstances with the stimulatingrelational medium of demanding, stringentand top excellence learning. School – thoughnot solely – has the maximum responsibility offacilitating this stimulating medium.

Catalonia urgently needs to raise itseducational excellence threshold.

In a paradigm like this, pupils with high learn-ing abilities are a key element of the group’scognitive skeleton and become a role model,and so are those showing a great talent forsome ability or concept of curricular subjects.As indicated above, both overgift and high per-formance based on talent only occur accordingto F. Mönks (quoted by Fischer) «by means ofan optimal interaction between environmentalfactors (family, school and friends) and personaltraits (intelligence, creativity and motivation).Social competence thus plays a relevant role.»(FISCHER, 2008, p. 50) And school is a key element of both social and academic influence.

We have referred to an enormous increase ofcognitive abilities measuring the IQ7 in the lastgeneration, according to James R. Flynn’s stud-ies. To this author, the driver of this increase isthe social shift occurred in the last decades, by

which everybody has had to respond «tothe new environment improving the develop-ment of their functions, which would increasethe [performance] average» (FLYNN, 2008, pp.34-35). As a consequence, we need a permeableschool that is also a driver of new social changeand demands, including fully LKT (formally almost invisible but deeply transforming the di-dactic process) and awareness that the class-room (its environment and management) needsto change radically (ROCA, 2008) in order to en-sure the learning processes able to cater forcurrent pupil diversity, intending in a decidedmanner to reach the top level of performanceand quality (excellence).

Catalonia urgently needs to raise its education-al excellence threshold. It is a requirement byour business community, also to dignify a ped-agogic tradition that has always gone for equityand quality at the same time. And there is atwo-fold ethic commitment to this: for people,because education has the duty of giving themhelp and stimuli needed so everybody canreach a top level of performance and learning;and for the country’s society, out of a patrioticperspective, to have Catalonia excel as a com-munity and contribute to overall progress ofhuman knowledge with the best their citizenshave to offer.


ENRIC ROCA

PhD in Education Science at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB).

Full professor of Theory and History of Education at the Department of Systematicand Social Pedagogy of the UAB and vice-dean of Academic Planning and

Knowledge Transfer of the Faculty of Education Science of the UAB.

He leads the Group on Educational Observation and Research in Attending Diversity(GOREAD) at the UAB and is the general coordinator of Edu21.


Bibliographic reference

AINSCOW, M. (2002). «Rutas para el desarrollo de prácticas inclusivas en los sistemas educativos». Revista de Educación, 327, pp. 69-82.

BLAKEMORE, S.-J.; FRITH, U. (2007). Cómo aprende el cerebro. Las claves para la educación. Barcelona: Ariel.

CASTELLÓ, A.; MARTÍNEZ, M. (1999). Alumnat excepcionalment dotat intel·lectualment. Barcelona: Departament d’Ensenyament, Generalitatde Catalunya («Documents d’Educació Especial», 15).

CSASE (2007). Estudi PISA 2006. Avançament de resultats. Barcelona: Consell Superior d’Avaluació del Sistema Educatiu, Departamentd’Educació, Generalitat de Catalunya («Quaderns d’Avaluació», 9).

ESTEVE GIBERT, J. M. (2008). «El repte de l’escola del segle XXI». Escola Catalana, 450, pp. 26-28.

FERRER, F.; FERRER, G.; CASTEL, J. L. (2006). Les desigualtats educatives a Catalunya: PISA 2003. Barcelona: Fundació Jaume Bofill: Ed. Me-diterrània («Informes Breus», 3, Educació).

FISCHER, C. (2008). «Superdotado y creativo, ¿fracasado?». Mente y Cerebro, 32, pp. 50-53.

FLYNN, J. R. (2008). «El efecto Flynn». Mente y Cerebro, 31, pp. 28-35.

GARCÍA-SÁNCHEZ, J. N. (2000). «Papel de la inteligencia en las dificultades de aprendizaje». Revista de Educación, 323, pp. 237-262.

GENTO, S. (2007). «Requisitos para una inclusión de calidad en el tratamiento educativo de la diversidad». Bordón, 59 (4), pp. 581-595.

MIRÓ, E. (2008). «La cultura de l’esforç versus la cultura de les facilitats». Àmbits de Psicopedagogia, 23, pp. 40-43.

PRATS, M. A. (2007). «De l’escola analògica a l’escola digital: noves formes d’ensenyar i aprendre». A: RIERA, J.; ROCA, E. [coord.]. Refle-xions sobre l’educació en una societat coresponsable. Valls: Cossetània Edicions, pp. 57-78.

PUJOLÀS, P. (2008). «Agrupament heterogeni de l’alumnat i atenció a la diversitat: l’estructura cooperativa de l’activitat a l’aula». Pers-pectiva Escolar, 324, pp. 2-14.

PUNSET, E. (2005). El viaje a la felicidad. Las nuevas claves científicas. Barcelona: Destino.

ROCA, E. (2007). «L’escola de la identitat, la diversitat, la inclusió i l’excel·lència». A: RIERA, J.; ROCA, E. [coord.]. Reflexions sobre l’educacióen una societat coresponsable. Valls: Cossetània Edicions, pp. 31-56.

ROCA, E. (2008). «Com s’aprèn a gestionar l’aula?». Butlletí Edu21, 15, http://www.edu21.cat/ca/continguts/191.

Notes

1. Based on the 2006 PISA report, the Higher Council of Educational System Assessment of Catalonia (CSASE) stated clearly in one ofits publications that «there is a low rate of Catalan pupils with good and excellent results in scientific and mathematical competence»(CSASE, 2007, pp. 76-77) compared to the other countries in the report.

2. «Achieving high results in school performance and ensuring a high level of equity are goals that can be achieved simultaneously atschool.» (FERRER, FERRER & CASTEL, 2006, p. 30)

3. According to professor Pere Pujolàs, «cooperative learning has great advanteges: it fosters learning of all pupils, of those havingmore learning problems and also those with a bigger capacity to learn» (PUJOLÀS, 2008, p. 2).

4. Only in very special cases, for highly skilled pupils and after a previous psychopedagogic evaluation, it could be recommended toskip full-time courses. C. Fischer mentions a project at the University of Münster for highly skilled pupils, where «children are releasedfrom two hours of ordinary class once a week so they can choose a subject of their interest» (FISCHER, 2008, p. 52).

5. Beyond classic problem-solving methodology, we refer especially to a «problem-solving culture in which everybody involved learnshow to use experience and resources of others to find better means to avoid barriers posing an obstacle to learning» (AINSCOW, 2002,p. 81). Such barriers make learning difficult or prevent from achieving a top performance of learning potentialities, both of the indivi-dual and the class that also learns collectively.

6. In this respect, professor M. A. Prats has brought forward a whole range of proposals (PRATS, 2007, pp. 76-77).

7. In any case, what seems obvious in connection with the IQ is that, according to García-Sánchez, if we currently «need to considersomehow any measure of ability or intelligence, we need to go beyond intelligence as conceived classically [...] to focus the problemthat there is not one but several intelligences, that it is not something static but changeable and malleable, depending on continuousinteraction between the person and the environment, which is not something merely cognitive but also emotional, social and cultural»(GARCÍA-SÁNCHEZ, 2000, p. 252).