From Esmeralda Pilz
About CoTalent Wizard
The CoTalent is a project from universities and companies from the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Belgian, Austria and Rumania. They developed multiple ways to equip teachers better when it comes to helping students use their full potential.
The starting point for them was that at a lot of universities or higher education schools, students with talents are not challenged enough. A consequence of that is that those students are not able to fully develop their skills and talent.
The project group developed the following three tools:
- MeTalent Mirror: with this teachers self-evaluate their view towards talent development
- YouTalent Spotter: an instrument to spot talented students
- E-library: a library consisting of videos enabling teachers to implement a research-based talent development program
The conference
During the conference we got introduced to the project and could try the tools in interactive workshops. It was really interesting to see what they developed and the different stages they were in. During the workshops we could test the tools and give feedback what we like and what could still be improved in our opinion.
My highlight was the MeTalent Mirror workshop where we could test the different tools of the MeTalent Mirror. The stereotypical strategy test gives teachers insights with which stereotypes their students would describe them. With the talent test tool teachers can get insights which strengths and weaknesses they have.
The best tool in my opinion is the Roadmap tool also called the Biographical brainwork tool. In my opinion it can be used both by teachers and students, as the goal is to draw a roadmap of your life and then mark important milestones, which can be reflected on.
We also had a nice walk to the castle of Münster, where we listened to a keynote from Prof. Dr. Fischer about Talent development in Germany.
Overall it was an interesting conference, the main thing that I learned from it, was that all Honours program are unique. Some are more focused and based around specific studies while we for example are open for every study and provide an overarching program.