News

The European Talent Support Network (ETSN), established with the substantial contribution of the European Council of High Ability (ECHA), managed by Hungarian President Professor Péter Csermely in the last 8 years, celebrates its 5th anniversary on 29 September 2020. We have drawn up a short summary of the achievements and chronology of the first five years of ETSN. 

The European Talent Support Network was officially founded on 29 September 2015 in the Brussels European Parliament building, in the presence of senior EU officials and MEPs. The founders were the first 14 winner European Talent Centres of the call announced by the ECHA Qualification Committee. The applicant countries committed themselves inter alia to the deployment of a Talent Centre/Talent Point system and to developing a registration system for institutions engaged in talent support activities (Talent Points). The first meeting of Talent Centre representatives held at the same place, with the participation of these 14 centres, adopted the guidelines for the criteria of European Talent Point status.

In the years that followed (2016-2019) the above call has been announced annually, together with calls for Talent Points; as a result, there were 21 active Talent Centres in Europe and 4 outside Europe by early 2020.  There were two in each of Austria, Belgium and Germany; one each in Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, Holland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and Turkey. The four non-European TCs were in India, Peru, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The number of European Talent Points, present in 47 countries already, has exceeded 400. In practice, this means that ETSN is the organisation gathering the highest number of talent-support-focused organisations, however different they might be, in Europe, more than half of which come from European public education institutions. 

ETSN increasingly focuses on the coordination of joint European work and the quality assurance of its operation. Therefore, it has been managed since end-2016 by a 5-strong elected Network Council (NC), with Csilla Fuszek from the European Talent Centre within MATEHETSZ acting as Network Council coordinator, and Prof Dr Albert Ziegler as president elected for the second time.

Work within ETSN has led to creating the website and newsletter of the Network (TalentWeb). The annual number of copies of the newsletter has been increased gradually, and it has acquired a special profile with mainly European best practices in talent support in the focus. The newsletter has provided a self-presentation opportunity for several Hungarian best practices in this field. The Network website features a so-called European Talent Map with basic information about the associated organisations. 

The year 2019 was marked by ETSN becoming a registered European NGO and by the drafting of its rules of organisation and operation: Articles adopted by the members of the Network almost unanimously (with one abstention). This, of course, has altered the relationship between ECHA and ETSN, as set out in a mutual cooperation agreement. The main difference was that the Qualification Committee  became part of ETSN. 

The summit of the European Youth Platform has been organised annually since 2016, with the exception of this year (2020). It was hosted by Vienna, Budapest, Dublin and Dubrovnik, and gave the youth an annual opportunity to get acquainted with ETSN in more depth, to present their own education systems, and delve into the issues of talent support. 

The Hungarian Talent Centre has organised so-called “Budapest meetings” annually since 2016 for representatives of the Talent Centres of the Network, to pass key strategic decisions, present new Talent Points and establish new network contacts – this meeting could be called the “soul” of ETSN. For the known reasons, we could only organise an on-line meeting in 2020 so far, dedicated to the analysis of changes due to Covid-19.  

Budapest Meetings of Talent Centre representatives, 2016, 2017

As can be seen from the above, ETSN is a young and dynamically developing network; it has acquired hundreds of institution members over 5 years, and it is becoming increasingly well-known globally. Hopefully, this dynamism will prevail in the next 5 years, and intra-Network contacts will strengthen. 

Links and articles/writings referred to in the text and in the chronology below will hopefully give the reader an opportunity to study the development of the Network in more depth. 

Brief chronology of European Talent Support Network events after the 2016 ECHA General Assembly

2015 

1. 29 September: Brussels, European Union Parliament Building; Foundation of the European Talent Support Network by the first 14 Talent Centres qualified by the ECHA Qualification Committee; 1st official meeting of EU Talent Centre representatives 
2. 15 October: The ECHA Qualification Committee invites European or in case of Associated Centres non-European talent support organisations to submit their application to become European or Associated European Talent Centres: https://www.echa.info/call-for-application-to-be-a-european-talent-centre-or-an-associated-european-talent-centre-in-the-european-talent-support-network

2016

1. 3 March: 5th meeting of the Qualification Committee (Vienna)
2. 10 April: 2nd Call to be a European Talent Centres was published
3. 20 April: successful promotion of the European Talent Support Network in Ljubljana, Slovenia involving 28 European Talent Points in Slovenia, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia and Serbia
4. 8 May: 12 proposals from 11 countries received for the 2nd Call to be European Talent Centres
5. 10 June:  6th meeting of the Qualification Committee (Dublin); in July, five new European Talent Centres were accepted from Denmark, Germany and Greece and two Associated European Talent Centres from India and Peru
6. July: the Youth Platform of the European Talent Support Network (having at that time 33 members from 15 countries) elected its interim representative, Armin Fabian, and his deputy Lukas Kyzlik
7. August: the Youth Platform published its description and membership criteria http://echa.info/175-youth-platform-of-the-european-talent-support-network-description-of-aims-and-membership-criteria   
8. 30 September: 261 proposals received  for the second call on European Talent Points
9. October: election of the 1st Council of the European Talent Support Network: Albert Ziegler president/chairman, Csilla Fuszek coordinator/secretary, Colm O’Reilly treasurer / Antonios Apostolou / Mojca Jurisevic
10. 27 October: 1st meeting of the interim Youth Platform Council in Budapest
11. 28 October: 2nd official meeting of the EU Talent Centre representatives in Budapest
12. 28-29 October: 1st meeting of the Network Council in Budapest
13. December: election of the first Council of the Youth Platform: Marco Agozzino (Italy), Armin Fabian (Romania), Liliana Gerse (Austria), Lukas Kyzlik (Czech Republic) and Elle Loughran (Ireland)

2017

1. 29 March – 2 April: 2nd Second European Youth Summit held in Budapest with 63 participants from 17 countries and 20 nationalities (Summits in the future will be held at the ECHA International/Thematic Conference of that year)
2. 31 March: 1st Network Council meeting in 2017 in Budapest
3. June 2017: homepage of the European Talent Support Network goes live: https://etsn.eu; 
4. 19 June: 3rd Call to become a European Talent Point issued (application process made continuous from the beginning of 2018 )
5. 3 August: 3rd Call to become a European Talent Centre was issued on the ETSN website
6. 20 September: 2nd Network Council meeting in Ljubljana
7. 22 October: 9 proposals received from 9 different countries to the 3rd Call to become a European Talent Centre: 
8. 16 October: after careful preparation, a summary of the needs of gifted and talented young individuals drafted by he First European Youth Summit in Vienna, 2016 was published: http://echa.info/212-summary-on-the-needs-of-gifted-and-talented-students-by-participants-of-the-first-european-youth-summit-vienna-29-feb-5-march-2016 
9. 11-14 November: Youth Platform Council and Project leaders meeting in Budapest
10. 23 November: ECHA Qualification Committee meeting in Dublin; new European Talent Centres accepted from Belgium, Portugal and Spain as well as a new Associated Centre from the United Arab Emirates.
11. 24 November: 3rd Network Council meeting in Dublin

2018

1. 11 January: the European Talent Support Network started its regular Newsletter called TalentWeb: https://etsn.eu/talentweb-newsletter/
2. 9 February: 3rd official meeting of European Talent Centre representatives in Budapest and 1st Network Council meeting in 2018
3.  By January: altogether around 350 Talent Points of 42 countries had registered to the Network, and the number of European Talent Centres rose from 14 to 23, including 20 European and 3 non-European ones (located in the United Arab Emirates, in India and in Peru, respectively), over the 2.5 years since the first meeting
4. April: the European Talent Support Network started its plans to become a European NGO and formulated its Articles – please find it enclosed as an Annex of this report.
5. June: Youth Platform Project in the Czech Republic organized by Czech Talent Centre – 
6. 8 August: 2nd  issue of the TalentWeb was sent out
7. 10 August 1st ETSN General Assembly meeting during the ECHA Conference
8. 8-11 August: 3rd European Youth Summit was held in Dublin parallel with the ECHA Conference: https://etsn.eu/working-with-gifted-students-in-the-21st-century-echa-conference-in-dublin-ireland-from-8th-august-to-11th-august/
9. 15 October: 4th  Call for application to be a European Talent Centre or an Associated European Talent Centre in the European Talent Support Network
10. December: Election of the 2nd  Council of the European Talent Support Network: Albert Ziegler president/chairman, Csilla Fuszek coordinator/secretary, Colm O’Reilly treasurer / Antonios Apostolou / Mojca Jurisevic

2019

 

• January: Election of the Youth Platform Council of the ETSN

 

1. 21. January: ETSN Council Meeting, Nürnberg
2. 4 April: 3rd issue of the TalentWeb was sent out 
3. 4-6 April: 4th official meeting of EU Talent Centre representatives in Budapest; ETSN Network Council meeting, Budapest
4. 30 May: 2nd ETSN General Assembly meeting – on-line voting on the Article; out of the voting 97 institutions 95 voted yes  and 2 abstained
5. 11 July: Registration of the ETSN in the Netherlands 
6. 2 September: 4th issue of the TalentWeb was sent out 
7. 15-19 October 4th European Youth Summit was held in Dubrovnik parallel with the ECHA Conference 
8. 15 October: 3rd ETSN General Assembly meeting
9. 23 November: ETSN Network Council meeting, Dublin
10. 24 November: Launch of the EGIFT project, Dublin
11. 29 November:  5th Call for Application to be a European Talent Point or to be an Associated European Talent Point: https://etsn.eu/apply-to-join-etsn/ 
12. 29 November:  5th Call for application to be a European Talent Centre or an Associated European Talent Centre in the European Talent Support Network
13. 5 December: 5th issue of the TalentWeb was sent out

2020

 

• By the beginning of the year, ETSN had 25 Talent Centre and more than 400 Talent Points in 47 Countries

 

1. 28-29 February: Youth Platform Council meeting, Budapest and on-line, preparation of the Youth Summit Guideline: https://etsn.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/The-ETSN-Youth-Platform-and-Youth-Summit-Guidelines.pdf
2. 8 April: Network Council on-line meeting
3. 17 April: 6th issue of the TalentWeb
4. 9 May: 5th (1st on-line) meeting of EU Talent Centre representatives
5. 14 May: ETSN on-line Qualification Committee meeting 
6. 11. June: Network Council on-line meeting
7. 23 June: 7th issue of the TalentWeb
8. 2. July: Network Council on-line meeting on the Qualification Process

 

Global Talent Mentoring is an online mentoring program that fosters excellence in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medical sciences (STEMM) worldwide for exceptionally talented youth through evidence-based, long-term, online mentoring. Global Talent Mentoring is the flagship offering of the World Giftedness Center by the UNESCO- recognized Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation for Distinguished Academic Performance in Dubai, UAE. The program has been developed by a research team led by Prof. Dr. Heidrun Stoeger at the University of Regensburg in Germany.

The program combines mentoring with collaborative and interdisciplinary discussion of and work on STEMM topics in projects and challenges, and offers a singular opportunity for networking among like-minded talents and experts. The mentees are truly outstanding, hardworking, young talents in STEMM from around the world—and exceptionally motivated to pursue excellence in a specific STEMM domain. The mentors are scientists in STEMM as well as other practicing STEMM experts working in the private and public sectors. The program is free of charge for the participants and starts in late 2020.

What are the benefits of becoming a mentor volunteer for Global Talent Mentoring?

Mentors become part of an inspiring and intellectually stimulating global network of other STEMM experts and highly motivated, extraordinarily talented students. Many exceptionally talented young people live in countries that cannot provide them with the infrastructure to develop their talents to the fullest. The expert mentors in Global Talent Mentoring make the valuable contribution of equal access to knowledge by supporting these mentees with their excellence and experience in STEMM. Mentors experience firsthand how brilliant young personalities grow and develop their potential and talents in STEMM during the mentoring process.

How can you become a mentor volunteer?

Global Talent Mentoring is currently looking for mentor volunteers! If you are a STEMM expert and would like to mentor, please fill out our Mentor Volunteer Form at www.globaltalentmentoring.org/mentor For more information about Global Talent Mentoring’s background, goals, and operations, please visit www.globaltalentmentoring.org Mentor registrations for the next round of mentoring are currently being accepted through 31 July 2020.

Transforming problems and challenges into ideas and opportunities: New digital summer courses

CTY Greece at Anatolia College, 555 35 Thessaloniki, 2310398253, cty@anatolia.edu.gr

“The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.”
― Albert Einstein

The dismay and confusion stirred by the COVID-19 outbreak across Europe didn’t take long to reach our doorstep here at CTY Greece. In the last months, schools were closed down, social distancing was enforced and the country finally came to a complete lockdown in late March, to help control the spread of the virus.

And as scientists were racing to understand and contain this novel virus, CTY Greece began turning the coronavirus pandemic into an opportunity for change and improvement, adopting a mindset of progress through new ideas and ways of offering educational experiences to its students. It is not the first time that CTY Greece has been fast at adapting to real-world conditions (let us not forget the financial crisis Greece faced in 2015 with major economic consequences for its citizens and stakeholders). But being a talent center, CTY Greece’s people have always been geared toward flexibility, re-design, innovation and an unceasing drive to advance and improve every program and service they offer. After all, these are the kind of principles that are passed onto the talented students who join the CTY Greece community. They are encouraged to express their ideas and are empowered to believe that their contribution can (and will) make a change in the world they live in. So, it was actually quite natural for something new to emerge swiftly given the current worldwide situation. Thus, a new digital program – the CTY Greece Digital Summer Program – has been developed for the gifted and talented youth of Greece and Cyprus.

As educators, we are challenged in teaching face-to-face classes when the health and safety of students and teachers need to be guarded, as is the case in these extraordinary times. However, as pedagogues, we have the duty to serve the needs of our students regardless of impediments. Thus, the new digital program emerged as an addition to our existing online program. The program will be based on a combination of synchronous and asynchronous teaching. And of course, it will incorporate a fun activities program aimed at providing opportunities for students to play, have fun and bond with their peers. Already it is looking like an amazing program that will spark student enthusiasm and provide unique academic experiences to our students. Let us not forget that talented students, like all students, have different learning styles and we have seen from our existing online programs, that some students can really sparkle in an online learning environment – we are referring to those particular students who stress in brick-and-mortar schools and who unleash their talents when they feel they are not fully exposed. We need to provide blended learning experiences to all of our students, combining online, digital and face-to-face opportunities according to their needs and to the situations that they face.

But apart from an unparalleled experience for its students, CTY Greece views the new digital summer program as a superb training opportunity for its instructors to reach a higher level of professionalism. CTY Greece educators have already begun to be trained in the technology needed for their online courses and are becoming equipped with best practices and strategies that go hand in hand with effective online teaching. For CTY Greece the difference between status quo and reaching higher goals, for both students and educators, is based on a pro-active improvement attitude, on innovative thinking and on working hard as a team to turn problems into solutions and opportunities!

“However difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at.” Stephen Hawking

Link: https://www.cty-greece.gr/en

Talent Centers in Action: EGIFT-European Gifted Education Training

Colm O’ Reilly, Director, Centre for Talented Youth, Ireland, Email: colm.oreilly@dcu.ie

A group of ETSN/ECHA members completed an EU funded Erasmus Plus Programme that designed a FREE online course for teachers of gifted students in regular classrooms which is available at www.highability.eu. You just need an email address to sign up for the programme.

The programme was developed in five strands with a partner taking responsibility for each strand.

The first strand was developed by Dublin City University and involved identification of gifted students. The categories in this strand included the relationship between intelligence and giftedness, formal identification, informal identification and identification in special populations. Finally this section covered identification of gifted children in special populations such as gifted students from lower socio-economic disadvantage, gifted students who may underachieve and gifted students who may also have a learning difficulty.

The second strand was developed by the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and involved lived experience of gifted students. The categories included some basic facts about the lived experience of gifted students which exposed some myths about stereotyping and mistaken beliefs. Using the Ziegler model of Educational and Learning Capital this strand looked at various learning resources available to gifted students in formal and informal educational settings. The strand looked at typical personality traits of gifted students and hownon the gifted can contribute to society. Finally the strand looked at the advantages of mentoring and positive uses of social networking to help gifted students.

The third strand was developed by the University of Ljubljana and involved social and emotional well being of gifted students. The categories in this strand included common beliefs about giftedness and gifted students, the psychological adjustment of gifted students into a school context and the promotion of mental health and resilience in gifted students. Within social and emotional well being there were sections on the social and emotional needs of gifted students and protective and risk factors in the mental health of gifted students. There was also a closer look at gifted students reactions to success and failure at school. Finally this strand covered the promotion of mental health in gifted students and paid particular attention to potential environments that caused the greatest risk to gifted students while also detailing the importance of counselling and social andemotional support.

The fourth strand was developed by the University of Glasgow, and covered teaching strategies for gifted students. The categories in this strand included the importance of creating a heterogeneous learning environment for the gifted student and of creating a positive classroom and whole school environment, encouraging teachers to support gifted students through best practice and for teachers to continually analyse and evaluate their lesson plans. Within heterogeneous environments there was closer analysis of the need for different learning, home and school environments for optimal learning conditions for the gifted student. Within analysis of practice teachers were given examples of how to develop their skills and ways to encourage more student voice.

The fifth strand was developed by Matehetsz, the Association of Hungarian Talent Support Associations, and covered best practice for designing a programme for gifted students. The categories in this strand included the importance for a shared philosophy of giftedness for the stakeholders, a comprehensive needs assessment for each school, design principles of format and curriculum and the need for effective planning and evaluation. Within the shared philosophy of giftedness an effective policy for each school or organisation can be created. All stakeholders including teachers, parents, school leaders and especially the students themselves need to be represented in these consultations.

Ksenija R. Benaković, RITHA specialist in gifted education, vice president NGO “Wind at the back”, Email: kbenakovic@gmail.com

We are NGO „Wind at the back“. We became European Talent Point in 2016. We are organizing workshops for gifted children from the age of 4 to 14. This year in our program, called Iskrice, there are almost 200 gifted children involved. They used to attend workshops once a week. Our aim is to give support to the whole personality of the gifted child, working on its cognitive and social-emotional development, creativity, tenacity and resilience. Of course, when the “Corona era” had started in Croatia and our schools and kindergartens closed, we also stopped our live workshops. But, our staff studied how to continue with our work. So, we offered to our little clients online workshops. Mostly we used Zoom application, then Edmodo and Discord. It was great news that almost 90% of the participants of our program accepted online workshops. We still meet once a week online. For the smaller children we offer scientific experiments for kids, working sheets with verbal, spacial and mathematic riddles, association games and creative activities. Children were inventing machines that could save us from Corona virus and earthquake (in Zagreb there was recently an earthquake, too).

With older children we do quizzes (sometimes over Kahoot platform or Zoom), logical and lateral puzzles, debates (about actual situation or some other interesting topics). We are developing critical thinking (learning about difference between myths, legends, facts and personal opinions) and creative problem solving. We even organized escape room online. Two of our groups worked together with gifted children in Israel and organized two meetings over Zoom application. We were all involved in the international project “The view of the fool moon from my window”. Of course, we are also offering psychological support for the children, talking about their fears, worries and problems. Now we are exploring how to offer webinars for parents and teachers. Before Corona, we started live seminars for 30 participants in Zagreb and Pula, so we would like to continue with it. This unfortunate situation made us learn many new things, act creatively and put our minds together to overcome it. The knowledge that we are gathering now will help us in future to offer our services to gifted children, their parents and teachers from some smaller, inaccessible places of Croatia.

Internationally renowned Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda (https://msubaroda.ac.in/) is one of the oldest educational centres of Western India; its Faculty of Education and Psychology and its Department of Education-CASE (https://msubaroda.ac.in/Academics/Department), organised an international conference for the second time in January 2020.The first conference, in 2019, focused on quality teacher training (Towards Developing Professional and Humane Teachers for Quality Education). The topic of that in January 2020 was inclusive education (Inclusive Education: Present Perspectives, Future Prospects).

Csilla Fuszek at the main entrance of the conference

The 218 participants of the scientific conference came mainly from various states of India, but thanks mainly to contacts established earlier by the organisers, it was attended also by international professionals. Two persons active in different segments of education came from the United States, and one from Australia, Italy, Hungary and Bangladesh each to give an insight into the concept of inclusion from different perspectives.

The conference including 143 presentations mainly on research projects was free of charge for the participants, thanks mainly to the support granted to CASE by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India (https://mhrd.gov.in/): in 2017, the Department acquired so-called Inter-University Centre for Teachers Education (IUCTE) status from the Ministry, implying also financial support for organising events of this kind. If the support continues, a third conference will also be organised in the year 2021.

Flower ornaments at the entrance to the plenary hall

The meaning of inclusion in education correlates to a large extent with the traditions, social structure and nature of inequalities in each country. This has made the content of the conference particularly interesting also for non-Indian participants.
The conference was deemed a success by one of the chief organisers, Ms Prof. Sujata Srivastava. What lay behind this success? Partly the richness of the topics represented at the conference. One of the priority subject matters was the inclusion of students from the LGBTQ community, considered a taboo for a long time in Indian society. Note that it was only in 2018 that the Indian Supreme Court de-criminalised homosexuality – this makes the innovative power required for putting this topic on the agenda even more obvious. It is also
important to know that today the transsexual community includes nearly 4.5 million; it is no accident that the researches included the specification of methodologies to create transgender-friendly schools. Significant emphasis was given to equal access to education for boys and girls, the special educational needs of children needing special treatment, i.e. those suffering from the consequences of polio, and also to talent support.

Talent support is a brand new topic in India: the relevant initiatives and researches are very few considering the size of the country. It was a special pleasure to see that talent support researches covered in several cases the examination of the inclusion of multiply exceptional
pupils (e.g. talented children suffering from some kind of disorder or handicap).
The other secret of the success of the conference was that the 5-strong organising committee expanded into an operative group of 50 Department faculties, researchers and M.Ed. students acted as one and did everything to make the conference a success and to ensure the smooth flow of the events, from section meetings to cultural programmes. Mr Prof. R. C Patel, Dean of the Faculty, and Ms Prof. Sujata Srivastava were present everywhere to coordinate these 50 persons.
Traditionally, all Indian conferences start by a so-called Candle/Lamp-lighting Ceremony : the candles symbolise the spread of the light of knowledge, and the ceremony is repeated at the closing event of the conference.
This conference,addressing also topics discussed less openly and frequently at scientific conferences previously, lit many gorgeous lamps throughout India.

ANEIS XIV INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS 2020, 21-23 MAY 2020, BRAGA, PORTUGAL