University of Tübingen: Start of certificate studies to support gifted children

New offer at the University of Tübingen teaches skills in dealing with particularly gifted students
Schools bring together children with different cognitive learning requirements, interests and needs that should be taken into account in the classroom. “The promotion of particularly gifted or highly gifted students is often not the focus of everyday school life – although there are children with special talents in almost every school,” explains Professor Ulrich Trautwein from the Hector Institute for Empirical Educational Research at the University of Tübingen.

For this reason, the University of Tübingen, in cooperation with the Leibniz Institute for Educational Research and Educational Information (DIPF) and the Center for School Quality and Teacher Training (ZSL), is launching the extra-occupational fee-based certificate course “Promotion of Gifted Talent and Potential Development”. As part of the new qualification offer, teachers, school administrations, people with advisory and support tasks as well as those working in training and further education and other interested parties are to be enabled to act competently in dealing with gifted and highly gifted people.

The thematic priorities are in the areas of basic knowledge of talent and talented research, diagnostics of potential, gifted support, teaching-learning processes in the classroom and counseling, school development and network structures. By closely dovetailing theory and practice, graduates can reflect on their previous skills and experience and apply the skills newly acquired during their studies in everyday work – for example as part of the Hector Children’s Academy, a support program for particularly gifted and gifted primary school children. The course contributes to a high professional identification and self-efficacy as well as to an improvement in the quality of the education system.

The certificate course lasts 20 months and is carried out partly in attendance and partly in the form of webinars, so that part-time participation is possible. The course will start in autumn 2022. Applications are possible until September 15, 2022. A certificate is awarded after the successful completion of the course.