“If I Were Pascal, I'd do …” Activity

Abstract

Development of academically gifted students’ empathy, research skills and creativity are quite important in terms of their education. In the process of the development of these skills of gifted students, the life’s of scientists who are important in the history of science could be used. That the gifted students know these scientists more closely could also be presented as significant models in terms of their moral development. In this activity, a gifted student was asked to write a diary by examining Blaise Pascal, his period of life and his contribution to science. At the end he was asked to write an essay "If I Were Pascal, I'd do …”. It is seen that this activity lasted for 5 weeks contributed to the development of gifted students’ scientific creativity, empathy and research skills.

Keywords

• The young scientist,empathy,scientific creativity,history of science

References

1. Dokmen, U. (2005), İletişim Çatışmaları ve Empati. Ankara: Sistem Yayıncılık.
2. Hokelekli, H., & Gunduz, T., (2007). Üstün yetenekli çocukların değer yönelimleri ve eğitimleri, Recep Kaymakcan (ed.), Değerler ve Eğitimi, İstanbul : Dem Yayınları.
3. Hu, W., & Adey, P. (2002). A scientific creativity test for secondary school students. International Journal of Science Education, 24(4), 389-403.
4. Klahr, D., & Simon, H.A. (1999). Studies of scientific creativity: Complementary approaches and convergent findings. Psychological Bulletin, 125, 524-543.
5. Liang, J. (2002). Exploring scientific creativity of eleventh grade students in Taiwan. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Texas at Austin, Texas.
6. Majumdar, S. K. (1975). A systems approach to identification and nurture of scientific creativity. Journal of Indian Education, 1, 17–23.
7. Maker, C. J. (2001). DISCOVER: Assessing and developing problem solving. Gifted Education International, 15, 232-251.
8. Maker, C. J., & Schiever, S. W. (2005). Teaching models in education of the gifted (3rd ed.). Austin, TX: Pro-Ed.

9. Moravcsik, M.J. (1981). Creativity in science education. Science Education, 65, 221-227.
10. Okuda, S. M., Runco, M. A., & Berger, D. E. (1991). Creativity and the finding and solving of real-world problems. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 9, 45-53.
11. Renzulli, J.S. (1978). What makes giftedness? Re-examining a definition. Phi Delta Kappan, 60, 180-184
12. Roeper, Annemarie – Silverman, Linda Kreger, “Giftedness and Moral Promise”, D. Ambrose, T. Cross (eds.), Morality, Ethics, and Gifted Minds, Springer, New York 2009.
13. Sak, U. (2010). Üstün zekalılar özellikleri tanılanmaları ve eğitimleri [Gifted students characteristcs, identification and their education], Maya Akademi Yayıncılık, Ankara.
14. Silverman, L.K. “The Moral Sensitivity of Gifted Children and the Evolution of Society, Roeper Review, 17, 1994, 110–116
15. Simonton, D.K. (1988). Scientific genius: A psychology of science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
16. Simonton, D.K. (2003). Scientific creativity as constrained stochastic behaviour: The integration of product, person, and process perspectives. Psychological Bulletin, 129(4), 475-494.
17. Simonton, D.K. (2004). Creativity in science: Chance, logic, genius, and zeitgeist. NY: Cambridge University Press.
18. Stenberg, R.J., & Zhang, L. (1995). What do we mean by giftedness? A pentagonal implicit theory. Gifted Child Quarterly, 39(2), 88-94.
19. Stenberg, R.J. (1997). Successful intelligence. New York, NY: Plume.
20. Tortop, H.S. (2013). The Education Program for the Gifted Students’ Bridge with University (EPGBU). International Conference on Talent Development & Excellence. 25-28 September 2013. Antalya, Turkey.