On 24 February, KoLaborategiak, the Digital Education and Communication Laboratory for Digital Society at the Faculty of Humanities and Education at Mondragon University, presented a book entitled 'Guide to Promoting Student Talent: Various High School, Vocational Training and University Opportunities'. The public presentation at the Eskoriatza campus was attended by all the researchers involved in the Eragin project. The meeting also featured a MOOC course (Massive Open Online Course) and a series of open webinars aimed at promoting talent and teachers.

Proponents of the project believe that the development of talent is one of the main challenges for educational institutions, and that their research to date has brought to the table the development of talent-related skills, which is key to providing rich contexts. This approach is based on the guide presented on February 24; therefore, the guide proposes ways to make educational contexts more appropriate for fostering student talent.

Talent and talent dimensions

Researchers have made a special effort to make the guide lightweight and easy to use. The book is divided into two parts. To begin with, they have defined what talent is, as well as the dimensions that make up talent, such as the cooperative, creative, entrepreneurial, persevering, flexible, critical-analytical, and emotion regulation dimension. It is noteworthy that this work of conceptualization of talent has been the result of discussion among representatives of diverse sectors. Then, in a very practical way, they suggested ways to promote these dimensions of talent in educational contexts.

The authors of the book wanted to emphasize that what is included in the guide is an option, and not an inevitable one. Thus, along with each opportunity to promote talent, they have provided detailed information and, by the way, suggested in-depth external resources so that anyone interested can have additional information. To complete this second section, they have taken into account the contributions of researchers and significant international practices in the field of talent promotion.

The guide is mainly aimed at high school, vocational training and university students, as it includes the options that are suitable for implementation at these stages. However, the authors consider it essential to adapt the content of the guide to the context.

The book was attended by Iñaki Larrea, Paula Alvarez-Huerta, Ana Carpintero, Oxel Azkarate-Iturbe, Jose Ramon Vitoria and Beñat Flores from Mondragon University and Alexander Muela from the University of the Basque Country. The project has received support from the Gipuzkoa Provincial Council.

Talent MOOC course

But in addition to the guide, researchers from the Eragin project have used the MOOC course and an open-ended webinar on the topic, which will be open to the public from March 1 to April 16.

The ‘Student Talent Promotion Courses’ aims to provide teachers with strategies for designing appropriate contexts for the development of student talent. Therefore, strategies to promote the talent dimension will be developed there. As a published guide, the recipients of this course are teachers of Baccalaureate, Vocational Training and University.

Structure and modality: Conceptualization of each dimension of talent and strategies to promote it in students: entrepreneurship, perseverance, cooperative person, emotional regulation, creativity, flexible and critical-analytical. The course will be completely online. To work on each dimension, especially in certain strategies, basic material will be provided, as well as additional material for deepening. There will also be webinars that can be followed live or at will.

Those interested in participating in the course should register at the following address: influential@mondragon.edu

Webinars

• In addition to the course, researchers from the Eragin project have also prepared a series of webinars. All lectures will begin at 6:00 pm and will last one hour. Webinars will be offered in Basque.
• March 9: Contexts provided by the teacher and student perseverance. Nagore Iñurrategi (Mondragon University).
• March 10: Development of the cooperative person in education: learning service. Oxel Azkarate, Nekane Goikoetxea and Nagore Iraola (Mondragon University). March 16: Strategies to promote an entrepreneurial group culture among students. Aitor Lizartza (Mondragon Team Academy).
• March 17: Design Thinking in Education: An Opportunity for Creativity. Beñat Flores. (Mondragon University).
• March 23:10 Key to developing critical thinking. Joseba Aldasoro. (Elhuyar).