Undiscovered Edisons: Fostering the Talents of Vocational-Technical Students

Lori A. Taylor

The Enrichment Triad Model was adapted to include an integrated career development model, Focus On. This author proposes a broadened implementation process that takes into account the needs of students as they travel through the stages of career development. Students are provided with enrichment opportunities which broaden their exposure to fields of endeavor (modified Type I); process skills, including critical and creative thinking, specific methodological skills to a field of endeavor, and career development skills (modified Type II); and creative productive investigations (modified Type III) which can be used to explore potential career interests and allow students to see themselves in the role of practicing professionals and begin to visualize a different sense of self. In this study using the Focus On Model, significantly heightened career aspirations were found for students who had participated in creative productivity.

Reference:

Taylor, L. A. (1995). Undiscovered Edisons: Fostering the talents of vocational-technical students (RM95214). Storrs: University of Connecticut, The National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented.

Undiscovered Edisons: Fostering the Talents of Vocational-Technical Students
Lori A. Taylor
 

Recommendations

  1. Programs for gifted and talented individuals need to be developed around a broad conception of giftedness. Programs developed around narrow conceptions, serve narrow populations of students.
  2. Screening needs to include the use of multiple criteria and to reflect the population that is being targeted for services. Standardized tests should only be a starting point in the screening process.
  3. Vocational identities can be influenced by involvement in gifted and talented programming that encourages creative productivity. The process involves an interaction of abilities, creative potential, and commitment to a problem that is of interest to an evolving internal self.
  4. The early development of a vocational identity based on narrow gender-roles, underestimation of ability, and confined social class roles can limit the range of later development and career choice. Gifted programs offer underserved populations a wider context and more in-depth experiences from which to develop a vocational identity.