The Importance of Professional Development
Professional development is a critical factor in the initial success of the teaching/ learning process. The quality and intensity of the training program is an important part of determining how successful teachers will be as well as how long they remain in the teaching profession. The ICIE has developed a rigorous, well-planned program designed to provide participants an optimum combination of experiences in which they can build content area knowledge, knowledge of teaching and learning, and the practical knowledge required to be a successful and effective teacher for all students.         

 

The Idea:
The ICIE is planning to build a partnership with educational institutions to qualify teachers and enable them to achieve the competencies (knowledge, skills, and expertise) which are necessary for efficient and high standard performance. It is the ICIE's idea that reflects high responsibility, comprehensive vision, ambitious mission, and strategic planning to improve the quality of the teaching learning process.

 

The Required Components:
The proposed training programme aimed at expanding the teachers’ competencies. Our training programmes –which include both on-site and e-learning opportunities- are designed for new graduates in addition to teachers, principals, administrators, and policymakers.
The focus of these programs is to increase the educator's capacity to improve learning outcomes of all children. Through a variety of learning techniques-case studies, discussions, and small groups-participants acquire new perspectives on leadership, deepen their repertoire of problem-solving skills, engage in personal reflection, and build strong professional networks.

 

The Expected Outcomes:

The ICIE will develop programs for motivated teachers where they learn to:
  • Craft standards-based lessons that clearly communicate learning goals and connect classroom activities to real-world challenges;
  • Incorporate continuous assessment of student performance into your teaching and help learners become active self- and peer-assessors;
  • Use technology, differentiated learning, and content-specific strategies to improve student performance and promote deeper understanding of content;
  • Share pedagogical successes and challenges with an online community of local and international teachers, supported and guided by expert coaches;
  • Give your peers effective feedback on planning lessons, improving student performance, and assessing student understanding;
  • Develop communication and collaboration strategies with a professional community of local and international teachers;
  • Work with an experienced teacher-coach, train as an apprentice coach, and become a coach to local and/or international peers;
  • Advance your own professional growth and earn supplemental income on a flexible schedule;
  • Focus relationships among students, teachers, and administrators around a shared educational language and framework;
  • Strengthen experienced teachers, develop teacher leaders, and engage the commitment of those new to the profession;
  • Help you to achieve your interconnected goals of raising student test scores and promoting real understanding of content;
  • Build internal capacity within your schools to sustain improved instruction; and
  • Create a coherent, systemic, and cost-efficient plan to address your system's teaching and learning goals.
 
The proposed workshops:
(1)How to Employ Creativity in Developing Your Business (10 hours training; two days; businessmen; bank managers; decision makers).
(2)Do you have creative business and potentially creative employee (10 hours training; two days; businessmen; bank managers; decision makers).
(3)Problem Based Learning (15 hours/ in three days; Teachers, university staff; medical doctors).
(4)Leadership and Creativity (e.g., Productive Thinking Skills: Critical Thinking; Creative Thinking; Future Problem Solving; and Creative Problem Solving). It is 15 hours/ in three days; Teachers, school principals, parents;
(5)Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). It is 15 hours/ in three days; Teachers, school principals, parents;
(6)Skillful Teaching.
 
More workshops:
  • An eco-systemic approach for recognising and addressing the root causes of learning and behavioural difficulties in gifted children.
  • An overview of the current field of gifted/ learning disabilities.
  • Attention-Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): Disorder or Gift?
  • Building Gifted Programmes: Types & Components.
  • Creating Creative, Cooperative  Environments Creatively and Cooperatively.
  • Creativity: creative giftedness and Education.
  • Curriculum Compacting and Schoolwide Enrichment Model.
  • Curriculum Differentiation, and Renzulli Learning System.
  • Developing Gifted and Talented Education: An in-depth, school-wide approach.
  • e-learning for Gifted Students.
  • e-learning: Content Development.
  • e-learning: Instructional Design.
  • Fundamentals of Gifted Education.
  • Higher Order Thinking (HOT).
  • How to conceive and identify giftedness and talent.
  • Leadership Development for Gifted Students.
  • Lines in the Sand: Are At-Risk Students Being Forced from our Schools?
  • Maths Made Easy.
  • Multi-faceted Curriculum for Learning Engagement.
  • New Products and Services for a “Flat World”.
  • Nurturing the Creative Producers of Tomorrow.
  • Orgainzational Assessment.
  • Problem Oriented Learning: Fostering Questioning and Explaining.
  • Productive Thinking Skills: Creartive, Critical, Problem Solving, Future Problem Solving.
  • Recognizing and Nurturing Talent in At-Risk Populations.
  • Renzulli Learning System and Stratis.
  • Solving Problems Creatively.
  • Virtual Learning Environments for the Gifted.
  • Workshop on Differentiating Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment for Gifted Learners.

The First STEM Conference

The Jubilee Center for Excellence in Education, in Amman-Jordan, has organized the first STEM conference (August 20-22, 2013).

The ICIE has joined the conference, and offered a keynote speech about "Innovation in STEM Education".

In addition, the ICIE team conducted workshops about "Evaluation of Potential Creativity (EPoC)", and Renzulli Learning System.

Our team extends sincere thanks to the excellent organisers.

Many thanks go to Mr. Ismail Y. Hasan, and the team of the Jubilee Center for Excellence in Education.

 

 

The International Centre for Innovation in Education (ICIE) has published a number of books including:

Ken McCluskey ICIE Book

McCluskey, K. W. (2013). Thoughts about tone, educational leadership, and building creative climates in our schools.

ISBN: 978-0-9917929-0-0

Paperback: US$ 15

 

Ken ICIE Book

Sokal, L.; McCluskey, K. W. (2013). Community Connections: Reaching out from the ivory tower. Ulm, Germany: ICIE-Germany.

ISBN: 978-0-9917929-1-7

Paperback: US$ 30

 Mike ICIE Book

Bergsgaard, M. (2013). A Zen Companion: In a just and effective classroom.

ISBN: 978-0-9917929-4-8

Paperback: US$ 10

 

Dorothy Sisk ICIE Book

Vidergor, H. E.; Sisk, D. A. (2013). Enhancing the gift of leadership: Innovative programs for all grade levels.

ISBN: 978-0-9917929-2-4

Paperback: US$ 20

 

Lynn Newton ICIE Book

Newton, L. (2013). From teaching for creative thinking to teaching for productive thought: An approach for elementary school teachers.

ISBN: 978-0-9917929-5-5

Paperback: US$ 10

 

Todd Lubart ICIE Book

Lubart, T. (2013). Psychology of creativity. (Arabic). Yamin, T. S.; Shalabi, J.; Qasri, M. (Arabic Translation). Ulm, Germany: ICIE-Germany.

Paperback: US$ 20


 Access Program Winnipeg ICIE  ICIE Winnipeg Access Program

Mays, A. (2014). Assessing the effectiveness of an ACCESS partnership at the University of Winnipeg: A review of the successes and challenges experienced by the participants of cohort 1 of the community-based aboriginal teacher education program.

ISBN:978-0-9936134-0-1

Paperback: US$ 10

 


Customers from North & South America:

Kari McCluskey,

Regional Director, ICIE-Canada,

Box 111, Domain, Manitoba, R0G 0M0, Canada.

e-Mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

Other customers:

Dr. Sandra K. Linke,

Director, ICIE-Germany,

Postfach 12 40, D-89002, Ulm, Germany.

e-Mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

MRRenzulli

The Renzulli Learning System is an exciting new on-line program that matches students' interests and learning styles to many different opportunities designed to provide enriched, challenging learning. All of the activities and options in the Renzulli Learning System are based on The Enrichment Triad Model, which has been cited as the most widely used plan for enrichment and talent development in the world.

Enrichment ICIE


In the Renzulli Learning System, the Renzulli ProfilerTM generates an individual profile for each student. Then an individualized Enrichment Differentiation collection of Internet and downloadable resources are made available that matches student interests, learning styles, and preferred modes of expression.

To Download Renzulli Brochure Click here

If you are interested to subscribe for Renzulli Learning System, will you please communicate with us to provide you with more details. Click here

Evaluation of Potential Creativity (EPoC)

What is EPoC?
This instrument, the Evaluation of Potential Creativity (EPoC 2009), is a new battery that allows creative giftedness to be measured. It includes verbal and graphic subtests that measure the two key modes of creative cognition—divergent-exploratory thinking and convergent-integrative thinking—in elementary and middle-school students. The instrument can be used as an efficient diagnostic tool to identify creative potential and to monitor progress, using pre-tests and post-tests, in educational programs designed to enhance creativity. Easy to use by psychologists and educators, this instrument can, for example, help school psychologists to identify, in regular schools, children with creative potential. An original, internet-based scoring system that enhances inter-rater reliability is integrated in the battery. Initially developed in France, this instrument will be available in 2010 in other languages with local norms for different cultures.
 
The Role of Creativity: Why is it Important?

Creativity plays an increasingly important role in modern society which requires original, innovative thinking and creative problem solving to face unexpected challenges in all aspects of life.  The economic importance of creativity as an engine for societal growth in both cultural and industrial sectors has been often recognized (for example the European Union has declared 2009 to be the European Year of Creativity and Innovation).  Creativity can be defined as a capacity to produce work that is both original (novel) and adaptive with respect to the constraints of a task or a situation.
 
A New Battery: How Does EPoC Work?
In the educational sector, there is a great demand for instruments to detect creative potential and to monitor its’ development.  Part of the interest in creative potential concerns the detection of children who may benefit from specific educational programs. For this reason, “creative giftedness” is often evoked as a capacity that is complementary to classic intellectual potential (often measured by IQ tests). For both conceptual and practical reasons, existing measures of creativity have come under criticism recently in the scientific literature. First, numerous recent studies indicate that creativity is mainly domain specific and it is probably best to measure creativity in each domain of activity because the mental processes may not be very general in nature. Second, it has become clear that a simplified and continuously up-to-date scoring system is needed: Over time, the originality of ideas evolves; ideas that were original last year may now In the educational sector, there is a great demand for instruments to detect creative potential and to monitor its’ development. Part of the interest in creative potential concerns the detection of children who may benefit from specific educational programs. For this reason, “creative giftedness” is often evoked as a capacity that is complementary to classic intellectual potential (often measured by IQ tests). For both conceptual and practical reasons, existing measures of creativity have come under criticism recently in the scientific literature. First, numerous recent studies indicate that creativity is mainly domain specific and it is probably best to measure creativity in each domain of activity because the mental processes may not be very general in nature. Second, it has become clear that a simplified and continuously up-to-date scoring system is needed: Over time, the originality of ideas evolves; ideas that were original last year may now be common. Thus, test norms based on tables with the statistical rarity of ideas can become quickly outdated. In most cases, norms for creativity tests were created years ago. Also, the scoring of creativity involves, inherently, some social judgement of the relative novelty of the work, with respect to an individual’s peer group.

EPoC Measures Creativity
The new battery that we have developed, EPoC, represents a synthesis and extension of several traditions in creativity measurement. EPoC evaluates creativity in several domains (currently, artistic and literary, with others to be developed such as music, social problem solving, scientific invention, etc). In each domain, two basic kinds are thinking are measured because they come into play in each creative act. The first is divergent exploration. The second is convergent synthesis and integration. These two modes are widely viewed as the basis of the creative process and relate to numerous pedagogical programmes to train creativity.  Results show good psychometric qualities, with a factor structure indicating 4 factors, as expected: Verbal convergent integrative, verbal divergent exploratory, Graphic-artistic convergent, graphic artistic divergent. No particular gender-related differences are observed. There are developmental trends across school-grade levels.

The Evaluation of Creative Potential
EPoC consists of two parallel forms (A, B) that can allow for evolution of creative potential to be measured over time (or before and after an educational activity).  Each form consists of eight tasks that concern the graphic–artistic and verbal-literary domains, and call for divergent and convergent modes of thought.
 
Measures in the EPoC battery

ICIE & EPoC

The Population
EPoC has currently been initially developed, with norms, for use with primary school children in France.  It is also pertinent to the assessment of creative potential in secondary school (research is in progress).

International Evaluation Tool
EPoC is a comprehensive evaluation tool that combines an approach to creativity by domain and by mode of thought, allowing a profile of creative potential to be assessed. The EPoC system provides opportunities to add additional domains to the assessment (such as the musical domain, currently under development). EPoC includes a training program for evaluators to facilitate test use and scoring.

This project involves a partnership between Editions Hogrefe France, the International Centre for Innovation in Education (ICIE-Germany) and the Individual Differences research group at the Institute of Psychology, Université Paris Descartes.  The ICIE will collaborate and coordinate with a large number of local partners to conduct the cross cultural studies.
 
What else does ICIE offer Educators and Psychologists?
The International Centre for Innovation in Education (ICIE) offers two training workshops. The first will enable teachers and psychologists to employ effectively EPoC to measure creative potential. The second workshop will qualify teachers to develop new activities and to employ resources in developing productive thinking skills.

EPoC is available in five languages: French, English, German, Turkish, and Arabic
If you are interested to translate EPoC into your language, and to take part in developing the norms for your country Contact Us:

Editions Hogrefe France,
75 avenue Parmentier 75011 Paris; France.
e-Mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
 
Prof. Dr. Todd Lubart,
Institut de Psychologie - Université Paris Descartes, 71 avenue Edouard Vaillant, 92774 Boulogne-Billancourt Cedex–France.
e-Mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
 
Prof. Dr. Taisir Subhi-Yamin;
General Director, ICIE, Heilmeyersteige 93; D-89057, Ulm; Germany.
e-Mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
 
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