No abstract

Teacher nomination is often used as one criterion of a multidimensional approach towards identifying students with high abilities. Multiple criteria can be useful to identify students for gifted programs who may be overlooked using traditional methods. The teacher rating scales discussed in this study have been extensively used in the United States and have been translated into twelve other languages for use in identification of talented students in other countries. The purpose of this study was to develop teacher-rating scales for schools in the German speaking part of Switzerland. Therefore, the Scales for Rating the Behavioral Characteristics of Superior Students revised (SRBCSS-R) were translated from English into German and data were collected from certified teachers in public schools in Switzerland. Factor analysis confirmed the original four-factor structure from the American SRBCSS-R with a comparative fit index (CFI) of .89 and a root mean square residual of .07. Alpha reliability coefficients ranged between a = .86 and a = .96, providing support for the internal consistency of the instrument. Use of these scales is recommended as one criterion for identifying students with high abilities in Swiss schools and the evaluation of its appropriateness for other German speaking schools is encouraged. As more schools implement the Schoolwide Enrichment Model, the use of the SRBCSS-R will become more widespread.

No abstract

<p>Unfolding climate crisis, loss of biodiversity, mounting trash heaps, dwindling resources: our common home is in a deep crisis. Research tells us what we need to do for building a sustainable society: limit the consumption of resources to the carrying capacity of the planet, circulate materials in the technosphere and power sustainable material cycles with renewable energy. However, conditions, pathways and constraints are not very tangible, intuitive or aspirational. Envisioning how we may live, interact, collaborate, move around and work within a sustainable circular economy is important to drive change towards a desirable future. This presentation showcases a co-creation process for such visions, bringing together the imaginative power of school children with the bio-physical perspectives of scientists. The process builds on design thinking approach, divergent-convergent ideation and allows different parts of the future scenarios come together over time. The visions will be created over the course of one term in a gifted program at public schools, preserved in an illustrated children's book and further developed into a curriculum unit for schools. As such it aims at science communication, integration in formal education and may lead to new research directions for investigating and enabling the co-created visions.</p>