An Opportunity to Realize High Potential

At the High Potential Education meeting, launched at Bahçeşehir Schools in cooperation with Bahçeşehir University, parents were informed about the content of the education.

Assist. Prof. Dr. Abdulkadir Bahar, head of the team that developed the high potential project, stated that parents and educators being more knowledgeable about high potential plays a very important role in the success of high potential education, and that awareness activities for parents and educators are being carried out at Bahçeşehir Schools as part of this education.

In his presentation at the High Potential Education Meeting, Assist. Prof. Dr. Abdülkadir Bahar outlined the program's development roadmap and explained the concept of high potential with different examples from around the world. Delivering an interactive presentation, High Potential General Coordinator and Bahçeşehir Schools Head of the Psychological Counseling and Guidance Department Özen Yazğan stated that high potential is a difference and that education for high-potential individuals is a need, and explained how High Potential Education is implemented at Bahçeşehir Schools. The meeting ended after a question and answer session.

WHAT IS EDUCATION FOR HIGH-POTENTIAL INDIVIDUALS?
Describing the High Potential Education practices and its goals, Bahçeşehir Schools Deputy General Manager for Education Ali Rıza Lüle said at the event: "We have gathered on High Potential Education, and we are informing parents. High Potential Education is a program prepared jointly by Bahçeşehir University and Bahçeşehir Schools. It has been in development for about 4 years, and Bahçeşehir University joined this work 1.5 years ago. Pilot implementations have started in 19 schools across Türkiye. We do not use expressions such as gifted or talented; we say high potential. The goal of high potential education is to better educate the people who, according to some scientific data, make up two to three percent of the population in the world, to make them able to compete with the world, and in this way to take our country one step forward."

Stating that they started the pilot implementations last year with 3 schools, Lüle gave details of the education provided within the program: "At the end of a process in which all students are assessed and more than one tool is used for observation and assessment, students with different needs are identified, and willing students take part in a program totaling 20 weeks over two terms. We try to take children's skills such as critical thinking, problem solving and project development one step above where they are. We provide this education to primary school students, but in the coming years we want to continue it in middle school and high school as well."

WHAT ARE THE LONG-TERM ADVANTAGES?
Bahçeşehir University Faculty of Educational Sciences faculty member Assist. Prof. Dr. Abdülkadir Bahar, who stated that the aim of the program is to contribute to the education of children who show high potential in international identification practices, said: "Potential ability is not an advantage; it is a difference. An education has been planned to understand these differences and meet children's academic, social and psychological needs. Our content consists of classes given by trained teachers on weekends and weekdays. We are talking about a package that includes not only student education but also teacher and parent education."

Talking about developmental education practices for high-potential individuals, which have existed in the world for 50 years and are only just beginning in Türkiye, Abdülkadir Bahar said that in parent-educator-student training they primarily aim for a change in perception, and that in this work they emphasize that high potential is not an advantage but a difference. Bahar said, "The program was designed primarily to raise awareness, develop content and bring this content together with students. We started our parent and teacher training with awareness activities on the fact that although high potential may seem like an advantage, it can also create other disadvantages, such as differences being misunderstood in society. Hearing impairment is a difference, and so is high potential; we see understanding it as such as a stage of awareness for both parents and teachers."
Adding that the fruits of the program will be reaped in the long term, Bahar said, "We anticipate that high-potential children who take part in this education will, in the long term, complete both their social and psychological development in a healthier way and grow up healthier."