{"id":126758,"date":"2017-06-07T15:11:41","date_gmt":"2017-06-07T19:11:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?post_type=school-college-post&p=126758"},"modified":"2017-06-07T15:11:43","modified_gmt":"2017-06-07T19:11:43","slug":"renzulli-leads-collaboration-uconn-university-pavia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2017\/06\/renzulli-leads-collaboration-uconn-university-pavia\/","title":{"rendered":"Renzulli Leads Collaboration Between UConn, University of Pavia"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Pavia<\/a>
The University of Connecticut has established a new partnership with one of the world\u2019s oldest universities, located in the historic Italian city of Pavia. (ThinkStock Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When internationally renowned gifted education expert Joseph Renzulli<\/a> speaks, people not only listen \u2014\u00a0they take action.<\/p>\n

Renzulli, Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor in the Neag School\u2019s Department of Educational Psychology, regularly travels the globe, speaking at academic conferences and sharing his widely regarded, pioneering research work in the areas of giftedness, creativity, and talent development. Since giving a research presentation in Italy several years ago, he has encountered growing interest in his work among colleagues based at one of the world\u2019s oldest universities, the University of Pavia, founded in the year 1361. Professor Maria Assunta Zanetti, co-director of the University of Pavia\u2019s Italian Laboratory of Research and Development of Potential, Talent, and Intellectual Giftedness<\/a>,\u00a0was among those who connected with Renzulli in the months that followed. The laboratory \u2014\u00a0otherwise known as LabTalento \u2014\u00a0is the first Italian university lab of its kind, with a mission focused on helping \u201cchildren and young people with high cognitive potential \u2026 to fully develop their resources.\u201d[1]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

For Renzulli, after whom the Renzulli Center for Creativity, Gifted Education, and Talent Development<\/a> is named, a collaboration between UConn and the University of Pavia would help realize one of his longtime goals \u2014\u00a0\u201cto spread the word about what we are doing in talent development\u201d \u2014\u00a0for yet one more international audience. Zanetti, Renzulli says, was \u201cthe person who seemed to take the ball and run with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis collaboration will put the Neag School of Education and the University of Connecticut in the center of the educational field in Italy and the European Union.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Yuhang Rong,\u00a0assistant vice president,
\nUConn Global Affairs<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

From UConn to the EU
\n<\/strong>This spring, the partnership officially came to fruition when Renzulli, along with Sally Reis<\/a>, Letitia Neag Morgan Chair in Educational Psychology and Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor, were invited as keynote speakers at theSeventh International Congress on the Issue of Intellectual Giftedness<\/a>, hosted by LabTalento. The first day of the International Congress was celebrated with Renzulli\u2019s signature on the collaborative agreement<\/a>, formally bringing the two universities together for an initial term of five years.<\/p>\n

\u201cGifted education and talent development at the Renzulli Center is world-renowned,\u201d says Yuhang Rong, UConn\u2019s assistant vice president\u00a0for Global Affairs, whose office served a vital role in facilitating the agreement. \u201cThis collaboration will put the Neag School of Education and the University of Connecticut in the center of the educational field in Italy and the European Union.\u201d<\/p>\n

The collaboration will serve to foster not only opportunities for student exchanges among those from each university pursuing studies in the disciplines of gifted education, creativity, and talent development, but also shared research efforts in these areas. In fact, Renzulli on occasion finds himself connecting directly with international graduate students, who reach out from afar to seek out his advice or propose an idea for a research study.<\/p>\n

The interest around Renzulli and Reis\u2019 spring visit to University of Pavia subsequently led to coverage in an Italian publication<\/a> about their research. In addition, an Italian publisher is now pursuing the translation of two books featuring Renzulli\u2019s research \u2014\u00a0one on the Schoolwide Enrichment Model and one about enrichment clusters \u2014 from English to Italian.<\/p>\n

\"Joseph<\/a>
Joseph Renzulli gives the keynote address at Confratute in 2011. Confratute marks its 40th consecutive year this summer. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This July, the Renzulli Center will also be welcoming six University of Pavia visitors \u2014\u00a0up to two faculty members and four graduate students \u2014 to Confratute<\/a>, a weeklong institute that draws hundreds of educators to UConn\u2019s Storrs campus every summer to learn about research-based strategies for engagement and enrichment learning for all types of students. Pavia\u2019s attendees will be among the first-ever Confratute attendees from Italy, Renzulli says, in the 40 years since the institute was established. He is hopeful that Zanetti herself will be among them.<\/p>\n

Two Types of Giftedness
\n<\/strong>Although some countries have tended to shy away from using the phrase \u201cgifted education,\u201d Renzulli says many have come to see the value in \u201cour democratic approach of talent development for all kids.\u201d And in his global travels, sharing his ideas and research findings with those in the field, Renzulli has begun to witness a shift in how certain countries are approaching education.<\/p>\n

Such places as China and Japan, he says, traditionally have employed what he calls \u201cextremely rigid, ministry-controlled curriculums \u2014\u00a0basically, test prep on steroids.\u201d Yet over the years, \u201cwhat they are realizing is that the people who are driving the economy are people who come up with new ideas,\u201d he says. \u201cThey are realizing that these things are important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Take the Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerbergs of the world as an example, says Renzulli. While neither finished college, their innovative ideas are what has defined their careers and inspired their professional success.<\/p>\n

\u201cHigh scores and good grades oftentimes produce what I call \u2018schoolhouse giftedness,\u2019\u201d Renzulli says. In contrast, he has long touted the importance of an entirely different type of giftedness, one he calls \u201ccreative productive giftedness\u201d \u2014\u00a0exhibited by \u201cpeople who come with ideas, invent things, write things, start businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is this latter concept of giftedness that has begun to catch on in these nations, says Renzulli, who adds that one recurring message has been surfacing when he meets with various ministries of education:\u00a0\u201cWe want to know what it is about your school system [in the U.S.] that produces this vast realm of new ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the University of Pavia connections taking shape, Renzulli is now eager to introduce educators and researchers in Italy to these concepts around giftedness and the development of all children\u2019s interests.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish I were 40 years old instead of 80, because this is something that\u2019s catching on,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s a really good time for what we\u2019re peddling. Pavia is one more step in that direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a><\/sup> http:\/\/labtalento.unipv.it\/?page_id=3605<\/a><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new collaboration between UConn and the University of Pavia in Italy will serve to foster not only opportunities for student exchanges among those from each university pursuing studies in the disciplines of gifted education, creativity, and talent development, but also shared research efforts in these areas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":126759,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1855],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1878],"class_list":["post-126758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-neag"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-29 04:14:17","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/126759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126758"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=126758"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=126758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}