Chapter 10: Talent Development Via Cognitive Mediation

Education, as a general concept, comprises a process that begins with birth in order to allow people to develop and become independent individuals in a society. Different cultures educate differently, and yet there is a common, global final goal. The formal process of education is conducted in kindergartens and schools by professional educators. They make their best efforts to teach all students the required knowledge, and expect them to learn and achieve the goals set by the education policymakers in their respective countries. In middle and high school, students’ achievements are also compared among different countries around the world via international exams. While assessing and comparing these achievement results, educators commonly ask questions as to their essence such as: Are students with high test-scores more talented than others? What are the roles of the educators throughout the learning process if everything is led by the students’ talents? Can talent be changed? And lately, educators have dared to question the use of test scores by focusing on the idea that all students are born with talent, but society does not know how to expose and develop it through regular learning processes in school.