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Formative Evaluation of Hector Children’s Academies

With the aim of advancing gifted people, the Hector Foundation II, under the patronage of the Ministry of Culture, intends to set up children’s academies across Baden-Wuerttemberg and to secure their existence in a financially sustainable way. Children’s academies are extracurricular institutions that offer support to particularly gifted children under the age of ten; they endorse a holistic approach. One of the important objectives of the academies concerns the acquisition of an adequate self concept. Furthermore, the academies are meant to promote self-regulatory skills and social competence, and foster the development of specific disciplinary competencies and general cognitive key qualifications. Moreover, the academies are designed to spark an interest in learning, and increase (achievement-related) motivation.

The project “Formative evaluation of Hector children’s academies“ at the DIPF cooperates with the University of Tübingen. Scientific monitoring of the academies focuses on assessing whether the individual academies actually succeed in reaching the desired effects on the children’s development, and if the support children receive while attending an academy leads to more positive effects, as compared to a control group of children who do not participate in the programme.

We intend to answer for the following questions:

Do the diverse promotional measures differ with respect to their impact on achievement, motivation, development of interests, school-related behaviour, satisfaction etc.?
What can be stated about the long-term development of participants in the Hector academies, as compared to a control group?
Who attends (or does not attend) the Hector children’s academies?
What happens (or would happen) if the support programmes were integrated into regular classroom instruction?
What is the relevance and role of teachers in the context of promoting giftedness?