Special workshops launched for wunderkinds

Taking courses on genetics, astronomy and robotic applications, wunderkinds who are aged between 4 to 12 years of age are educated as though they are scientists in a "workshop system" carried out by TÜZDER (Association of Gifted and Talented People) in cooperation with the Istanbul Development Agency.

In order to "bring children together with their peers," "to provide intellectual satisfaction" and "to provide skill-based training for children," children aged 7-8 take courses such as "robotics," "molecular genetics and biotechnology," "problem solving," "discovery time" and "creative thinking" while children aged 9 or older take courses such as "robotics," "blog design," "space and astronomy," "strategic thinking skills" and "think and discover."

Saying that the workshop system is a learning environment and living space in which the student is a "child" and the teacher is "craftsman," Tunahan Coşkun, the general director of TÜZDER also said children can get rid of the dullness of theoretical knowledge through the workshop, enjoy creating a product without losing their desire to learn because they are completely active during the education process. Telling that the system is a new education standard in which "children learn actively experiencing the process with the modern equipment," Coşkun said it is an education problem to classify children according to their ages, instead of classifying them based on their skills and interests and added that they solved this problem thanks to the system which they started at a kindergarten in Bağcılar this year.

Coşkun also said the students, who want to take place in workshops, first fill the application form on the website of the association and the parents are called back. The workshops accept only children who are evaluated by the association or recognized as "having superior intelligence" by a counseling and research center or an art and science center.

Coşkun said that the "12-hour family education" and "day-long psychological support" are the most important and distinct features of the program.

Emphasizing that they are inspired by the Enderun system (special school) used in the Ottoman period and Gulamhane system of the Seljuk era, Coşkun also said that the workshop programs are the first in the field in Turkey.