Update from the Venezuelan Intelligence Project-- Beatriz Cardozo de Capdevielle

Update from the Venezuelan Intelligence Project

Following is a brief report on our project in Venezuela since February 1996. A newly elected Governor of the State of Miranda, asked me, through the diligence of Dr. Luis Alberto Machado, the founder and director of the Intelligence Project, to start a program similar to the one we, (David Perkins,co-director of Project Zero at Harvard University, a couple of South African colleagues, and myself) had been applying in South Africa, with the Program A Thousand Schools Project.

We began working with 100 public schools and thirty facilitators (mostly educators, but also a few psychologists and sociologists), who were specially trained in the two thinking skills methodologies we had used in South Africa. One of these methods, Keys To Thinking, had been designed by an international team composed by David Perkins and a couple of colleagues from Project Zero, a few South African teachers and myself and it was aimed at third and fourth grade students.

The other method, a compilation of Edward De Bono's tools for creative thinking, problem-solving, and other strategies, was aimed at fifth and sixth grade students. In the meanwhile, with the input from David Perkins, we developed a new method called Powerful Questions especially designed for 1st and 2nd grade students.

We worked with these methods during the rest of that school year and the next (1996-1997) and on April 1997, the Governor decided to found a new public organization, autonomous and independent, that could take over this initiative and apply it in all the schools, public and private, in the State of Miranda.

Dr. Machado was from the very beginning a very important key and became one of the members of the Board of this new Trust, which we called Foundation for Educational Excellence. I was appointed President. Since then and always in collaboration with advisors David Perkins and later also Art Costa, Robert Swartz, Aldo Meza from Chile, María Teresa Lepeley from the University of Connecticut, and a few others, we have successfully applied these methods in many public schools in Venezuela, particularly in the State of Miranda, reaching more than 200.000 students and more than 4.800 teachers and administrators. This has become the current Development of Thinking Program.

From then onwards, we increased the number of schools participating in the Program to 475, which is our present status. According to the Secretary of Education of Miranda, with the application of this Program the average academic achievement of the students increased significantly, from 11 to 14.7 on a scale of 20. With these results, the Ministry of Education made the decision that the Program would become part of the Regional Curriculum for Basic Education. This means that from September 2003 onwards, eventually every primary, private, public or community school will be applying the Regional Curriculum. There are more than 1.800 primary schools in Miranda, but of those we are only capable of including 475 in the project at this time.

All the schools that participate in the Development of Thinking Program must have the approval of the School Administrator or Principal, the approval of all the teachers and of the members of the corresponding Civil Association which is the organization that represents the parents of a specific school. The approval of the students takes place at a later stage, when they have become familiar with the Program.

Venezuela is going through one of the most difficult times since the third decade of the 20th century, economically, socially and politically. The crisis is felt throughout all the sectors of the society, affecting everyone but at the end, as we all know, the worst off are those in the poorer sector. Of course it affects education in the same way it affects all the other sectors, but at the same time, this same crisis has made people realize that the true long term solution for our country lies in education.

About the author

Dr. Beatriz Cardozo de Capdevielle is the former Assistant to the Minister of State for the Development of Human Intelligence in Venezuela, and is now President of the Foundation for Educational Excellence and Vice President of the Superior council of the University Valle del Momboy. She is a graduate of Andres Bello Catholic University and did post graduate work in Political Sociology at Vanderbilt University. Beatriz is an international consultant in cognitive development and has been a teacher of thinking skills in high schools, colleges, universities and private organizations in since 1980.

Fundación Para La Excelencia Educativa, Centro Avila,
Final Calle Vargas, cruce con Av. El Buen Pastor,
Boleita Norte, Caracas 1070.
Venezuela.
Email: beatriz@fundaexcelencia.org.ve
Tel: (58-212) 614-5000 y 614-5001
Fax: (58-212) 232-5155
www.fundaexcelencia.org.ve
Premio a la Excelencia por Venezuela Competitiva Año 2.003.

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