School development in focus: Scientists exchange ideas about promoting talent

School development in focus: Scientists exchange ideas about promoting talent

On May 27, 2025, an important network meeting to promote talent took place at the Karlsruhe University of Education. The event brought together around 50 participants, including school management, teachers and representatives from Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. The aim of this meeting was to promote school development that promotes talent across the board. Under the motto "Connecting experiences and knowledge. Jointly shaping talent development through transfer in an evidence-based manner" the experts came together to report on their experiences and gain new perspectives.

During the meeting, participants were able to exchange ideas about transfer strategies and evidence-based school development. Prof. Dr. Gabriele Weigand, head of the LemaS research network, opened the event and set the framework for the discussions. In an inspiring keynote, Prof. Dr. Niels Anderegg on “Teacher Leadership and Community School Management”. An important aspect of his speech was the discussion of misconceptions and solutions in school development.

Key insights and workshops

A central topic that was addressed in this context is the use of the talents of adults in the school system. These aspects were highlighted as crucial for a sustainable school culture. After the inputs, workshops took place that dealt with collaborative school leadership and transfer work. “Good practice” examples from schools and networks were also discussed, which reinforced the positive aspects of previous experiences.

Prof. Dr. Gabriele Weigand gave a positive conclusion and emphasized the importance of strengthening the transfer of knowledge between science and practice. The transfer is to be understood as a change process to be designed jointly, which is supported as part of the “Performance sets a precedent” initiative. This initiative aims to recognize and support the full potential of all learners and is currently in its second phase from 2023 to 2027.

Significance of the “Performance sets a precedent” initiative

The second phase of LemaS focuses on deepening the results of the first phase on school and teaching development and passing on these experiences to new schools. Schools and school management in the first phase as well as trained network support staff will act as multipliers and contribute their knowledge. It is planned that all students, regardless of origin, gender and social status, will benefit from this funding.

The need for funding is supported by both the federal and state governments, which invest a total of 15 million euros annually to finance training and advice. Scientific support in the development and implementation of specific support measures is another aspect of the initiative, which is also supported by the state competence center for individual support and the district governments.

In this context, it is also important to further address the issue of educational equity, performance development and talent promotion, as discussed in various publications on talent research. One example is the work "Promotion of talent, performance development, educational equality - for everyone! Contributions from research into talent", which addresses various relevant aspects and was published by Waxmann Verlag in 2020. Educational equity must be viewed as a central challenge in the German education system in order to provide all children with targeted support and individual support.