Our Projects in Innovating Through Education
In addition to our consultancy services, we have our own projects that support education that fosters innovation, entrepreneurship and higher order learning.
With Wainuiomata High School, we designed a pilot programme that was funded by NZ Trade and Enterprise, to develop project-based learning education principles and foster the adoption of these concepts in other schools. The programme ran over two years leading to tripling in retention to Year 13 of at-risk learners, and a quadrupling in NCEA credits gained. More importantly all of the participating students went on to make their lives work, mostly pursuing tertiary education. Within the two years of the programme 21 schools had adopted the concepts.
Look for creativity and drive and you are likely to find somebody in the Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) spectrum. Many great people such as Leonardo da Vinci, Henry Ford, Walt Disney, Winston Churchill, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, John Lennon, and Agatha Christie all had classic ADHD characteristics.
Canadian research found that ADHD adults are nearly four times as likely to be entrepreneurs as their non-ADHD counterparts. But 17 studies from around the world show that around half of all prisoners also meet the ADHD criteria.
So our view is that ADHD is a set of exceptional qualities with exhausting challenges. To reflect the brilliant potential we will call people who meet the ADHD criteria “da Vincis”.
Traditional treatments for da Vincis are drugs like Ritalin and behavioural modification. These are fine as far as they go. But so much more can be done to manage the challenges and unleash the potential.
Te Kaihau is dedicated to sharing these ideas and, in association with the Kohutu Health Centre (www.kohutu.co.nz) providing help for da Vincis, parents, teachers, medical practitioners, HR managers and the justice system.
Our ADHD da Vinci programme provides the following support and insights:
- Da Vincis are very high in SQ. What is the difference between IQ, EQ and SQ and how does it impart brilliance? How can this brilliance be unleashed? What are the challenges and how can these be managed?
- Risk taking is part of entrepreneurship, but excessive risk taking is perilous. How can we support the brain to think before acting?
- Noticing everything is the corollary of attention deficit. da Vincis tend to notice everything becoming easily distracted until there is something that greatly interests them at which stage they can become very mono-focussed. How can we tap the potential to notice everything while also supporting concentration on the mundane?
- Da Vincis are the most exciting employees bringing innovation, creative problem solving, action orientation and strategic thinking to an organisation. They are also the greatest challenge and can threaten the status quo. How can organisations tap the potential of their da Vinci staff and minimise the problems?
- Stress from constantly being in trouble causes the liver to become overloaded and burnt out. So toxins, including serious ones like lead and organophosphates, get trapped in the body at a much higher rate than the general population. These toxins lead to toxic behaviour, which in turn causes the liver to become more overloaded. How can the liver be detoxified and re-energised? How can the toxins be neutralised? How can lead be safely chelated out of the body?
- Nor-adrenaline is usually low leading to procrastination. How can nor-adrenaline be boosted?
- Adrenaline rises quickly during stress and drops more slowly than the general population. Adrenaline is the fight/flight chemical and leaves little room for logic. What does this mean for parents, teachers and the justice system managing adrenaline linked behaviour? How can adrenaline be turned off?
- Double blind prison trials show the number of reported violent incidences halves when using multivitamins and omega 3. Why? How do we test for deficiencies? How do we support good nutrition?
- Gut flora are essential for removing toxins and extracting nutrients. Typically da Vincis have such poor gut flora that toxins enter the blood stream, nutrients cannot be extracted from food, and learning is impaired. How do we restore the gut flora?
- Da Vincis drive our economy, enrich our creative communities, and bring character to our society. How do we love them for their qualities, educate them for their potential, and manage them through the challenges?
- Many of the problems are the negative face of an exceptional quality misdirected. Try our ADHD da Vinci self evaluation questionnaire to test whether you are a da Vinci and the extent to which you are exhibiting the positive or the negative traits.
TECH 302 students at Victoria University help companies and science agencies to commercialise their science.
American MBA students help New Zealand export ready companies to get free market research and market development in the US market. Please see the Business Section for details.
Global leadership and citizenship skills are developed through this programme. Please see the Leadership section for details or the website www.geebiz.org.