The meaning of "talent"

The ultimate goal of education is to cultivate talents for the society. Therefore, the understanding of talents directly determines the principles and policies of education and affects the development of educational activities. However, the concept of talent has certain characteristics of the times, and there will be different understandings in different historical periods.

For example, 8 1, we think that talents are educated laborers with socialist consciousness. To this end, the educational policy of cultivating "red and expert" talents is put forward. 1986 implemented compulsory education and believed that talents should be construction-oriented. Therefore, according to the Compulsory Education Law, education must be aimed at cultivating socialist construction talents with all-round development in morality, intelligence and physique. 1993, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the Outline of Education Reform and Development in China, and put forward the policy that "education must serve socialist modernization, must be combined with productive labor, and cultivate builders and successors with all-round development in morality, intelligence and physique". Think of talents as people with all-round development. The report of the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2002 put forward the concept of innovative talents.

2

Different from the national education policy of understanding talents from a political perspective, the society's understanding of talents is more specific. Generally speaking, talents are "people with knowledge and insight", "people with both ability and political integrity", "people with certain special skills" or "the advanced essence of the crowd". Generally speaking, it is a person who has some essential characteristics different from ordinary people.

"Talent science" is a new discipline which takes "people" and "talents" as the research objects and integrates the achievements of natural science and social science. This paper mainly studies the law of talent development, training, management, use and talent growth and its application in talent development practice. The definition of talent science is: "A talent is a person who makes certain contributions to social development and human progress through his creative work."

This definition focuses on people's creativity, which is similar to the innovative talents in the report of the 16th National Congress. According to the definition of talent science, talent refers to a person who has the ability to produce novel, unique and valuable products to society or individuals by using existing knowledge according to a certain purpose. Creative people are talents, and people without creativity can't be called talents.

three

From the history of mankind, we can see that creativity is like a huge engine, which strongly promotes the development of society. Politics, science, art and economy are all the fruits of human creativity.

Far away, just look at modern history. Before World War I, Britain was the focus of world economic growth. At that time, Britain produced a large number of great scientists, philosophers and economists like Newton, Maxwell, Faraday, Locke and Adam Smith. They gave full play to their creativity and made many new inventions and discoveries. Their contribution did not effectively support the economic growth of Britain at that time, but also affected the development of the whole human society and the face of the whole human civilization. Around the Second World War, the United States adopted various means and methods to attract a large number of outstanding talents from all over the world to immigrate to the United States. Scientists in the 20th century, such as Einstein, also moved to the United States, making the number of Nobel Prize winners in the United States rank first in the world. With the arrival of a large number of creative talents, the focus of world economic growth has shifted from Britain to the United States.

After more than 20 years of reform and opening up, we have introduced a lot of foreign technology and foreign capital, and China's economy has developed greatly. However, while we have achieved great success, there is also a hidden worry, that is, the shortage of creative talents. Although we can become a "world factory", the development of enterprises has to be controlled by people, because there are no original core technologies in many aspects. DVD industry and color TV industry are typical examples.

Lack of creative talents is an obstacle to the development of our society. In order to effectively support the development of our society, we need to cultivate a large number of creative talents. Therefore, it is of special practical significance for talents to emphasize creativity among various attributes of talents and regard creativity as the first ability of talents.

four

However, it is not only creative activities that promote social development and progress. Although some basic work is not so creative and novel, it is still very important and indispensable. For example, a skilled lathe worker is very important for the realization of a product. Although a lathe worker's work may not be particularly creative or novel, we can't seem to say that a skilled lathe worker is not a talent.

Therefore, the concept of "manpower" is used in economics, not the concept of "talent" used in talent science. For example, Schultz, a famous economist and winner of 1960 Nobel Prize, put forward the theory of human capital. This is not to say that creativity will not play a role in economic activities, but that in economic activities, people's role is not only their creativity, but also other attributes of people play an important role in economic activities.

five

In the theory of human resources, human resources in a broad sense refer to people with normal intelligence. In a narrow sense, there are many definitions. For example, "human resources refers to the ability of workers who can promote the whole economic and social development, that is, the ability of working-age population who has directly invested in construction but has not yet built it." "Human resources refer to the sum of the labor capacity of all the working population in a social organization." "Human resources refer to the creativity of social wealth existing in people, that is, the physical strength, skills and knowledge that human beings can use to produce products and provide services."

"Manpower" is a general term for "intelligence" and "physical strength". Therefore, it is generally believed that human resources refer to the sum total of people who can promote national economic and social development and have intellectual and physical labor ability.

six

The concept of human resources covers all living adults with working ability. This definition does not particularly emphasize human creativity. As long as an individual has the ability to work, he is an integral part of human resources. According to this definition, "manpower" includes "talents" and is a special creative "manpower".

"Talent" should undoubtedly be an excellent human resource. However, the concept of "human resources" cannot completely cover the concept of "talents". We can regard excellent "manpower" as "talents", but we can't completely equate "talents" with excellent "human resources".

This is because the concept of "talent" is historical and eternal. And "human resources" is an economic concept with timeliness requirements.

For example, the original achievements of many talents can not immediately promote social progress. Some achievements only provide progress steps for others' achievements. Some achievements may not really play a role in society until many years after the death of the inventor. When Copernicus was alive, no one thought he was an excellent "manpower" who could change the world, and he was not treated like this. However, the Theory of the Operation of Celestial Bodies published after his death has completely changed our understanding of the universe and is a landmark special talent to promote the development of human society. Similarly, we all know that rockets were invented by ancient China people. But in ancient times, the invention of the rocket was not considered as a great thing, and the inventor of the rocket was not considered as a "human" resource with much importance, and even his name was not left. But if his name can be preserved today, he will be regarded as a great inventor and a special "talent" who has made a landmark contribution to the development of human civilization.

As an economic concept, "human resources" should have output in every activity of "human resources", which can create economic benefits and effectively measure the value of activities. If economic benefits cannot be created, "manpower" will not become a "resource". However, the activities of "talents" are exploratory. Unless the judge has enough insight, it is impossible to judge the authenticity of the activity, and the value of the activity is difficult to measure and risky. Galileo was tried by the Inquisition.

The difference between "manpower" and "talents" has an important influence on educational activities. Because our society needs the services of "manpower" and "talents" at the same time, this need stipulates that education must undertake the task of cultivating these two different attributes. This also determines that the education system must be a multi-functional system. A single function can not meet the diverse social needs. If the purpose of an education system is to cultivate "talents", then it will focus on the cultivation of creativity and exploration courage. If the goal is to develop "manpower", then it will focus on the ability to do things whose effects can be measured immediately. For example, the formation of examination ability is actually a kind of "manpower" development, not a kind of "talent" cultivation. However, although the activities of "talents" and "manpower" are different, they also have something in common, that is, they should both have the ability to complete activities.