Extending Steiner’s Soul Tri-Membering into Higher Education: Psychometric Diagnosis and Entrepreneurial Talent Formation in Adults
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Abstract
This paper presents the Entrepreneurial University Diagnosis (Diagnóstico Universitário Empreendedor — DUE), a psychometric tool for identifying entrepreneurial potential in university students and adult learners, integrating scientific assessment with formative development. The DUE is directly inspired by Rudolf Steiner's pedagogical and anthroposophical principles—especially the soul tri-membering of thinking (cognition), feeling (emotion), and willing (action). It offers a contemporary extension of Waldorf pedagogy applied to higher education and vocational formation, guiding adults toward professional paths aligned with their inner capacities.
Built upon this spiritual-scientific framework, the DUE operationalizes self-knowledge and vocational autonomy. It integrates Steiner’s vision of the human being with models from modern psychology: Gardner's multiple intelligences, Bandura’s self-efficacy, Dweck’s mindset, McClelland’s achievement motivation, and emotional intelligence. The diagnostic structure encompasses three dimensions—Mindset (thinking), Personality (feeling), and Behavior (willing)—and generates personalized feedback to guide individual development beyond mere classification.
Applied to over 1,700 participants in partnership with Brazilian universities and SEBRAE’s innovation programs, the DUE functions as both diagnostic and formative. It reflects Steiner's view that education should not merely transmit knowledge but activate latent potentials for meaningful life purposes.
By extending Steiner’s pedagogical framework into adult entrepreneurship education, the DUE demonstrates how anthroposophical insights can inform contemporary personal and vocational development, offering a replicable model of applied spiritual science for higher education and entrepreneurship formation.
Presenter Biography
Mary Angela Nardelli is an educator, researcher, and entrepreneur based in Curitiba, Brazil. Founder and CEO of Talento Nato, she developed the Diagnóstico Universitário Empreendedor (DUE) to extend Steiner’s pedagogical principles into higher education and vocational formation. After entering higher education at age 44, her academic work integrates psychometrics, applied anthroposophy, and adult developmental psychology to foster vocational autonomy through formative diagnosis. Her company has partnered with Brazilian universities and SEBRAE (Brazil's national entrepreneurship agency), applying the DUE to over 1,700 participants. Nardelli’s work demonstrates how anthroposophical pedagogy may inform entrepreneurship education and personal development in adulthood, addressing both higher education and professional transitions.
Tania Stoltz is a full professor at the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR), Brazil, specializing in Educational Psychology, Giftedness, and Talent Development. She has extensive publications on multiple intelligences, creativity, and entrepreneurship education. Her research explores theoretical and applied approaches to adult learning, talent identification, and the fostering of vocational autonomy. Prof. Stoltz has supervised numerous research projects that intersect educational psychology with self-development models, contributing to the academic foundation of the Entrepreneurial University Diagnosis (DUE) project.