The article discusses the risks involved in identifying gifted students in mathematics in the school environment. Although the theory of gifted students is widespread and available today, school ...practice shows many cases of gifted students who have not been identified in the school environment. The reasons for this are various. The article will present the theory related to this topic. The research was conducted as two case studies using qualitative research methods. Semi-structured interviews with parents and pupils were used, and the pupils were observed for a long time by the researcher. In the first case, it was a mathematically gifted pupil with dyslexia, and in the second case, it was a mathematically gifted pupil with an extremely high IQ. The result of the study was to find out in which moments the school did not provide support to the pupil in the two cases mentioned and what kind of help the pupil would appreciate at school. Both pupils were involved in a 1-year intervention in which the intention was to cultivate their mathematical thinking and expressions with the help of appropriately chosen tasks. The stated findings are important for practice and discussion about the training of future mathematics teachers, for which consistent professional training focusing, among other things, also on the education of gifted students is essential. Both case studies are part of long-term research dealing with the identification of gifted students.
In this paper, we discuss the recording of artistically gifted children in Slovene elementary schools. The recording of artistically gifted children took place by collecting drawings of children who ...were considered by the elementary education teachers to be artistically gifted. These artworks were evaluated for creativity and developed spatial abilities by an independent commission of experts in the field of art pedagogy. In the research, we were interested in the extent to which elementary education teachers' grades match the analytically obtained grades based on theoretically designed criteria for discovering artistic gifts. The research aimed to determine whether pupils (n = 103), who were recorded by teachers as artistically gifted, actually have developed abilities that determine artistic talent. The research results show that the teachers covered by the research were not successful in identifying artistically gifted pupils. Recognizing artistic gifts caused them problems. Teachers are poorly acquainted with the concept of artistic talent and the characteristics of artistically gifted pupils. It has also been found that the subjective conception of beauty is at the forefront of teachers; however, they neglect the creativity aspect. The research findings showed that most teachers have misconceptions and insufficient knowledge about the elements that indicate that pupils are potentially artistically gifted.
Labeling of gifted pupils can negatively affect the life path of gifted individuals. The study explores whether and how a teacher can label gifted pupils when applying educational strategies based on ...internal differentiation. We focused on formally identified intellectually gifted pupils (age 7–12) educated in (mainstream) elementary schools in the Czech Republic (Central Europe). Qualitative data were collected through classroom observations and teacher interviews. We observed 24 gifted pupils and 15 teachers from 12 schools. We identified five main types of educational strategies leading to inappropriate labeling, such as Tasks for Quick‐witted, Challenges, Boffins Goes to Competition, Teacher's Assistant, and Individual Projects. The “inappropriateness” of these strategies consisted of the significant preference and presentation of gifted pupils, in the useless and overused selection of gifted pupils, and the rigidity of the applied strategies. The paper seeks to highlight the existence of a paradoxical phenomenon whereby, when teachers are maximally interested in promoting giftedness, the stagnation of gifted pupils and other pupils in the class occurs. The study concludes with recommendations for eliminating inappropriate labeling of gifted pupils.
We propose using Stochastic Frontier Analysis to estimate pupils’ academic underachievement. We model underachievement as the gap between expected achievement and actual achievement, not due to a ...learning disability. Our data are a panel for 2,228 Belgian pupils observed over 6 years of primary education. We found that the average underachievement gap is 23.5%. That is, the average pupil does not exploit about one fourth of their potential. Gifted pupils appear to underachieve as much as non-gifted pupils. We also found that class size is a determinant of underachievement. The association between class size and underachievement is non-monotonic, with an underachievement minimum at a class size of about 20 pupils.
The article looks at the social aspects of the criteria for the maintenance of mental, psychological and social health. The authors studied the physiological indicators of gifted students under ...conditions of rest and mental stress. It was revealed that gifted students have a lack of activity in the respiratory center, and that the managing of adaptation processes is carried out by the higher and subcortical parts of the cortex. The data obtained allowed for the identification of aspects of the training of teachers and managers aimed at supporting the social health (socialization, lifestyle, self-actualization, functional status and adaptation) of gifted students enrolled in a heterogeneous environment.
The Swedish educational system has, so far, accorded little attention to the development of gifted pupils. Moreover, up to date, no Swedish studies have investigated teacher education from the ...perspective of mathematically gifted pupils. Our study is based on an instructional intervention, aimed to introduce the notion of giftedness in mathematics and to prepare prospective teachers (PTs) for the needs of the gifted. The data consists of 10 dynamic geometry software activities, constructed by 24 PTs. We investigated the constructed activities for their qualitative aspects, according to two frameworks: Krutetskii’s framework for mathematical giftedness and van Hiele’s model of geometrical thinking. The results indicate that nine of the 10 activities have the potential to address pivotal abilities of mathematically gifted pupils. In another aspect, the analysis suggests that Krutetskii’s holistic description of mathematical giftedness does not strictly correspond with the discrete levels of geometrical thinking proposed by van Hiele.
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