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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
FEDERAL EDUCATION AGENCY
ANAPSKY BRANCH OF GOU VPO
"Moscow State Humanitarian University
named after M.A Sholokhov"
DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGICAL AND PEDAGOGICAL EDUCATION
Course work
In the discipline "Learning Theory"
Problems of teaching gifted children
Is done by a student
2nd year, correspondence faculty
Psychological and pedagogical education
Zhmudin Alexey Vitalievich
Scientific adviser; Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Associate Professor Berman L.M.
Introduction
I. Mental talent, its psychological manifestations
II. Raising and training gifted children
2.2 Methods for diagnosing mental giftedness
2.3 Preparing a teacher to interact with gifted children
Conclusion
Application
Used Books
INTRODUCTION
Although psychology as a science emerged relatively recently, its components have always interested people, since psychology is our life, it is with us everywhere. Therefore, for every issue of this science, oddly enough, there are, if not many, then certainly several theories that refute one another or are intertwined at some points. Thus, the topic of giftedness in psychology has not remained aside.
The problems of its diagnosis and development have concerned educators for many centuries. Interest in it is currently very high, and this is explained by social needs. And, above all, the need of society for an extraordinary creative personality. The uncertainty of the modern environment requires not only high human activity, but also his skills, the ability to think outside the box and behave. And it is highly gifted people who are able to make their greatest contribution to the development of society.
The observation that people's mental abilities are unequal is as old as time. This was not a secret either for science or for everyday consciousness, which accumulated, as Hegel aptly put it, not only scientific theories, but also all the prejudices of its time. Both the outstanding people of antiquity and their contemporaries, less knowledgeable in science, well understood how significant the difference was between an outstanding creator (genius) and a mere mortal man. It has also long been noted that their differences often appear in childhood.
Therefore, early identification, training and education of gifted and talented children is one of the main problems in improving the education system. There is an opinion that gifted children do not need help from adults, but special attention and leadership. But we should not forget that due to their personal characteristics, such children are the most sensitive to assessment of their activities, behavior and thinking; they are more receptive to sensory stimuli and better understand relationships and connections.
It should also be remembered that no matter how gifted a child is, he needs to be taught. It is important to teach perseverance, to teach to work, to make decisions independently. A gifted child does not tolerate pressure, harassment, or shouting, which can lead to problems. It is difficult to cultivate patience, perseverance and unobtrusiveness in such a child. A huge workload is required for the child; from preschool age he should be introduced to creativity and an environment created for this.
To develop their talents, gifted children must have freedom of time and space, be taught an expanded curriculum, and feel individualized care and attention from their teacher. Wide time frames contribute to the development of the problem-search aspect. The important thing here is not what to study, but how to study. If a gifted child is given the opportunity not to rush through a task and not jump from one thing to another, he will best comprehend the mystery of the connection between phenomena and learn to apply his discoveries in practice. Unlimited opportunities to analyze expressed ideas and proposals, to delve deeply into the essence of problems contribute to the manifestation of natural curiosity and inquisitiveness, the development of analytical and critical thinking.
Today, more and more articles and publications are appearing that touch on this topic in one way or another. True, they are just a drop in the ocean of psychological problems that appear among teachers and parents of gifted children in our time.
1) Object of study: the process of diagnosing mental giftedness
2) Subject of research: features pedagogical work with gifted children.
3) The purpose of our research: to study the manifestations of giftedness in children and to consider the features of pedagogical work with them.
4) Tasks:
Conduct a psychological and pedagogical analysis of the concept of giftedness;
Consider methods for diagnosing gifted children
Identify the peculiarities of upbringing and problems of teaching gifted children.
I. Mental talent, its psychological manifestations
1.1 Concept and definition of giftedness in children. Types of giftedness
GIFTED is a significant advance in mental development compared to age norms or exceptional development of special abilities (musical, artistic, etc.). The giftedness of children can be established and studied only in the process of training and upbringing, during the child’s performance of one or another meaningful activity. Manifestations of mental giftedness in a child are associated with the extraordinary potential of the childhood years of life. It must be borne in mind that in the early preschool years, rapid mental development occurs in all children, making a decisive contribution to the development of intelligence during childhood.
The main difficulty in identifying signs of giftedness during childhood is that it is not easy to identify what is actually individual in them, relatively independent of age. Thus, the high mental activity observed in a child, a special readiness for tension, is an internal condition for mental growth. And it is not known whether it will turn out to be a stable feature at subsequent age stages.
A child’s creative aspirations and his production of new trains of thought can also be classified as harbingers of giftedness, but this is not a fact that they will receive further development. At the same time, early manifestations of giftedness do not yet predetermine a person’s future capabilities: it is extremely difficult to foresee the course of the further development of a gifted individual. preschooler mental giftedness
The subject of heated debate remains the question of the nature and prerequisites of giftedness. Modern research in this area is aimed at using electrophysiological, psychogenetic and other methods to reveal the relationship between biological and social in the nature of giftedness.
Gifted children who demonstrate outstanding ability in one area are sometimes no different from their peers in all other respects. However, as a rule, giftedness covers a wide range of individual psychological characteristics (the common saying: “a talented person is talented in everything”). Most gifted children have special characteristics that distinguish them from most of their peers. As a rule, they are distinguished by high curiosity and research activity. Psychophysiological studies have shown that such children have increased biochemical and electrical activity of the brain.
Such children perceive the lack of information that can be assimilated and processed painfully. Therefore, limiting their activity is fraught with negative reactions of a neurotic nature. Gifted children at an early age are distinguished by the ability to trace cause-and-effect relationships and draw appropriate conclusions; they are particularly passionate about building alternative models and systems. They are characterized by faster transmission of neural information, their intracerebral system is more branched, with a larger number of nerve connections. Gifted children usually have excellent memory, which is based on the early acquisition of language and abstract thinking. They are distinguished by the ability to classify and categorize information and experience, and the ability to widely use accumulated knowledge.
Most often, attention to gifted children is attracted by their large vocabulary, accompanied by complex syntactic structures, as well as the ability to pose questions. Many gifted children enjoy reading dictionaries and encyclopedias, inventing words that, in their opinion, should express their own concepts and imaginary events, and prefer games that require the activation of mental abilities.
Gifted children are also distinguished by increased concentration of attention on something, perseverance in achieving results in the area that interests them. However, the diversity of interests characteristic of many of them sometimes leads to the fact that they start several things at the same time, and also take on too complex tasks. They also have a penchant for clear patterns and classifications. For example, they can be captured by compiling some tables historical facts, dates, writing out the information that attracted their attention in different sequences.
It is very important to catch in a timely manner and not to miss the features of the relative constancy of individuality in children who are mentally ahead of their age. A child's giftedness is a fairly stable characteristic of individual manifestations of extraordinary intelligence that grows with age.
Gifted children differ extremely greatly from each other in their types of giftedness. For example, artistic talent- this type of giftedness is supported and developed in special schools, clubs, and studios. It implies high achievements in the field artistic creativity and performance skills in music, painting, sculpture, acting. One of the major challenges is to ensure that these abilities are recognized and respected in mainstream schools. These children devote a lot of time, energy to exercise, achieving mastery in their field. They have few opportunities for successful studies; they often need individual programs in school subjects and understanding from teachers and peers.
General intellectual and academic talent.
The main thing is that children with this type of giftedness quickly master fundamental concepts and easily remember and retain information. Their highly developed information processing abilities allow them to excel in many areas of knowledge.
Academic talent has a somewhat different character, which manifests itself in the success of learning individual academic subjects and is more frequent and selective.
These children can show high results in ease and speed of progress in mathematics or a foreign language, physics or biology and sometimes have poor performance in other subjects that are not so easy for them. The pronounced selectivity of aspirations in a relatively narrow area creates its own problems at school and in the family. Parents and teachers are sometimes dissatisfied that the child does not study equally well in all subjects, refuse to recognize his giftedness and do not try to find opportunities to support and develop special talents.
Creative talent. First of all, debate continues about the very need to distinguish this type of giftedness. The essence of the disagreement is as follows. Some experts believe that creativity is an integral element of all types of talent, which cannot be presented separately from the creative component. So, A.M. Matyushkin insists that there is only one type of giftedness - creative: if there is no creativity, there is no point in talking about giftedness. Other researchers defend the legitimacy of the existence of creative talent as a separate, independent species. One of the points of view is that talent is generated either by the ability to produce, put forward new ideas, invent, or by the ability to brilliantly execute and use what has already been created.
At the same time, research shows that children with a creative orientation often have a number of behavioral characteristics that set them apart and that cause not at all positive emotions in teachers and people around them: lack of attention (following and reverence?) to conventions and authorities; greater independence in judgment; subtle sense of humor; lack of attention to the order and organization of work; bright temperament.
Social giftedness is the exceptional ability to establish mature, constructive relationships with other people. Social talent is a prerequisite for high success in several areas. It presupposes the ability to understand, love, empathize, and get along with others, which allows you to be a good teacher, psychologist, and social worker. Thus, the concept of social giftedness covers a wide range of manifestations, characterized by the ease of establishment and high quality of interpersonal relationships. These features allow one to be a leader, that is, to show leadership talent, which can be considered as one of the manifestations of social talent.
There are many definitions of leadership talent, in which it is possible, however, to highlight common features: above average intelligence; ability to make decisions; ability to deal with abstract concepts, planning for the future, and time constraints; sense of purpose, direction of movement; flexibility; adaptability; sense of responsibility; self-confidence and self-knowledge; persistence; enthusiasm; the ability to express thoughts clearly.
The listed types of giftedness manifest themselves in different ways and encounter specific barriers to their development, depending on individual characteristics and the uniqueness of the child’s environment.
1.2 Difficulties in the mental development of gifted children
The position on the harmonious mental development of gifted children has been repeatedly revised throughout the history of psychological and pedagogical study of the phenomenon of children's giftedness. Modern research shows that harmony in the development of various aspects of the psyche of a gifted person is a relative rarity. More often you can encounter unevenness, one-sidedness of development, which often not only persists throughout the life of a gifted person, but also deepens, giving rise to a number of psychological problems. According to Zh.Sh. Terassier, gifted children and adolescents often suffer from so-called dyssynchrony in the rate of development of the intellectual, affective and motor spheres; “dyssynchrony” is understood as the effect of accelerated development of one of the mental processes in combination with the usual (age-appropriate) or even delayed development of another.
For J.Sh. Terassier dyssynchrony of mental development is a holistic phenomenon. At the same time, he proposes to differentiate two main aspects associated with dyssynchrony:
1) internal, i.e. associated with heterogeneity (heterogeneity) of the pace of development of various mental processes (intellectual-psychomotor or intellectual-affective dyssynchrony), as well as with unevenness in the development of a separate mental process (for example, in intellectual development there is often dissynchrony between the acquisition process language means and reasoning ability), and
2) external - reflecting the characteristics of the interaction of a gifted child or adolescent with his social environment (teachers, parents and relatives, other children). It is assumed that dyssynchrony can act as a cause of maladaptive behavior of a gifted child or adolescent in his relationship with the environment. Features of learning can both strengthen and weaken dyssynchrony.
A common type of dyssynchrony is associated with differences in the pace of development of intellectual and communication processes. It is known that a high level of intellectual development not only does not guarantee a child (or even an adult!) success in communicating with other people, but is often combined with great difficulties in establishing contact and communicating, and this is where the phenomenon of intellectual-social dyssynchrony manifests itself.
Although gifted children and adolescents with communication difficulties often successfully interact with partners via the Internet, one should be aware that the communication processes undergo significant changes compared to traditional forms of communication. Firstly, the content of a number of communicative goals changes, and some complex communicative actions that require a high level of development of social-perceptual (perception: perception; direct reflection of objective reality by the senses), emotional processes (empathy) and social competence in general are excluded or modified. Secondly, the methods of practical implementation of communicative goals are being transformed.
Another common type of dyssynchrony is caused by uneven development of intellectual and psychomotor processes - the latter are responsible for human motor activity. The presence of giftedness in the psychomotor sphere is widely recognized, it is actively diagnosed: teachers and trainers use it to select promising children and adolescents for sports, ballet, circus skills, etc. It is quite well known, even from everyday observations, that giftedness in the psychomotor sphere is often combined with underdevelopment of the intellectual sphere of a child, teenager or adult. Long hours of classes and training, lack of free time, severe physical fatigue of talented athletes do not contribute to the development of their intellectual abilities. Another option is also well known: a characteristic of intellectually gifted children can too often be a delay in the development of psychomotor skills, i.e. muscle tightness, clumsiness, clumsiness and insufficiently fast motor reaction. There are often cases when the best “mathematician” of the class or a gifted young poet in class physical culture find themselves among the lagging students. This causes ridicule and even persecution from classmates. Early experience of such conflicts with peers has a negative impact on the formation and development of the character of gifted children and adolescents. Moreover, they often do not know how to establish themselves in a peer group, are not physically developed enough to stand up for themselves in clashes, and they are not characterized by aggressiveness, so they avoid clashes. As a result, relatively many gifted children and adolescents acquire a reputation as cowardly “mama's boys or daughters,” which also does not contribute to the harmonious development of their character.
A very common type of intellectual-psychomotor dyssynchrony is poor writing skills in children who show giftedness in the intellectual sphere. According to a number of researchers, this is due to differences in the speed of intellectual and psychomotor processes in such children. Being underdeveloped written language conflicts with the fast pace cognitive activity. The child’s efforts aimed at getting rid of this type of disharmony can result, on the one hand, in a sharp decrease in the pace of intellectual actions, and on the other hand, in a noticeable deterioration in the quality of writing - illegibility, sloppiness, numerous typos and omissions of significant elements of the message.
Gifted children are at great risk of social isolation and rejection by their peers. The real level of abilities of gifted children is not understood by others, and the normal development process for such a child is considered as an abnormal inability to live in society. Such children have difficulty finding like-minded friends and have problems participating in peer games that are not interesting to them. Children adapt to others, they want to seem like everyone else. Teachers very often do not recognize gifted students and evaluate their abilities and achievements negatively. The complexity of the situation is aggravated by the fact that the children themselves are aware of their difference.
Social isolation is not a consequence of emotional disturbances, but the result of the conditions in which the child finds himself in the absence of a group with which he could communicate.
II. Will educateeducation and training of gifted children
2.1 Problems of raising and training gifted children
When identifying children with extraordinary mental capabilities, the problem arises: what and how to teach them, how to promote their optimal development. Gifted programs should be different from regular curricula. I would like the education of such children to meet their basic needs. Gifted children have some common characteristics that educational programs for them should take into account. Such general features include the following.
The ability to quickly grasp the meaning of principles and concepts. This feature requires a breadth of material for generalization.
The need to focus on the stakeholders of a problem and the desire to understand them. This need is rarely satisfied in traditional education, and it must be allowed to be realized in special educational programs through independent work, open-ended tasks, and the development of the necessary cognitive skills.
The ability to notice, reason and put forward explanations. The purposeful development of higher cognitive processes in special educational programs raises these abilities to a qualitatively new level and relieves them of the burden of endless repetitions of the obvious.
Concern, anxiety due to being different from peers. Including an affective component in the curriculum enables the child to better understand himself and his experiences and leads to acceptance of himself and others.
There are different strategies for teaching gifted children that can be implemented in different shapes. For this purpose, special training programs are being developed. The main strategies for teaching children with high mental potential include acceleration and enrichment.
The pace of learning has been the subject of a long-standing debate. Many support acceleration, citing its effectiveness for gifted students. Others believe that the focus on acceleration is a one-sided approach to children with a high level of intelligence, since their need to communicate with peers and emotional development are not taken into account. Acceleration is associated with a change in the speed of learning, and not with its content. When the level and speed of learning do not match the child's needs, both his cognitive and personal development are harmed.
A gifted child in a regular classroom following a standard curriculum is similar to the situation when a normal child is placed in a class for children with mental retardation. A child in such conditions begins to adapt, he tries to be like his classmates, and after some time his behavior will be similar to the behavior of all the other children in the class. He will begin to adjust the completion of tasks in quality and quantity to the corresponding expectations of the teacher. With an inattentive, unprepared teacher, such a child may be delayed in development for a long time.
Acceleration is not a universal strategy needed by all gifted individuals. Acceleration only reduces the number of years spent in school.
The basic requirements for including students in curricula built using acceleration are as follows:
1) students must be interested in acceleration, demonstrate interest and increased ability in the area where acceleration will be used;
2) children must be sufficiently mature in social and emotional terms;
3) parental consent is required, but not necessarily their active participation.
It is believed that acceleration... best strategy teaching children with mathematical abilities and giftedness in foreign languages.
There are some forms of acceleration, such as early entry into school. On the one hand, early admission reveals the most favorable aspects of acceleration, on the other hand, there are possibilities of negative consequences, primarily in relationships with others and the emotional development of children. Early admission to school should be carried out carefully, based on a set of indicators, when the child’s intellectual readiness corresponds to the personal maturity of the child.
Accelerated completion of the standard curriculum within a regular class is also possible. This is manifested in the fact that the teacher organizes the individualization of education for several gifted children (advisable at the stage primary school). However, this form is the least effective.
Classes in another class. A gifted child can study a particular subject with older children. For example, a first-grader who reads very well may be in the second, third, or even fourth grade in reading. This form can only be successful if more than one child participates in it.
A student transfer form across grades is also applicable. Thanks to this transfer, the child finds himself surrounded by intellectually stimulating classmates. There are no social-emotional challenges, discomfort, or learning gaps in this form of acceleration.
Another method of supporting the education of gifted children - enrichment - most often in our country takes the form of additional classes in various clubs (mathematics, physics, modeling, etc.), sections, schools of special disciplines (music, drawing, etc.) . In these circles there is usually an opportunity individual approach to the child and work at a sufficiently complex level that does not allow you to get bored. In this way, sufficient motivation and good conditions are created for the progress of a gifted child. The problem here is that a child attending a club (or clubs) continues to study general education subjects according to a pattern that does not correspond to the characteristics of his intelligence.
A more systematic and theoretically based enrichment method was developed by the famous specialist in the field of giftedness psychology J. Renzulli. This method involves three levels. The first level includes classes on general familiarization with broad, sometimes ideological topics that go beyond the usual school curriculum. The goal of Tier 1 work, which includes all children and not just the gifted, is to help students find areas of interest. The second level is aimed at developing cognitive and emotional processes. A feature of the Reznuli method is an attempt to combine cognitive learning with the child’s interests, which emerged on the basis of first-level activities. The first two levels are designed for all children, but during these classes, those who can be considered especially gifted in some areas are singled out from the total number. These children are admitted to the third, highest level of enrichment in the Reznuli system. Work within the framework of this third level involves independent individual research by the student in the area that is of greatest interest to him, thereby the child gains experience in creative work itself: not just assimilating the knowledge accumulated by people, but producing his own product. The Reznuli system thus includes not just methods for the intellectual enrichment of students, but also methods for identifying the most gifted of them based on the educational process itself, and not psychological tests. This ensures a certain “democratic” nature of the work, which is emphasized by the fact that two of its three levels are provided to all students, and not just a select few. In addition, three levels allow you to include a very important point in the formation of interests before independent work.
Comparison of acceleration and enrichment strategies can transform into one another depending on the goals and objectives set. But there are a number of shortcomings in the forms of implementation of these strategies. Giftedness is so individual and unique that the question of optimal learning conditions for each child must be considered separately.
The second way is special schools for gifted children: lyceums, gymnasiums. These days these types educational institutions are very popular. The activities of such institutions are based on a number of scientific principles.
Find a growth point. To successfully work with a gifted child, the school must find him strong point and give him the opportunity to express it, feel the taste of success and believe in his capabilities. Then and only then will the student become interested and develop motivation, which is a necessary condition for success.
Identifying individual characteristics. Her talent lies on the surface; it may be invisible to the “naked eye.”
Lessons on an individual schedule. The goal of supporting the child at his growth points implies the possibility of individual progress in various disciplines. The child must have the opportunity to study mathematics, native or foreign language, etc. not with his peers, but with those children with whom he is at the same level of knowledge and skills.
Small class sizes. It is advisable that study groups do not exceed 10 people. Only in this case can a truly individual approach be achieved and an individual schedule be provided to students.
Development of leadership qualities. Creative activity is characterized by the ability to independently, without regard to others, choose the area of one’s activity and move forward.
Curricula that open up space for creativity. Programs for gifted children should provide opportunities for independent work and consideration of complex ideological problems.
Organization of classes according to the “free class” type. This type of lesson, which is acceptable for small study groups, assumes the possibility of students moving around the class during classes, the formation of groups dealing with various issues, and a relatively free choice of work for children.
Teacher style - joint creativity with students. When working with gifted children, a teacher should strive not so much to convey a certain body of knowledge, but to help students make independent conclusions and discoveries. This approach is also due to the fact that the teacher does not establish unambiguous assessments of correctness, a standard for the correct answer. The students themselves argue with each other and evaluate different possible answers.
Teacher selection. The selection of teachers should be based not only on their competence and ability to find an approach to students. Consequently, the selection of teachers should also take into account the factor of personal creativity and brightness of the candidate.
Working with parents. Parents should be provided with non-trivial information about their children, their strengths and weaknesses and development prospects.
Formation of correct relationships between students. The attitude towards leadership and competition should not turn into aggressive forms of student behavior. A strong taboo must be placed on any verbal or physical aggression.
Individual psychological help . Even with the most rational organization of the educational process, it is impossible to exclude the occurrence of personal problems among gifted students. In this case, they should be assisted by a professional psychologist.
The third method is bibliotherapy - book treatment. It has long been recognized that books are a valuable and effective means of helping children and adults solve personal and academic problems; a means of developing the skills necessary to achieve success in life. Their beneficial influence is explained by the fact that, when used properly, they can change value orientations, ways of interpreting life events and interpersonal relationships.
Bibliotherapy is especially effective when working with the gifted due to the fact that:
2) books provide an opportunity to communicate with talented people of all times who have gone through and overcome similar problems. In novels and plays, biographies and autobiographies, poems and diaries, a gifted child can find clues to a better understanding of what is happening to him and the world. Through identifying with characters who are faced with familiar conflicts and tormented by the same questions, the gifted find ways to resolve their problems.
Bibliotherapy in the classroom can be used depending on the needs of the class and/or individual students. For example, this could be a problem for the entire class - boredom in some lessons due to a curriculum that does not take into account the characteristics of a specific audience; the problem of an individual student or student - for example, difficulties in relationships with classmates; personal difficulties - for example, in developing a positive self-perception.
Successful bibliotherapy requires:
1) reading a specially selected book that reflects, to one degree or another, a similar problem;
2) subsequent discussion of what was read. Reading a book without discussion may not lead to the desired result. It is important that a gifted child takes part in a discussion of what he read and has the opportunity to speak out. Depending on the problem, the discussion can be done with the whole class, in small groups, with just one person. In addition to discussion, based on the book, you can use role-playing games, dramatization, and searching for new solutions to problems.
Bibliotherapy cannot solve all the problems encountered by gifted children, but when well implemented, it offers ample opportunities to solve many existing difficulties and prevent future ones.
The stated principles form a kind of maximum program, which is not easy to implement in full. However, the experience of their use shows their great developmental effect. Positive results can be achieved even with the partial implementation of these principles.
2.2 Methods for diagnosing gifted children
Identifying children with extraordinary abilities is a complex and multifaceted problem. All kinds of tests aimed at identifying giftedness have become widespread. But the problem is that in the interpretation of test results, a very significant role is played by the theoretical basis of a particular test, the correlation of the methodological positions of the researcher with the basic model of the test. Ignoring this circumstance reduces the effectiveness of testing and may lead to incorrect interpretation. Many experts rightly note that numerous errors in predictions are explained not so much by the imperfection of psychometric procedures, but by the complexity and multifaceted nature of the phenomenon of giftedness itself and insufficient theoretical elaboration of basic concepts.
Currently, the psychological literature presents two main views on the process of establishing giftedness. One of them is based on a single assessment system. For example, a child is considered gifted if he scores above a certain threshold on the Stanford-Binet scale. Different sources indicate different values for this threshold indicator for classifying a child as gifted. Another approach is based on a comprehensive assessment, including many assessment procedures (testing, surveys of teachers and parents, etc.). However, an integrated approach does not completely eliminate errors. The fate of those children who were classified as gifted according to the results of the examination, but then did not confirm this assessment in any way, is sad.
The basic requirements for the construction and testing of methods are known: standardization, that is, the established uniformity of the procedure for conducting and evaluating the results; reliability, understood as the stability of results when repeated on the same subjects; validity - suitability for measuring exactly what the technique is aimed at, its effectiveness in this regard.
However, even with very skilled use and best tests do not insure against errors. In addition, it must be taken into account that none of the existing tests covers all types of giftedness.
Informal methods. One such method is observation. When approaching a gifted child, one cannot do without observing his individual manifestations. To judge his talent, it is necessary to identify the combination of psychological properties that is inherent specifically to him. That is, we need a holistic characteristic obtained through versatile observations.
The advantage of observation is that it can occur in natural conditions, when many subtleties can be revealed to the observer. There is a natural experiment when, for example, in a lesson or during a circle, the environment necessary for research is organized, which is completely familiar to the child and when he may not know that he is being specially observed. The so-called participant observation is also used, when the observer himself is a participant in what is happening. Some modern researchers are willing to develop forms of experiment in which observations play an important role.
Signs of a child’s giftedness are important to observe and study in development. To assess them, a sufficiently long-term follow-up of the changes that occur during the transition from one age period to another is required. This type of research is called longitudinal. Giftedness is a “piecemeal thing”; it is always individual, and here each case requires, first of all, an individual longitudinal study, that is, a monographic description and analysis. This refers to systematic observation of the subject over a number of years. Observation may be continuous, day after day, or perhaps intermittently. The biographical method is of great interest for the study of giftedness. Studying life path began to spread as a very effective approach to clarifying the characteristics of a subject in a given period, and partly to making a forecast for the future. The development of the biographical method is associated with the use of such methods of obtaining information as questionnaires addressed to the person being studied, conversations and interviews with him, as well as questionnaires for others, studying products of activity, diaries, letters, etc.
Popova L.V. indicates that among new diagnostic techniques, the biographical questionnaire is coming to the fore as a more reliable means of identifying creative potential and predicting achievements than traditional tests. Thus, the revealed insufficiency of traditional tests of intelligence and creativity resulted in increased interest in less formalized diagnostic methods. The biographical method began to be applied to both children and adolescents.
Identification of gifted children is a long process associated with an analysis of the development of a particular child. Effective identification of giftedness through any one-time testing procedure is impossible. Therefore, instead of one-time selection, it is necessary to direct efforts to a gradual, step-by-step search for gifted children in the process of their education under special programs (in the system of additional education) or in the process of individualized education (in a general education school).
It is necessary to reduce the likelihood of errors that can be made in assessing a child’s giftedness, both by positive and negative criteria when using psychodiagnostic techniques: high values of one or another indicator are not always evidence of giftedness; its low values are not yet evidence of its absence. This circumstance is especially important when interpreting test results. Thus, high scores on psychometric intelligence tests can be influenced by the degree of training and socialization of the child. In turn, low scores on the creativity test may be associated with the child’s specific cognitive position, but not with his lack of creative abilities. Conversely, high scores may be a consequence of neuroticism, impaired selectivity thought process, high achievement motive or psychological defense.
It is unlawful to identify a gifted child on the basis of a single (single) assessment (for example, on quantitative indicators characterizing the individual level of intellectual development). Unfortunately, in school practice they are often limited to assessing intelligence quotient (IQ), which is determined using psychometric intelligence tests. It is these tests (often together with creativity tests used to measure creative abilities) that are most often used when selecting children for classes and schools for the gifted. This ignores the fact that the use of intelligence and creativity tests has a number of limitations.
Firstly, most intelligence tests are not designed to identify intellectual giftedness, but for other purposes. The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (the original version of the WISC, as well as its domestic modifications) was intended to determine the level of general intelligence (in particular, to identify mental retardation), the Amthauer Structure of Intelligence Test (SIT) - for the purposes of career guidance and professional selection, differential test abilities (DAT) - for predicting academic performance, etc.
Only a few tests were designed to measure the highest possible scores: the Cattell Culturally Free Test (CFT-C) and the Advanced Raven's Progressive Matrices Test (A-PMR). But their applicability to the diagnosis of giftedness has also been subject to serious criticism. As for creativity tests, indicators of divergent productivity are also not unambiguous, sole and sufficient indicators of a child’s creative capabilities.
Secondly, many intelligence tests measure a specific (private) intellectual ability, i.e. formation of specific mental operations. Thus, existing psychometric tests of intelligence, while recording its components, do not affect the connections between them and do not capture the very systematic nature of its manifestation.
Thirdly, testing data highly depend on the testing situation and the emotional state of the child. Moreover, the more gifted the child, the greater this dependence. Therefore, psychometric tests poorly predict the level of achievement of gifted children.
Fourthly, it is necessary to distinguish between testing data and decisions about the fate of the child.
The diagnostic situation is a consequence of the influence of many factors, so the decision must be made taking into account knowledge of the reasons that led to the test results.
When traditional psychometric tests are used, many signs of a child’s giftedness are ignored due to the peculiarities of the testing procedure. In particular, traditional psychometric tests, being focused on assessing the results of activity, are not suitable for diagnosing signs of giftedness, since the latter characterize the ways of activity of a gifted person. The uniqueness of a gifted person lies in the fact that whatever he does will necessarily be different from what another (including an equally gifted person) can do. In this case, we are talking about such an instrumental feature as the expression of individual styles of activity, and primarily cognitive styles, such as encoding information, processing information, posing and solving problems, and cognitive attitude towards the world. Traditional test procedures are not sensitive to this sign of giftedness—the expression of individually specific ways of studying reality.
Thus, the nature of giftedness objectively requires new diagnostic methods, since traditional psychometric methods (in the form of intelligence tests and creativity tests) are not valid in relation to the behavioral characteristics and qualitative uniqueness of the mental resources of a gifted child.
Essentially, any form of selection (selection) of children based on indicators of psychometric tests turns out to be untenable from a scientific point of view, since tests of intelligence and creativity, by definition, are not a tool for diagnosing giftedness in general and intellectual or creative giftedness in particular. Based on the above, we can draw the following conclusions regarding the scope of correct use of psychometric tests in working with gifted children:
Psychometric tests should rather be used not for and not before making a decision about the degree of giftedness of a child, but after the procedure for identifying him as gifted in order to understand his strong and weak psychological qualities and organize the individualized psychological and pedagogical assistance he needs;
Psychometric tests can be used to describe the individual uniqueness of the mental activity of a particular gifted child in terms of the severity of individual abilities, inclinations, emotional states, personal qualities, etc. (in this case, one should keep in mind the high probability of a discrepancy between the test results and the real manifestations of the child’s giftedness in a certain subject area);
Psychometric tests can be used to track trends in specific indicators psychological development gifted children.
Thus, psychometric tests can be used as one of many sources of additional information as part of the identification of a gifted child, but in no case as the sole criterion for deciding whether a given child is “gifted” or “not gifted.” The problem of identifying gifted children has a clearly defined ethical aspect. To identify a child as “gifted” or “non-gifted” at a given point in time means to artificially interfere with his fate, in advance, predetermining his subjective expectations. Many life conflicts between the “gifted” and the “non-gifted” are rooted in the inadequacy and frivolity of the initial forecast of their future achievements. It should be borne in mind that childhood talent does not guarantee the talent of an adult. Accordingly, not every talented adult showed himself to be a gifted child in childhood.
Taking into account the specifics of giftedness in childhood, the most adequate form of identifying signs of giftedness of a particular child is psychological and pedagogical monitoring.
Psycho-pedagogical monitoring, used to identify gifted children, must meet a number of requirements:
1) Comprehensive nature of assessment different sides the child’s behavior and activities, which will allow the use of various sources of information and cover the widest possible range of his abilities;
2) Duration of the identification process (time-based observation of the behavior of a given child in different situations);
3) Analysis of the child’s behavior in those areas of activity that best correspond to his inclinations and interests (inclusion of the child in specially organized object-based play activities, involving him in various forms of relevant object-based activities, etc.);
4) Expert assessment of children’s activity products (drawings, poems, technical models, methods for solving mathematical problems, etc.) with the involvement of highly qualified expert specialists in the relevant field subject area activities (mathematicians, philologists, chess players, engineers, etc.). In this case, one should keep in mind the possible conservatism of the expert’s opinion, especially when assessing the products of teenage and youth creativity;
5) Identification of signs of a child’s giftedness not only in relation to the current level of his mental development, but also taking into account the zone of proximal development (in particular, in conditions of enriching the subject and educational environment when developing an individualized learning strategy for a given child). It is advisable to conduct problem-based lessons according to a special program; the use of training methods, within the framework of which it is possible to organize certain developmental influences and remove psychological “barriers” typical for a given child;
6) Repeated and multi-stage examination using a variety of psychodiagnostic procedures, selected in accordance with the expected type of giftedness and individuality of the child;
7) It is advisable to carry out a diagnostic examination in a situation of real life activity, bringing it closer in its form of organization to a natural experiment (method of projects, subject and professional tests, etc.);
8) The use of such subject situations that model research activities and allow the child to show maximum independence in mastering and developing activities;
9) Analysis of the real achievements of children and adolescents in various subject Olympiads, conferences, sports competitions, creative competitions, festivals, shows, etc.;
10) Predominant reliance on ecologically valid psychodiagnostic methods that deal with the assessment of a child’s real behavior in a real situation - analysis of activity products, observation, conversation, expert assessments of teachers and parents.
However, an integrated approach to identifying giftedness does not completely eliminate mistakes. As a result, a gifted child may be “missed” or, on the contrary, a child who will not confirm this assessment in any way in his subsequent activities (in the case of a discrepancy between diagnosis and prognosis) may be classified as such.
When identifying gifted children, it is necessary to differentiate:
a) The current level of development of giftedness achieved at this age stage;
b) Features of specific manifestations of giftedness associated with attempts to realize it in various types of activities;
c) The child’s potential for development.
Assessing a child as gifted should not be an end in itself. Identification of gifted children must be linked to the tasks of their education and upbringing, as well as to providing them with psychological assistance and support. In other words, the problem of identifying gifted children and adolescents should be reformulated as the problem of creating conditions for intellectual and personal growth children in secondary schools and additional education institutions, in order to identify as many children as possible with signs of giftedness and provide them with favorable conditions for improving their inherent types of giftedness
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Let’s try to consider what problems gifted children, their parents, and teachers face.
We can say with confidence that such children usually find it difficult to navigate among their peers; they stand out, and when they stand out, they become the object of various kinds of ridicule.
Here are the most typical problems of gifted people: dislike for school.
This often occurs because the curriculum is boring and uninteresting for a gifted child. Violations in the conduct of gifted children may occur because the curriculum or plan does not correspond to their abilities.
Gaming interests. Gifted children like challenging games and those that their peers of average abilities are interested in are uninteresting. As a result, the gifted child finds himself isolated and “withdraws into himself.”
Comfortability. Gifted children, rejecting standard requirements, are thus not prone to conformism, especially if these standards run counter to their interests or seem meaningless.
Immersion in philosophical problems. It is common for gifted children to think about such phenomena as death, afterlife, religious beliefs and philosophical issues, to a much greater extent than for the average child.
Discrepancy between physical, intellectual and social development. Gifted children often prefer to socialize and play with older children. Because of this, it is sometimes difficult for them to become leaders, since they are inferior to the last in physical education.
Various researchers have added new ones to the above problems. Thus, Whitmore, while studying the reasons for the vulnerability of gifted children, discovered the following facts.
Striving for perfection (perfectionism). Gifted children are characterized by an internal need for perfection. They do not rest until they reach the highest level. This property manifests itself very early.
Feeling of dissatisfaction. This attitude towards themselves is associated with the characteristic desire of gifted children to achieve perfection in everything they do. They are very critical of their achievements and are often dissatisfied.
Unrealistic goals. Gifted children often set high goals for themselves. Not being able to achieve them, they begin to worry. On the other hand, the desire for excellence is the force that leads to high achievements.
Hypersensitivity. Because gifted children are more receptive to sensory stimuli and have a better understanding of relationships and connections, they tend to be critical not only of themselves, but also of those around them. A gifted child is more vulnerable; he often perceives words or non-verbal signals as a manifestation of rejection of himself by others. As a result, such a child is often considered inattentive and distracted, since he is constantly reacting to various kinds of irritants and stimuli.
Need for adult attention. Due to their natural curiosity and desire for knowledge, gifted children often monopolize the attention of teachers, parents and other adults. This causes friction in relationships with others who are irritated by the desire for such attention.
Intolerance. Gifted children often show insufficient intolerance towards children who are inferior to them in intellectual development. They may alienate others with contemptuous remarks.
The economic conditions of the emerging market system influence the level of well-being of the average family. There is a stratification in society based on the level of well-being. How can children whose parents do not have a lot of money self-regulate under these conditions? What problems arise between them?
One of the main problems of potentially gifted children in low-income families is their almost inevitably low rating. They live in anticipation of failure and in the end cannot avoid it. Unfortunately, such children are more likely to encounter problems physical development than their more prosperous peers, and their psychological problems take on a special coloring. In poor families, education, as well as intellectual stimulation, is most often not at the proper level.
In families with low incomes, the number of children who demonstrate their giftedness in one way or another is likely to be smaller than the number of potentially gifted ones, since their everyday reality does not provide them with all the opportunities that are available to children from the middle and upper socioeconomic strata.
Gifted children (talented children) with sensory and physical disabilities find themselves in a very similar position: they are more likely to go unnoticed or be labeled as potentially rather than clearly gifted. One or another lack of development sometimes obscures abilities and talents. It is only when the deficiency is to some extent compensated for or mitigated that real talent can emerge.
Teachers of children with sensory or physical disabilities are not adequately trained to work with gifted children. However, one of the benefits of their training is that they are able to provide differentiated instruction and create individualized programs. This strategy and methods can be applied in teaching healthy gifted children.
The child's unusual mental abilities, which may be prerequisites for genuine talents, should not be ignored.
It would be a misconception to think that children with an early mental awakening, with an increased desire for knowledge, are the most prosperous category of students. In reality, such children find themselves in very difficult conditions. Yes, there are no repeaters among them, but their development is associated with other difficulties. The school makes little use of their capabilities and shows almost no concern for their further growth.
Most teachers simply do not have time to deal with children ahead of the class. Some teachers even find students with unusual knowledge and mental activity that is not always clear to be a problem. And among students, such children sometimes find themselves in a difficult position - they do not have the same speech as everyone else in the class, they do not share other hobbies.
At home, children with early growth abilities often face praise or excessive anxiety about their future. And in the family it is more difficult for such a child than for an ordinary one.
Who can say how much damage has been done to abilities, how many talents society has not taught simply because we do not know how to teach and raise children with accelerated mental development?
It is not an easy problem to find a moral, individual approach to students who show signs of mental giftedness stronger and brighter than others. After all, if in the manifestations of each child we encounter not only something repeating something that has already happened, but always a new, unique world, then this is especially noticeable in a child with rapid mental growth.
In pedagogical conditions, in relation to such children, it is important to avoid two extremes.
One extreme is to believe that the development of a child with early mental growth does not require any participation or support, that talent will always break through on its own. Of course, and not under favorable conditions, in some cases abilities develop to a high level, and maybe even gain special power. But under unfavorable conditions, something else can happen: the opportunities that arose at a certain time will turn out to be missed in some ways, or even ruined.
The development of the most favorable preconditions depends on many conditions, almost each of which can be influenced. This includes support for the cognitive aspirations of a growing person and timely approval. Early mental flowering in no way means that adults can be inactive. Here the role of the teacher, educator can be no less significant than in other cases.
The other extreme is excessive interference in the development of mental abilities. The view, devoid of reasonable foundations, has become somewhat widespread that at an early age the child’s susceptibility is so high that through intensive training during these years, everyone can develop arbitrarily high abilities. At the same time, it is important to take into account not only what a child of a given age is able to achieve with intensive training, but also what physical and neuropsychological costs it costs him. For it is known what danger overload and fatigue pose for health and further development.
The principle opposing these extremes comes down to the fact that the task of the educator is to cultivate the own activity of a growing person, his cognitive creative needs. It is important not to lose sight of the fact that the very mental activity of the child, his cognitive needs, his inclinations reveal the emerging capabilities of the growing personality.
Recently, preparations have been made to expand “psychological services” to help schools and families. It is desirable that one of the tasks of psychological counseling should be to consider the problems arising in connection with the early rise in abilities.
Of course, attention to children with early manifestations of extraordinary mental capabilities should not be at the expense of attention to other children whose development occurs differently. But these goals require their own pedagogical approach, corresponding to their abilities.
There is still much to be learned about the problems associated with gifted children, and this is also a favorable, promising, but very difficult area of activity for teachers.
If we consider how the problem of working with gifted children is solved in foreign countries, we can note the following. The problem of training and education of the gifted is currently of keen interest throughout the world.
For many outstanding people, the beginning of their creative careers dates back to a rather late age. At the same time, some of them in childhood and adolescence do not stand out from their peers. And this, of course, requires explanation. It is even more necessary in cases where in childhood the future celebrity had a reputation as a mediocre, “stupid” student. The poor academic performance of such colossuses of science as B. Pascal and A. Einstein is known. Such facts are usually explained in different ways: by the laziness of the future genius, his lack of proper discipline, a sense of responsibility, as well as a late and unexpected awakening of abilities in those who were slightly “dumb” in childhood.
K. Cox decided to study this kind of anomaly in detail. She selected over 100 of the best documented biographies. It turned out that in all these cases the facts sharply diverged from the legend - the stupidity was imaginary. The real reason was the discrepancy between school methods and the nature of school teaching and the cognitive needs and inclinations of the future genius. Thus, as a child, Pascal had an aversion to ancient languages, which in those days formed a mandatory part of the school curriculum. It was precisely this dislike that he owed his non-forest reputation.
“Great people,” wrote V. Ostwald, “almost all of them were bad students in childhood. This is explained by the fact that the school strives for its students to acquire known “average” knowledge in the field of the most various items, and the special ability of the student's love for certain objects, which is usually associated with aversion to others, is persecuted by the school as a highly undesirable direction of the mind. But extreme one-sidedness is precisely one of the most characteristic (though not entirely unconditional) signs of future great people, and the school’s desire to eliminate or destroy this one-sidedness means nothing more than the desire to suppress, if possible, the talent of the future genius.”
The truth of these words can be seen in the example of young A. Einstein. Einstein developed an interest in physics and mathematics early. At the Munich gymnasium, where he spent his first school years, he was ahead of his classmates in both physics and mathematics. However, he was not satisfied with the scholastic methods that dominated this institution. “He moved away from conventional methods and looked for new ways to solve simple problems. The cramming of Latin and Greek, the routine and abundance of useless information in other subjects, the barracks spirit of the gymnasium and the ignorant aplomb of the gymnasium authorities became unbearable... He was asked to leave the gymnasium, since his presence destroys the students’ sense of respect for school...” Einstein completed his secondary education at the cantonal Aarau school. This educational institution was one of the first in terms of teaching method and composition of teachers. Einstein studied there with great enthusiasm and after graduating without exams he entered the Zurich Polytechnic.
In the USA, 400 biographies of famous people were studied. About 60% of them had at school serious problems in relation to adaptation to its conditions.
Consequently, it would seem to be incorrect to represent the later development of giftedness in such a way that it was not manifested before. Most likely, such manifestations existed, but they were suppressed by unfavorable external conditions.
Since 1975, at intervals of approximately two years, international conferences. However, despite such intensive attempts to develop common theoretical positions on this problem and ensure its practical solution, there is still a huge range of opinions among specialists.
Among them, three main approaches can be distinguished:
- · The first is that gifted children are trained and raised in a regular classroom, but according to individual programs that contain elements of “enrichment” (meaning the amount of expected knowledge) and “acceleration”. The latter involves periodically “jumping” to a higher grade.
- · The second approach is the creation of special classes for gifted children within the structure of a regular school.
The third is the organization of special schools for this contingent.
All three approaches provide for providing students with the opportunity to spend part of their study time on independent work in the school library, which, naturally, should be equipped with everything necessary for this.
It should be noted that recently the dominant trend has become towards abandoning the creation of special schools for the gifted. At the same time, the following argument is put forward as the main one (we quote a statement from an employee of one of the high schools where a program for the gifted is implemented): “I believe that the creation of segregated schools is a mistake. After all, a gifted child must live most of his life in a society made up of people of all types. The main thing is to provide such a child with the appropriate intellectual load.”
Preference is given to specialized classes for the gifted, operating within the structure of a public school. On the one hand, such classes do not isolate these children from other schoolchildren, but on the other hand, they provide them with the opportunity to study together with such or even more capable students.
Another important area is the development and implementation of various kinds of optional programs and courses, conducting creative competitions and the Olympics.
53.Psychological problems in the education of gifted and talented children.
Basic principles of working with such children.
Currently, there is an increased interest in the problem of giftedness, in the problems of identifying, training and development of gifted children and, accordingly, in the problems of training teachers to work with them.
Giftedness is now defined as the ability to outstanding achievements in any social significant area human activity, and not just in the academic field. Giftedness should be seen as both achievement and opportunity for achievement. The meaning of the statement is that one must take into account both those abilities that have already manifested themselves and those that may manifest themselves.
The problem of giftedness is a complex problem in which the interests of different scientific disciplines intersect. The main ones are the problems of identifying, training and developing gifted children, as well as the problems of professional and personal training of teachers, psychologists and education managers to work with gifted children.
From a psychological point of view, it should be noted that giftedness is a complex mental object in which cognitive, emotional, volitional, motivational, psychophysiological and other spheres of the human psyche are inextricably intertwined.
The characteristics inherent in the gifted enrich our lives in all its manifestations and make their contribution to it extremely significant. Firstly, gifted people are distinguished by high sensitivity in everything; many have a highly developed sense of justice; they are able to sensitively grasp changes in social relations, new trends of the times in science, culture, technology, and quickly and adequately assess the nature of these trends in society.
The second feature is continuous cognitive activity and highly developed intelligence, which makes it possible to gain new knowledge about the world around us. Creative abilities attract them to create new concepts, theories, and approaches. The optimal combination of intuitive and discursive thinking in gifted children (in the vast majority of cases, with the dominance of the first over the second) makes the process of acquiring new knowledge very productive and meaningful.
Thirdly, most gifted people are characterized by great energy, determination and perseverance, which, combined with enormous knowledge and creative abilities, allow them to implement a lot of interesting and significant projects.
Among educators and psychologists, there are at least two points of view on gifted education. According to one of them, for the education of gifted children it is necessary to create special classes and special educational institutions. According to another point of view, gifted children must be educated along with all children, otherwise they will not learn to live among “normal” ones.
people, communicate and work with them.
There is no comprehensive diagnosis yet that allows us to determine general and specific giftedness, or a child’s inclination towards one or another type of creativity. Giftedness is discovered only when it has somehow managed to manifest itself and gain a foothold. The fact that, due to their personal characteristics, gifted children are the most sensitive to inadequate assessments, unfair and negative impacts. In this area, there is a lack of knowledge about the characteristics of the behavior and thinking of gifted children, their personal development and upbringing.
Practical reality also highlights what the school is experiencing special needs in textbooks and programs that would take into account individual requests and interests of gifted children. The programs do not provide alternative ways for a talented child to advance beyond the course.
The work of a teacher with gifted children is a complex and never-ending process. It requires from teachers and educators personal growth, good, constantly updated knowledge in the field of psychology of the gifted and their education, as well as close cooperation with psychologists, other teachers, administration and, of course, with parents of the gifted. It requires constant growth in the mastery of pedagogical flexibility, the ability to abandon what even today seemed like a creative find and strength.
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A number of psychological studies and special observations show that gifted children are generally much more prosperous than other children: they do not experience problems in learning, communicate better with peers, and adapt more quickly to a new environment. Their deep-rooted interests and inclinations, developed since childhood, serve as a good basis for successful personal and professional self-determination. True, these children may also have problems if their increased capabilities are not taken into account: learning becomes too easy or there are no conditions for the development of their creative potential.
One of these common myths is the idea that a gifted child is a difficult child. It is believed that teachers are afraid of them, parents are puzzled by them, and peers look at them with hostility.
However, if in relation to all “ordinary” children, when they have difficulties in learning, behavior, communication, the teacher, psychologist and parent look for ways of help and correction by identifying their causes, then the situation is fundamentally different with the “gifted”. A touch of fatalism - “Such is the gift!” – determines a global strategy for working with them only through the search for forms of organizing their education: separate classes, special schools, individual programs. However, in order for work with gifted children to be effective, it is necessary to analyze and identify the true mechanisms that give rise to these problems, and to understand that giftedness is not just the result of a child’s high abilities, but first of all, it is a problem in the development of his personality.
Problems that arise in connection with the faster pace of development and, accordingly, education of gifted children are problems of socialization and adequate inclusion in a group of peers, problems of drawing up educational programs and developing criteria for assessing a child’s achievements.
The nature of advanced early development can be spontaneous or artificially provoked.
Another type of problems in behavior and activity in children with signs of giftedness is a consequence of violations of the functional organization of mental processes. Then not only problems arise in the child’s behavior and communication, but also academic failure when studying at school. Until recently, such problems were ignored by domestic specialists, or the very giftedness of a child with such problems was ignored. The “Working Concept of Giftedness” notes that children who have pronounced signs of giftedness in the field of special abilities, or who show accelerated development in intellectual parameters, often have specific problems in adapting to a group of peers, emotional lability, and personal infantilism. It is noted that especially gifted children, due to their exhaustion, find it difficult to endure any activity that requires physical or mental effort. Thus, these children are characterized by problems “...volitional skills or, more broadly, self-regulation...they engage only in activities that are quite interesting and easy for them, i.e. constituting the essence of their talent.” These children are able to remember large amounts of information and easily assimilate educational material in a specific area of knowledge. As a rule, these are mathematics and natural science subjects. Teachers and parents, appealing to high cognitive abilities and non-standard reasoning, classify such children as gifted even in preschool age. At the same time, these children may be characterized by motor disinhibition, inability to concentrate for long periods of time, difficulties in communication, and conflict. Such children have difficulty learning social norms, often reinterpreting them, which sometimes looks like “depth” unusual for their age. And, despite the fact that they have significant problems in adapting to the team and delayed emotional and personal development, serious violations in their behavior and communication by adults are regarded as another confirmation of their originality of thinking. .
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When identifying children with extraordinary mental capabilities, the problem arises: what and how to teach them, how to promote their optimal development. Gifted programs should be different from regular curricula. I would like the education of such children to meet their basic needs. Gifted children have some common characteristics that educational programs for them should take into account. Such general features include the following.
The ability to quickly grasp the meaning of principles and concepts. This feature requires a breadth of material for generalization.
The need to focus on the stakeholders of a problem and the desire to understand them. This need is rarely satisfied in traditional education, and it must be allowed to be realized in special educational programs through independent work, open-ended tasks, and the development of the necessary cognitive skills.
The ability to notice, reason and put forward explanations. The purposeful development of higher cognitive processes in special educational programs raises these abilities to a qualitatively new level and relieves them of the burden of endless repetitions of the obvious.
Concern, anxiety due to being different from peers. Including an affective component in the curriculum enables the child to better understand himself and his experiences and leads to acceptance of himself and others.
There are different strategies for teaching gifted children, which can be implemented in different forms. For this purpose, special training programs are being developed. The main strategies for teaching children with high mental potential include acceleration and enrichment.
The pace of learning has been the subject of a long-standing debate. Many support acceleration, citing its effectiveness for gifted students. Others believe that the focus on acceleration is a one-sided approach to children with a high level of intelligence, since their need to communicate with peers and emotional development are not taken into account. Acceleration is associated with a change in the speed of learning, and not with its content. When the level and speed of learning do not match the child's needs, both his cognitive and personal development are harmed.
A gifted child in a regular classroom following a standard curriculum is similar to the situation when a normal child is placed in a class for children with mental retardation. A child in such conditions begins to adapt, he tries to be like his classmates, and after some time his behavior will be similar to the behavior of all the other children in the class. He will begin to adjust the completion of tasks in quality and quantity to the corresponding expectations of the teacher. With an inattentive, unprepared teacher, such a child may be delayed in development for a long time.
Acceleration is not a universal strategy needed by all gifted individuals. Acceleration only reduces the number of years spent in school.
The basic requirements for including students in curricula built using acceleration are as follows:
- 1) students must be interested in acceleration, demonstrate interest and increased ability in the area where acceleration will be used;
- 2) children must be sufficiently mature in social and emotional terms;
- 3) parental consent is required, but not necessarily their active participation.
It is believed that acceleration is the best strategy for teaching children with mathematical abilities and giftedness in foreign languages.
There are some forms of acceleration, such as early entry into school. On the one hand, early admission reveals the most favorable aspects of acceleration, on the other hand, there are possibilities of negative consequences, primarily in relationships with others and the emotional development of children. Early admission to school should be carried out carefully, based on a set of indicators, when the child’s intellectual readiness corresponds to the personal maturity of the child.
Accelerated completion of the standard curriculum within a regular class is also possible. This is manifested in the fact that the teacher organizes the individualization of education for several gifted children (advisable at the elementary school stage). However, this form is the least effective.
Classes in another class. A gifted child can study a particular subject with older children. For example, a first-grader who reads very well may be in the second, third, or even fourth grade in reading. This form can only be successful if more than one child participates in it.
A student transfer form across grades is also applicable. Thanks to this transfer, the child finds himself surrounded by intellectually stimulating classmates. There are no social-emotional challenges, discomfort, or learning gaps in this form of acceleration.
Another method of supporting the education of gifted children - enrichment - most often in our country takes the form of additional classes in various clubs (mathematics, physics, modeling, etc.), sections, schools of special disciplines (music, drawing, etc.) . In these circles there is usually the possibility of an individual approach to the child and work at a fairly complex level that does not allow boredom. In this way, sufficient motivation and good conditions are created for the progress of a gifted child. The problem here is that a child attending a club (or clubs) continues to study general education subjects according to a pattern that does not correspond to the characteristics of his intelligence.
A more systematic and theoretically based enrichment method was developed by the famous specialist in the field of giftedness psychology J. Renzulli. This method involves three levels. The first level includes classes on general familiarization with broad, sometimes ideological topics that go beyond the normal school curriculum. The goal of Tier 1 work, which includes all children and not just the gifted, is to help students find areas of interest. The second level is aimed at developing cognitive and emotional processes. A feature of the Reznuli method is an attempt to combine cognitive learning with the child’s interests, which emerged on the basis of first-level activities. The first two levels are designed for all children, but during these classes, those who can be considered especially gifted in some areas are singled out from the total number. These children are admitted to the third, highest level of enrichment in the Reznuli system. Work within the framework of this third level involves independent individual research by the student in the area that is of greatest interest to him, thereby the child gains experience in creative work itself: not just assimilating the knowledge accumulated by people, but producing his own product. The Reznuli system thus includes not just methods for the intellectual enrichment of students, but also methods for identifying the most gifted of them based on the educational process itself, and not on psychological tests. This ensures a certain “democratic” nature of the work, which is emphasized by the fact that two of its three levels are provided to all students, and not just a select few. In addition, three levels allow you to include a very important point in the formation of interests before independent work.
Comparison of acceleration and enrichment strategies can transform into one another depending on the goals and objectives set. But there are a number of shortcomings in the forms of implementation of these strategies. Giftedness is so individual and unique that the question of optimal learning conditions for each child must be considered separately.
The second way is special schools for gifted children: lyceums, gymnasiums. These types of educational institutions are very popular these days. The activities of such institutions are based on a number of scientific principles.
Find a growth point. To successfully work with a gifted child, the school must find his strengths and give him the opportunity to show it, feel the taste of success and believe in his capabilities. Then and only then will the student become interested and develop motivation, which is a necessary condition for success.
Identifying individual characteristics. Her talent lies on the surface; it may be invisible to the “naked eye.”
Lessons on an individual schedule. The goal of supporting the child at his growth points implies the possibility of individual progress in various disciplines. The child must have the opportunity to study mathematics, native or foreign language, etc. not with his peers, but with those children with whom he is at the same level of knowledge and skills.
Small class sizes. It is advisable that study groups do not exceed 10 people. Only in this case can a truly individual approach be achieved and an individual schedule be provided to students.
Development of leadership qualities. Creative activity is characterized by the ability to independently, without regard to others, choose the area of one’s activity and move forward.
Curricula that open up space for creativity. Programs for gifted children should provide opportunities for independent work and consideration of complex ideological problems.
Organization of classes according to the “free class” type. This type of lesson, which is acceptable for small study groups, assumes the possibility of students moving around the class during classes, the formation of groups dealing with various issues, and a relatively free choice of work for children.
Teacher style - joint creativity with students. When working with gifted children, a teacher should strive not so much to convey a certain body of knowledge, but to help students make independent conclusions and discoveries. This approach is also due to the fact that the teacher does not establish unambiguous assessments of correctness, a standard for the correct answer. The students themselves argue with each other and evaluate different possible answers.
Teacher selection. The selection of teachers should be based not only on their competence and ability to find an approach to students. Consequently, the selection of teachers should also take into account the factor of personal creativity and brightness of the candidate.
Working with parents. Parents should be provided with non-trivial information about their children, their strengths and weaknesses and development prospects.
Formation of correct relationships between students. The attitude towards leadership and competition should not turn into aggressive forms of student behavior. A strong taboo must be placed on any verbal or physical aggression.
Individual psychological assistance. Even with the most rational organization of the educational process, it is impossible to exclude the occurrence of personal problems among gifted students. In this case, they should be assisted by a professional psychologist.
The third method is bibliotherapy - book treatment. It has long been recognized that books are a valuable and effective means of helping children and adults solve personal and academic problems; a means of developing the skills necessary to achieve success in life. Their beneficial influence is explained by the fact that, when used properly, they can change value orientations, ways of interpreting life events and interpersonal relationships.
Bibliotherapy is especially effective when working with the gifted due to the fact that:
- 1) they start reading early and are interested in books;
- 2) books provide an opportunity to communicate with talented people of all times who have gone through and overcome similar problems. In novels and plays, biographies and autobiographies, poems and diaries, a gifted child can find clues to a better understanding of what is happening to him and the world. Through identifying with characters who are faced with familiar conflicts and tormented by the same questions, the gifted find ways to resolve their problems.
Bibliotherapy in the classroom can be used depending on the needs of the class and/or individual students. For example, this could be a problem for the entire class - boredom in some lessons due to a curriculum that does not take into account the characteristics of a specific audience; the problem of an individual student or student - for example, difficulties in relationships with classmates; personal difficulties - for example, in developing a positive self-perception.
Successful bibliotherapy requires:
- 1) reading a specially selected book that reflects, to one degree or another, a similar problem;
- 2) subsequent discussion of what was read. Reading a book without discussion may not lead to the desired result. It is important that a gifted child takes part in a discussion of what he read and has the opportunity to speak out. Depending on the problem, the discussion can be done with the whole class, in small groups, with just one person. In addition to discussion, based on the book, you can use role-playing games, dramatization, and searching for new solutions to problems.
Bibliotherapy cannot solve all the problems encountered by gifted children, but when well implemented, it offers ample opportunities to solve many existing difficulties and prevent future ones.
The stated principles form a kind of maximum program, which is not easy to implement in full. However, the experience of their use shows their great developmental effect. Positive results can be achieved even with the partial implementation of these principles.