Development of an Online Programme for Teachers of Gifted Students in Regular Classrooms (EGIFT) is a project aimed at the delivery of continued professional development opportunities to teachers at a primary or elementary school level, in the field of gifted education. Throughout Europe there is an underutilised resource in the form of students who have exceptional academic abilities. Such talented students may struggle within mainstream education for any number of reasons: socio-economic difficulty; or underachievement through lack of challenge; multiple exceptionalities masking or hindering the development, to name just three. To address the needs of these students on European level would require the coordination of educational institutions across Europe; changes in national educational policies with regard to the highly able; development of pan-European and transnational mechanisms for the training of teachers to support highly able students, among other actions. Within this context, this project aims to build upon a body of educational practice and research that has been developed by a number of institutions across Europe. We aim to address the training of teachers in a contextual and innovative manner, providing an Open Educational Resource (OER) online, available to teachers throughout Europe, and indeed the world. This OER will take the form of a five stranded professional development resources which will cover the identification of gifted students; their lived experience; social-emotional support of the highly able; differentiation strategies for mainstream classes; and the development of curricula suited to gifted students. Each of theses five strands is underpinned by three guiding principles: addressing underachievement in gifted students by helping them reach their potential; addressing equality of access to such differentiated instruction for all students from all backgrounds; and the support of students who are multiply exceptional, students whose high ability is coupled with other special educational needs. This will be the High Ability Educators Portal. This High Ability Educators Portal forms a structure to our planned activities as well as providing an ongoing legacy for the project into the future. We also plan to engage with primary and elementary school teachers across Europe in a mobility programme centered on CPD. Across the project we plan to bring together a total of 99 teachers in transnational CPD days centered around helping them to serve high ability students more effectively. The content from such CPD will also be made available for free as part of the High Ability Educators Portal. Further to this we plan to engage with another 270 educators and educational administrators in a pair of blended professional development events taking place simultaneously across 9 countries. We expect, with an average European primary class size of 21 students that some 720 primary and elementary students across the participating countries will benefit from the CPD provided in the first 3 years alone. Further into educators careers these numbers increase rapidly and with the ongoing legacy of the High Ability Educators Portal we expect a massive number of students to benefit from this project over time.The project will bring together some of leading experts, researchers and practitioners in gifted education in Europe to help,design, implement and disseminate the new OER platform.
The completed online programme for teachers of gifted students in regular classrooms is available at www/highability.eu. The programme was developed in five strands with a partner taking responsibility for each strand. The first strand was developed by Dublin City University and involved identification of gifted students. The categories in this strand included the relationship between intelligence and giftedness, formal identification, informal identification and identification in special populations. Within formal identification methods the differences between aptitude and achievement were examined as well as formal methods of identifying gifted students such as testing and diagnostic assessments. Finally this section covered identification of gifted children in special populations such as gifted students from lower socio-economic disadvantage, gifted students who may underachieve and gifted students who may also have a learning difficulty. The second strand was developed by the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and involved lived experience of gifted students. The categories included some basic facts about the lived experience of gifted students which exposed some myths about stereotyping and mistaken beliefs. Using the Ziegler model of Educational and Learning Capital this strand looked at various learning resources available to gifted students in formal and informal educational settings. The strand looked at typical personality traits of gifted students and how the gifted can contribute to society. Gender stereotypes within the gifted were examined as well as gifted students from ethnic minorities and the problems they might face. The strand also looked at twice exceptional gifted students who often have different lived experience to regular gifted students. Finally the strand looked at the advantages of mentoring and positive uses of socail networking to help gifted students. The third strand was developed by the University of Ljubljana and involved social and emotional well being of gifted students. The categories in this strand included common beliefs about giftedness and gifted students, the psychological adjustment of gifted students into a school context and the promotion of mental health and resilience in gifted students. Within social and emotional well being there were sections on the social and emotional needs of gifted students and protective and risk factors in the mental health of gifted students. Within the common beliefs about gifted students section popular stereotypes and myths were examined as well as teachers and parents attitudes towards gifted children. There was also a closer look at gifted students reactions to success and failure at school. Finally this strand covered the promotion of mental health in gifted students and paid particular attention to potential environments that caused the greatest risk to gifted students while also detailing the importance of counselling and social and emotional support. The fourth strand was developed by by the University of Glasgow, and covered teaching strategies for gifted students. The categories in this strand included the importance of creating a heterogeneous learning environment for the gifted student and of creating a positive classroom and whole school environment, encouraging teachers to support gifted students through best practice and for teachers to continually analyse and evaluate their lesson plans. Within heterogeneous environments there was closer analysis of the need for different learning, home and school environments for optimal learning conditions for the gifted student. Within whole school environments there were sections on classroom organisation and working with individual students. Case studies of a nursery, a primary school and a secondary school were used as examples of supporting learners in practice. Within analysis of practice teachers were given examples of how to develop their skills and ways to encourage more student voice. The fifth strand was developed by Matehetsz, the Association of Hungarian Talent Support Associations, and covered best practice for designing a programme for gifted students. The categories in this strand included the importance for a shared philosophy of giftedness for the stakeholders, a comprehensive needs assessment for each school, design principles of format and curriculum and the need for effective planning and evaluation. Within the shared philosophy of gfiftedness an effective policy for each school or organisation can be created. All stakeholders including teachers, parents, school leaders and especially the students themselves need to be represented in these consultations. The course is available at the following link. As discussed previously the password will be lifted after the launch of the programme in November. http://moodle.highability.eu/login/index.php Login: erasmus_user Passsword: Egift%UserE123