Teaching gifted students can be one of the most challenging topics of school life. Gifted students are not easy to deal with because they have a different way of thinking among other things. It is proven that they employ different strategies to deal with learning based more on "intuitive jumps" than on "rational steps" Teachers who have to deal with this type of student must know their peculiar characteristics in order to help them get the most out of their time at school and at the same time maintain a high level of taste for learning, their self-esteem, and maximum development of their capabilities. A teacher who is not familiar and trained with these kind of students can become a trauma for their education. The lack of flexibility, the desire to maintain a linear order in learning content, the repetition of mechanical tasks, the belief that gifted children are smart enough to achieve a great school performance without any help, are some of the reasons why about 30-40% of the gifted students do not reach the expected academic performance and approximately half of them do not reach the university. With this project we want to analyze the characteristics of gifted children, their way of learning, the need to maintain an intrinsic motivation that leads them to immerse themselves in the love for knowledge, to challenge themselves, to depeth those topics that absorb them. We will base our project on an original approach based on the analysis of actual cases of students who have been diagnosed as gifted during their school years and will be extracted from that analysis the needs they present, the types of teachers that motivate them, the methodologies that best do they work. The project will be carried out by an association of 6 schools from different countries: Spain (beneficiary), Greece, Turkey, Estonia, Bulgaria and Romania. The Spanish school, which has already been a partner in two previous projects with the center of Turkey, proposed to him to do a project on this subject, since in both centers we maintained a great interest in it. Once decided we put an announcement on the E.Twinning platform and they answered us from different countries. The members that make up the association are the result of the interest shown by the members of the association. Throughout these months prior to the project we have had the opportunity to get to know each other and share ideas. The project is the result of the contribution of all partners. The educational centers are diverse in terms of size, levels taught, ownership and educational project, which will enrich the association and will allow to observe different approaches on the education of gifted students. The project will promote cooperation among partners. The different methodological actions will be shared, different in each of the countries. Throughout the project, six international meetings will be held, one in each of the countries of the association, where training seminars on different topics related to the education of gifted children, will be scheduled and the different ways of action in each country will be discussed and how the different educational laws influence the approach to this topic. The project wants to leave a deep study on the subject that can be used for the training of new teachers, parents, students, teachers in active and all those interested in an interesting and important subject to be analyzed It is expected, even, that the project may be of value to reflect on the need to rethink the education of children and gifted people
Even though it has been delayed for a year due to the Covid 19 pandemic, we can currently say that the project has been achieved and completed; not only that, we can say that the majority of the objectives of the project have been carried out in completion. Our association, composed by six countries, started working even before the approval of the project because we organized together the preliminary steps of the same. The initial contact was an initiative presented by the Spanish and the Turkish schools, as we knew each other from two previous projects and we had long been thinking about creating a project on specific education for gifted students. Within this willpower, we set an announcement in E.Twinning and several schools from different countries showed their interest; in the end, four schools were selected and have remained in the project to its end. Given the reliability and compromise of the six teams, we can highlight that there has always been a great sense of cooperation, collaboration and goodwill in terms of organizing activities, distributing tasks and carrying out whatever has been needed to fulfill successfully the project. Six international meetings were planned, all of them with a similar structure: analysis of the different educational systems, sessions of academic training offered by a renowned university, interviews with present and past gifted students, sessions of movie forum that illustrated our topic of discussion, organized site visits to after-school enrichment education centers, etc. It is important to mention that even though the first four international meetings took place without any problem, the pandemic exploded right before the meeting in Bulgaria. At first, we were caught in surprise and did not know what to do or how to react; then, we continued with the project doing online meetings and planning our next steps along with the evolution of the pandemic. An extension of six months was requested with the aim at being able to undertake the international meetings with Bulgaria and Romania, followed by another extension of six months. Despite our desire to meet face-to-face, we were forced to do the meetings on an online format, as it was impossible to go either to Romania nor Bulgaria. In the end, already with the academic year over, we have managed to organize a small in-person meeting in Bulgaria with the aim of visiting the Bulgarian school and organizing the last tasks of the project. It is also true that we were very sad to not be able to have a face-to-face farewell with a team who has worked so incredibly well. We are already thinking about preparing a new project to benefit from our personal bonds, our willpower, and all the knowledge we have acquired during these years. In terms of objectives, we can say that they have all been achieved or are in process of achievement. A great interest on the topic has developed within our respective countries and our educational communities. It is now a fact that a new sensitivity has sprang among teachers and families in relation to the need of offering a special education to gifted students so as to avoid the risk of them losing their interest in learning. This response has been verified and confirmed within all six member schools, as well as within students, families, educational authorities, and the community as a whole. The project has turned out to be very interesting, opening new perspectives, questions and approaches to education, urging us to continue researching and learning about how people, --not only gifted students, but people in general-- learn, and looking for new paths, methodologies and didactics of teaching that may promote learning. Each member school has widely spread the project throughout their respective web pages, radio and television interviews, articles and reviews in specialized magazines and physical and online local newspapers. Together with those already mentioned activities, several face-to-face and online conferences have been presented, and we have all been in touch with various universities, centers of detection and diagnose for gifted students, and educational enrichment programs for gifted students. Not being able to go to Romania has been, without any question, the comedown of the project, as we are aware of the disillusion that it provoked to the Romanian team and the rest of the member schools. Lastly, our appreciation and gratitude to the European Union for giving us the opportunity to undertake this type of projects that help us open up our minds and get to know and learn from each other as European citizens. Together with this gratitude, we would like to highlight the work, help and support our respective national agencies offer us along the path.