The field of teaching, learning and support to gifted students is surrounded by a lot of emotions, there is no model of definition on giftedness that researchers has agreed upon. The different models argue if giftedness is innate or if it is developed. Most of the modern models claim that the development part at least is the most important - in relation to why we should do anything at all in education for those students who we can call for example gifted, talented, excellent, or highly able. In addition, many teachers feel uncertain of how to reach their "gifted" students, they are unsure whether their math skills are good enough and they are not familiar with pedagogical methods on how to include the "gifted" in learning. Most articles on gifted education ends up "teachers need more professional development on giftedness". This group of teachers are the group that this project aims to support by developing an Electronic Guidebook through which they can be guided in their teaching and support to "gifted" students with a role of facilitators. The project intends to develop new methodologies for supporting gifted pupils in mathematics of age 10-18, which can be used inside and outside any school environment. It will also make learning more attractive and enjoyable for all pupils and will strengthen students’ skills for creative thinking. The methods could be used for other subjects of the education curricula. The project will be using previous results and experiences that project partners have. Some partners have experience in teaching methodology, researching mathematics education, organizing events and competitions for gifted or talented pupils, worked in motivating pupils, supporting and training math talented pupils, training teachers and more. The consortium consists of 7 partners including universities, schools, associations, teacher training centers, and 22 associate partners. All these experience will converge for producing an innovative set of guidelines and tools for teachers enriching their competence for supporting gifted pupils inside and outside the classroom environment. A training course will be designed in order to sustain and develop further the support system that this project will develop. The project activities contribute to the ET2020 enhancing creativity and innovation among youth. It promotes the European Cooperation on schools in the area of competences by supporting the key competence for mathematics. In addition, Europe is looking for talented students and this is evident from the European Union Parliament Study in 2015, which indicates that, “There is a shift from recruitment of international students for short-term economic gain to recruitment of talented international students and scholars, in particular in the STEAM fields, to meet needs in academia and industry, insufficient local student participation in these fields, and the increased demands of the knowledge economy”. The results of INNOMATH are expected to contribute also to the following school education priorities as described in ERASMUS+ Programme Guide: 1. Supporting teachers in dealing with diversity in the classroom; 2. Supporting teachers in adopting collaborative and innovative practices, 3. Supporting schools to tackle disadvantage and to offer quality education, enabling success for all students, from the LOWEST to the HIGHEST end of the academic spectrum.
The main achievement that this project wanted to develop was a a model and support system developed for the support of gifted pupils in mathematics through the appropriate training of the teachers and the cooperation with industry. The mathematical high ability pupils can now find challenge into solving real life problems, they gain an acquisition of creative skills and competences. It also strengthens the competence of teachers to support their gifted pupils , develops knowledge on cooperation models between schools and industry and consequently contribute to the improvement of the profile of the teaching profession. Therefore, horizontally the whole process contributes to the development of high-quality skills and competences of all stakeholders involved such as school pupils, school teachers and managers, teacher trainers, university professors, researchers and postgraduate students , industry and enterprise representatives and their production and innovation officials. Networking and synergies for exchange of ideas and working together in groups for maximizing quality results is another key to success for creativity and innovation and through the project activities and outputs there is a contribution also to these elements.
The field of teaching, learning and support to gifted students is surrounded by a lot of emotions, there is no model of definition on giftedness that researchers has agreed upon. The different models argue if giftedness is innate or if it is developed. Most of the modern models claim that the development part at least is the most important - in relation to why we need to support at all, in education, those students who can be called for example gifted, talented, excellent, or highly able. In addition, many teachers feel uncertain of how to reach their "gifted" students, they are unsure whether their math skills are good enough and they are not familiar with pedagogical methods on how to include the "gifted" in learning. Most articles on gifted education ends up "teachers need more professional development on giftedness". This group of teachers are the group that this project aimed to support by developing the Electronic Guidebook through which they can be guided in their teaching and support to "gifted" students with a role of facilitators. The project developed new methodologies for supporting gifted pupils in mathematics of age 10-18, which can be used inside and outside any school environment. This makes also learning more attractive and enjoyable for all pupils and will strengthen students’ skills for creative thinking. The methods could be used for other subjects of the education curricula. As mentioned teachers need support and therefore this project has designed and produced a training course in order to sustain and develop further the support system developed through the guidelines. Now teachers have methods, material and a training course supporting them how to apply the methods. The results of INNOMATH contribute to the following school education priorities as described in the ERASMUS+ Programme Guide: 1. Supporting teachers in dealing with diversity in the classroom; 2. Supporting teachers in adopting collaborative and innovative practices, 3. Supporting schools to tackle disadvantage and to offer quality education, enabling success for all students, from the LOWEST to the HIGHEST end of the academic spectrum.