AAccording to the Objective 4 from SDG (Sustainable Development Goals, UNESCO) this project guarantees an inclusive and quality-based education, promoting equal opportunities and lifelong learning principles. Our focus in this project is on the talented, gifted students, who make up a subdivision of students who face disadvantage, according to the UNESCO classification (ISCED) for Special Educational Needs. Gifted and talented students are considered as students with disadvantages. They attend ordinary class with the other students. Due to their specific attributes, they have interests and motivations which go beyond what the school can offer them within its timetable and facilities. Students can lose their motivation, become under-achievers and school-dropouts if they are not offered other options that meet their needs. The aims of the project TALENT are to: 1.Create collaborative links between schools, universities and educational bodies, in order to improve existing practices, research and create new projects addressing gifted students. 2.Train teachers from each partner institution and future teachers in the topic of giftedness 3.Exchange good practices among project partners in order to enrich the existing projects of the different schools. 4.Create a database with programs/projects applicable on gifted students. 5.Elaborate a cooperative study about different aspects related to giftedness to improve the final programmes. The project TALENT focuses on the horizontal priority of social inclusion. All the actions carried out in the project promote ownership of shared values, equality, social inclusion, diversity and non-discrimination. There are also two additional priorities in the project: tackling early school leaving and disadvantage and strengthening the profile of the teaching professions. The beneficiary party are students, who are capable of exceptional performance by their outstanding abilities. They require differentiated provisions by teachers and programs beyond regular school program to release their contribution to self and society. As a consequence, teachers belong to the target group because their performance is essential when offering this improvement in the school, universities or educational centres since with their gained knowledge and skills, students will benefit for years to come. During the project the participant institutions met 12 times. TPM: Each country hosted a project meeting to coordinate and develop the shared website with the different partners’ results and outcomes. These ensure the quality of teachers training events. A minimum of 2 people per institution form the core group responsible for the project management and implementation activities. The input for the project's website and its partners’ programs and projects come from the short-term joint staff trainings organized as teacher training weeks in each partner institution. TTM: Each country hosted one teacher training meeting of 5 days long focused on sharing each partner's success in providing educational support for gifted and talented students. Outside experts were involved to multiply the benefit of trainings provided. Combining the exchange of good practices from seven institutions (schools, universities, regional public body) and experts across EU through aforementioned activities helped partners to involve gifted and talented students to each partnering institution's educational support system. All partnering schools created outputs and results which are divided in different phases and are presented on a website: 1.Analyses of the context and school projects’ applicability and creation of an improvement planning. This is focused on the educational training, the research done, and the current programs for gifted students. Each institution enriched or created new programs and projects that help improve the shortcomings detected. 2.Implementation of new programs and projects. There was a revision of the project or program implemented and an improvement proposal. 3.Assessment and actions for the continuity plans. This project is crucial to meet the needs of gifted and talented students and to promote the inclusion of the students thanks to the research done, the links created, and the programs implemented. The project gives an answer to one of the UNESCO goals Objective 4 from SDG. The dissemination and sustainability actions will help spread the results locally, regionally, and internationally. Different scientific studies have been developed and published in scientific journals during the present project. The website will support the sustainability of TALENT.
These are the common objectives among all the institutions: Create collaborative links between schools, universities and educational bodies to improve existing practices, research and create new projects addressing gifted students. Train minimum 12 teachers from each partner school/institution (and minimum 200 future teachers) in the topic of giftedness. Exchange good practices among project partners to enrich the existing projects of the different schools. Create a database with minimum 7 programs applicable on gifted students which will be used in the sustainability phase of the project. Elaborate 1 cooperative study into different aspects related to giftedness to enhance the scientific focus in the first 2 project years, which will be used by the partner schools for the improvement of the programme in the third year. Each institution developed these objectives according to their own reality.
We aimed to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all as stated by SDG 4 UNESCO, and we realised that gifted students are at risk of exclusion, as they do not usually receive all the attention they need. After participating in another Erasmus+ (GATES 2017-20) whose topic was Giftedness and its diagnosis, we were aware that we needed to continue with the training so that we could meet the needs of gifted students in the inclusive classroom. We designed a project to improve the strategies of teachers and create links with other institutions to offer different possibilities for our students. All partners either had already worked with gifted students and wanted to enrich their expertise, or they wanted to do research on this topic to implement specific programs in the sustainability stage of the project. We wanted to give an answer to the lack of a formal framework for the identification and use of resources in all partner institutions, to improve the schools’ programs, and to enrich its research. The project addresses the horizontal priority of social inclusion, tackling early school leaving and disadvantage and strengthening the profile of the teaching professions.