The project aims to enhance the competencies and skills of primary education teachers to help gifted and talented pupils (age 8-11 y.o.) develop their full potential and thrive. Specific objectives: (1) To design an innovative teaching methodology for teachers supporting gifted and talented pupils’ cognitive and emotional needs; (2) To provide a training programme for teachers that will help them obtain relevant knowledge and skills on how to recognize and teach gifted and talented pupils. (3) Increase the academic performance of gifted and talented underachievers in STEAM, as well as their socio-emotional learning (SEL) competencies. (4) Due to the activities covering the different components of STEAM and SEL, verify the efficacy of the program to develop in children essential skills to better achievements and motivation of learning. The project also raises awareness among target groups (i.e., primary education teachers, educators, pupils) and stakeholders (i.e., school staff, public authorities, education experts) about the topic of gifted and talented students, in order to promote the spread and adoption of new strategies helping reduce the number of gifted and talented pupils underachieving.
Educating in suitable way gifted and talented pupils (as they have specific needs, requiring specific teaching methods and a tailored challenging learning environment) is crucial as they could potentially be the future eminent path breakers and innovators. Researchers emphasized that one of the biggest issues are that the most able pupils were not achieving their potential. The main potential causes are: (1) lack of interest in curriculum due to lack of challenging and engaging material; (2 ) low teacher expectations; (3) lack of opportunity to be recognized due to disadvantaged background; (4) psychological/social issues as well as undiagnosed learning disabilities, (5) high levels of anxiety, (6) dissatisfaction with teachers and school environment White, 2018). Very often, gifted students also face socio-emotional issues when engaging with their peers or during lectures, needing teachers equally aware of their cognitive and affective needs (Cavilla, 2019). However, to be able to educate gifted and talented pupils, teachers need to be able to respond to named challenges, to learn new teaching strategies that speak to the new and higher demands of the system. This project aims to tackle mentioned issues.