PERCEPCIJA NADARENOSTI IZ UGLA OSNOVNOŠKOLSKIH NASTAVNIKA
PERCEPTION OF GIFT FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHERS

Summary/Abstract: Gifted students are students with extraordinary general intellectual or specific abilities, which makes them more advanced compared to their peers who live in the same or similar environments, or have the same or similar conditions. Highly developed intellectual, creative, psychomotoric, leadership or artistic abilities make it possible to overcome the challenges faced by society. The world of tomorrow depends mostly on the contributions of gifted individuals. Therefore, it is the duty of educational institutions to create conditions for the actualization and cultivation of their abilities. Encouraging and developing giftedness is, among other things, one of the basic goals of education. Teachers are tasked with leading students to above-average results. Whether and to what extent the teacher will respond to this task depends on his personal characteristics and pedagogical competences. Providing adequate educational support and designing activities that stimulate creativity, imagination and curiosity requires teachers, first of all, to have knowledge about (the nature of) giftedness. The aim of this research is to examine the perception of giftedness from the perspective of primary school teachers. According to the results, giftedness is primarily recognized as the student's ability to master curriculum faster, easier, more successfully, with less effort. It is significant that a certain number of teachers believe that giftedness is an innate gift, while completely eliminating the possibility of the environment to shape certain elements of giftedness. Therefore, it is concluded that teachers show only a superficial or partial understanding of the nature of giftedness. In contrast, they successfully recognize the characteristics of gifted students. When articulating giftedness, teachers point to three key features: advanced age, high level of internal motivation and high level of creativity. The obtained findings are discussed and guidelines for pedagogical practice are given.

• Details
• Contents