Social Representation of Gifted Children: A Preliminary Study in France

Non-Cognitive Specificities of Intellectually Gifted Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review of the Literature

For several years, there was a growing interest in intellectual giftedness and in particular in the non-cognitive specificities of gifted individuals. This topic attracted much public attention and sometimes led to contradictions with the scientific literature. The current review synthesizes a broad set of results related to non-cognitive specificities of intellectual gifted in children and adolescents. This synthesis of scientific research on giftedness and its associated non-cognitive features does not support the conclusion that there is a stable profile across gifted individuals that would consistently separate them from non-gifted individuals. A few specificities in some areas are noted, but they are not necessarily being systematic. These specificities often turn out to be in favor of gifted youth, contrary to the view sometimes defended in the general public that gifted individuals suffer from major everyday difficulties. Finally, methodological issues are listed regarding the designs of existing studies, with recommendations for future research in the field.

Designing a methodological system for the development and support of gifted and motivated students

The paper was intended to develop a new methodological system and test its impact on the development of motivation and giftedness among children. The experiment was conducted among 1,200 children from grades 3, 7, and 10 by researchers from the Daryn Republican Applied Research Center of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan and L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University. The teaching methodology involved: interactive technologies; developing projects with faculty members; and conducting electives in the exact sciences, humanities, natural sciences, and the creative arts. The experiment lasted 4 months. Before and after the experiment, all respondents were evaluated by their instructors according to the following four criteria: academic giftedness, creative giftedness, social giftedness, and intellectual giftedness. The overall result demonstrated an increase in the level of giftedness to above-average values. Motivation levels observed among respondents in grades 3, 7, and 10 were 1.71; 1.72, and 1.54, respectively. The level for this criterion also reached above-average values. This implies that this technique is effective. This technique can already be applied not only in special schools for gifted children, but also in general educational institutions to achieve better results.

Examining the Most and Least Changeable Elements of the Social Representation of Giftedness

Giftedness and high abilities have been broadly defined and this fact has led to many problems related to the detection and educational response given to gifted or highly able pupils due to the stereotyped social representations of the concepts. However, the main misconceptions might be changed with the aim of solving the mentioned problems. For this purpose, the aims of this study are to explore the main misconceptions of giftedness and to identify which among them seem to be most and least changeable. A questionnaire with the most extended myths and stereotypes about giftedness was applied in a sample of 824 participants. The items’ analyses were carried out by first studying item-test discrimination indices (test classical theory), and secondly, the a and b parameters of items (item response theory). The results show that there are items that would be easily changeable (9 items) and others less malleable (4 items). Therefore, it might be concluded that the social representation of giftedness would have peripheral elements that could be changed, while there would be less malleable central elements. Thus, different strategies to foster the change of the social representation of giftedness should be considered, which will have social and educational implications.