Individual education for gifted students

Paper

As the Corona virus struck this spring it was a hard cut for the families and their social development which all of the sudden turned towards zero. On the other hand, a tailored learning addressing individual needs of their gifted children all of the sudden seemed more possible than ever before.
It is two sides of a medal.
Highly talented and gifted pupils and students often require an individual and faster learning pace. Their demands on education and on learning differ fundamentally from the needs of other students.
Their desire for less repetitions along with their needs for a deeper understanding of the education material often confronts teachers with the challenge to appropriately cater for such learners.
Identifying the developmental stage of a gifted child and taking it into consideration opens several possible scenarios to parents and teachers: early entrance into School, full term skipping, individualized teaching, an ‘early university study for secondary School students’ or online academic studies, all of which promote a gifted student whilst maintaining motivation and addressing individual needs. As not every gifted child develops the same way or has the same interests, parents need detailed information to support Schools with the implementation of chosen support.
To maintain motivation for gifted learners is a permanent challenge for which hardly any school system or becoming parent in the world is properly prepared. Tailored education supported by our digital world could come up to match this purpose more easily than a uniformed system aiming more to convey similar learning matters to a high number of students at a time. More variety in possible methods can help schools as well to give consideration to all of their students. Students on the other hand need to experience learning and to fill the word with different possible methods. Not every skill suite every pupil in equal measure. But those different but highly important skills are needed on a lifetime basis and should be developed during childhood.
All of that, usually hard to implement during normal schooldays suddenly was welcomed as the children stayed at home during lock-down.

Examples of how gifted children and their parents of our association dealt with the sudden changes due to the pandemic are presented in the speech.