Current Issues in Some Disciplines, ISBN 978-80-89691-01-2
87
Gifted Children – The Intellectual Potential
of the Country
© Inna CHERVINSKA & © Tetyana BLYZNYUK
Precarpathian National University of V. Stefanyk, Ivano-
Frankivsk, Ukraine
ichervinska@mail.ru & blyztan@yahoo.com
The article describes the psychological and pedagogical conditions of gifted
personality of a junior pupil in the educational environment of contemporary schools.
The author analyzes the key factors that influence the development of gifted
individuals.
The problem of education and development of a healthy and harmoniously
developed personality has always been urgent. The basic approach in the search for
young talents should recognize complex actions: medical, physiological,
psychological, educational which are directed to be performed by the family and
school. It is also important to use a variety of methods to identify the interests and
abilities of children and continue to monitor their further progress.
Scientists from different countries work at the problem of giftedness. Biologists try
to identify genes of a genius, psychologists and sociologists invent thousands of tests
to determine the brightest individuals. And yet the secret answer to the question why
one person can manage much and the other is an outsider still remains a mystery.
Identification, support, development and socialization of gifted children are among
the priority tasks of the modern school. The problem of giftedness in the education
system is solved by the establishment of special schools for gifted and talented
children, or opening special classes for gifted students. However, there is another
solution to this problem – not to isolate a gifted child from its natural environment, to
teach and educate without taking it away from the peers, creating conditions for the
development and implementation of all creative abilities.
In psychological and educational literature, the problem of a gifted person is
stressed in the writings of such scholars as I. Averina, A. Asmolova, V. Chudnovsky,
B. Shadrikov, etc. A considerable amount of research is devoted to the phenomenon
of a personal talent. Its nature and kinds, age characteristics are represented in the
works of foreign scholars (J. Guilford, R. Cattell, J. Renzulli, B. Taylor, J. Freeman,
etc.).
The problem of child’s talent is one of the significant problems of modern science.
There are over 100 definitions of the notion “talent.” N. Leytes said: “Talent is the
ability to outstanding achievements in any socially important sphere of human
activity.”
The concepts of “talent”, “child endowment,” “gifted children”, “creative person”
define ambiguous approaches to the educational activities of the educational
institution. On the one hand, every child is “gifted” and the main task of teachers is to
disclose intellectual and creative potential of every child. On the other hand, there is
a category of children who are qualitatively different from their peers, which usually
require the organization of special training, development and education. A talented,
gifted student is a person with a high level of ability. Such children usually do not