During their career teachers encounter various students, including those who are gifted. The task of the teacher is that he enables the development of every student's potential and treats every student in the same way.
In the theoretical part I defined the concept of talent and then introduced the gifted students, their attributes and their characteristics. I also focused on the process of identifying talented students. Later, I focused mainly on the importance of working with gifted pupils, the nature of working with them, and the definition of this problem in the Slovenian legislation. I also touched on the teachers of the gifted students - their attributes and tasks.
I conducted the empirical research on a sample of 450 primary school teachers who have, for the purpose of the master's thesis, filled a questionnaire. In the empirical research I was interested in how class teachers assess the situation regarding the care for gifted children in our elementary school, what working with talented students means to them, how qualified they feel in this field of work, and what shortcomings they have observed in educational work with talented students.
The results of the master's thesis showed that teachers are mostly aware of the importance of personalized educational work with gifted students, but they are warning about the increased complexity of pedagogical work with talented students and greater personal responsibility. Because class teachers believe that they did not gain enough knowledge in the field of education of talented students during their education, changes in the system of educating teachers for pedagogical work with this group of students would be necessary. Due to past negative experiences with further education programs teachers rarely opt for education, even though they view them as helpful and are eager to obtain knowledge in this field. They want to learn more about particular adjustments about working with talented students, enriching activities, and about advising and motivating talented students in general. The main disadvantage faced by teachers in preparing lessons and adapting them for talented students is the lack of time. Most teachers agree that the effects of working with gifted students are visible among pupils. They have more personal satisfaction, achieve good learning achievements, are more motivated for work and are more responsible about their school work. These findings show us the positive effects of educational work with gifted students.
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