This master’s degree thesis main problem is focused on social and emotional aspects of development of gifted pupils in the second triennium of primary school. It originates from a possible incompatibility of cognitive and socially-emotional development of gifted pupils. Because of that, gifted pupils differentiate from their peers in social and emotional activity.
The theoretical part introduces the term “gifted” and defines who gifted pupils really are. Afterwards, it is described how gifted pupils are treated in the Slovene school legislation and how to recognise them in our school system. This procedure of recognising and working with gifted pupils in primary school is based on a document called Concept: Detecting and working with gifted pupils in primary school with a nine year-program. The characteristics of gifted pupils and their social and emotional development from school age to adolescence are also presented.
The practical part of the thesis is to study the social and emotional self-concept of gifted pupils in the 5th and the 6th grade of primary school compared to the social and emotional self-concept of their peers, who have not been identified as gifted and to learn, which social and emotional characteristics of gifted pupil are perceived by their peers and their teachers. The aim is also to find out, how teachers encourage socially-emotional development of gifted pupils. For the purposes of this thesis, a quantitative research was used. The research information was gathered with the help of two questionnaires; the first one was for teachers and the second one for students (gifted pupils and their peers). The research included 56 teachers and 148 pupils. The results showed that the socially–emotional self-concept of gifted pupils is higher than the self-concept of other students. The teachers and peers of gifted pupils have attributed positive qualities to them. I also discovered that most teachers do not encourage the socially-emotional development of gifted pupils. The teachers, who do encourage socially-emotional development of gifted pupils, usually do it inside the regular classes and not in the so called “gifted groups”.
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