Tomas Bata University in Zlín

Education of primary school teachers focused on care provided to gifted pupils

Tomas Bata University’s Faculty of Humanities hosted more than thirty teachers from Zlín elementary schools in the last week of August, shortly before the start of the new school year.

The teachers attend accredited training programmes on the education of gifted pupils. The two programmes, which took place on 26 August and 29 August 2022, constituted one of the outputs of the TAČR project entitled Labelling of Intellectually Gifted Children in the School Environment. According to the lecturer of the programmes and project director Eva Klimecká, this is a highly relevant and demanded topic of pedagogical practice: “Due to inappropriately conceived educational methods and strategies, labelling of gifted pupils can covertly coexist in the teaching. It can also lead to the social isolation of the gifted, or suppression of the gifted. Teachers attending the training programme have learned to recognise these activities and seek solutions through an appropriately designed curriculum for gifted pupils.” Continuing discussions on this topic will take place in the framework of an international conference in January 2023, which is the last practical outcome of the project.