Publication of monograph “Labeling gifted pupils – both a barrier and an opportunity in the development of giftedness“
19. March 2025A new book by Eva Klimecká is being published by the Tomas Bata University Publishing House. It deals with the issue of labeling intellectually gifted pupils in regular elementary school classes.
In addition to the undeniable benefits, the development of gifted care is also associated with negative consequences. They affect pupils who undergo giftedness diagnostics and are intensified by their inclusion in education as part of support measures. The problems are related to the careless handling of the label “gifted”, which results in exclusion, in a negative change in the social and emotional development of the pupil and in the setting of inappropriate conditions for the development of giftedness. This is a paradoxical phenomenon that shows in practice that the systematic and legislative efforts made to develop the gift of pupils can deepen the inappropriate labeling of gifted pupils and lead to disrespect for the basic educational needs of all pupils in the class.
The book offers a unique perspective on the phenomenon of labeling gifted pupils in regular primary school classes. It draws attention to the unprecedented extent of the use of inappropriate labeling and reveals the conditions that lead teachers to apply this approach. At the same time, it analyzes the appropriate functional labeling of gifted pupils and highlights the need for its application in the hands of expert teachers who work effectively with selected didactic categories and the requirements of the entire “system”. This approach helps to make the teacher’s pedagogical activity more efficient and improve the quality of the teacher’s work in a performance-mixed collective of pupils.
The publication offers the reader options for how to proceed from inappropriate labeling, which is more of an obstacle, to a functional treatment of labeling, which can be considered an opportunity for the development of giftedness.