Dear colleagues,
The School Pedagogy-research group from Learning, Culture and Interventions (LECI) research community is happy to invite you to its next research seminar. In this seminar professor Valerie Margrain will discuss her research using some examples of four-year-old gifted children from New Zealand children as a stimulus, followed by international and Swedish rights-based policy and curriculum examples, and an overview of Nordic gifted education research-in-progress. The presentation will be followed by a discussion of how the Finnish education system supports the needs of its youngest citizens with extraordinary abilities.
When: Friday 17.5.2024 at 10.00-12.00
Where: Athena hall 107
Title:
Gifted and highly able – youngest citizens, extraordinary potential
Abstract
The right of all students to a stimulating education that meets their needs is core to early childhood education policy, but gifted or highly able students have limited and largely implicit acknowledgment. This can lead to a risk that these students are unseen and their educational needs forgotten. Further, an absence of teacher education (pre-service and continuing education) can lead to teacher uncertainty or misunderstandings. In Nordic contexts an inclusive one-school-for-all approach means that all schools and early childhood settings are contexts that should be ready for gifted children, and all teachers are potentially teachers of gifted children.
Bio
Professor Valerie Margrain is from New Zealand, has worked in Australia, is now employed full time in Sweden, and part-time in Norway. She leads a 40 million sek-funded doctoral programme in Sweden with 10 doctoral students researching differing aspects of gifted education, and the Nordic Network for Gifted Education (NNGE) which focuses on gifted education research across all five Nordic countries. Valerie is visiting Helsinki in May 2024 to work with Prof Kirsi Tirri on editing of the in-progress book ‘Nordic Perspectives in Gifted Education.