Grant for research into education of highly gifted children
 | The Dutch Ministry of Education has awarded a a € 700.000 grant for the evaluation of excellent education for highly gifted children. The study will be supervised by prof. dr. Ton Mooij, professor of Educational Technology at CELSTEC and sector manager at Research Institute ITS Nijmegen, and it will be done by CELSTEC. |
38 primary schools
The study will take four years and will start in March 2011. 38 schools for primary education from all over the Netherlands will participate. It is the second time that Ton Mooij receives a grant for extensive experimental research in this field. The first time was in 2008.
Exclusive versus regular
The 2008 study was focused on the development and evaluation of special education, exclusively for highly gifted children. The 2010 research focusses on regular education that is adapted to the possibilities and needs of highly gifted children.
Underestimate
There are hardly any proper educational provisions for highly gifted children in Dutch nursery schools and the first classes of primary education. Ton Mooij: 'It is often said that a school has the right provisions. However, generally this is a clear underestimation of the possibilities and educational demands of the highly gifted. From the start of their education, highly gifted children in regular schools are kept busy with activities that (can) cause demotivation, social isolation and emotional problems. This new research project wants to offer a scientifically sound solution to this problem.'
It is expected that this educational approach results in higher cognitive achievement and better social-emotional performance than occurs with the traditional approach in regular education for highly able children. This evaluation study will check whether this expectation is true. It will also evaluate whether a longer duration of this new kind of education will lead to relatively higher cognitive learning effects.
