In the 21st century, gifted and talented students are probably a
more valuable natural resource in any country than oil or gas. Every
nation must therefore respect a small group of individuals who, by
virtue of their abilities, play a crucial role in scientific, industrial,
technological and cultural development. Therefore, the promotion
of gifted education for excellence is also an important driver for the
economic development of the society (Resch, Samhaber and Weilguny,
2008). Campbell, Eyre, Muijs, Neelands, and Robinson (2004) believe
that promoting giftedness and excellence as a guiding principle for
the development of educational institutions at the organisational,
structural, and pedagogical levels will improve the overall quality of
teaching and learning; designing an individualised and differentiated
learning process will improve the achievement of all students. Today’s
gifted students are tomorrow’s social, intellectual, economic, and
cultural leaders, so their development should not be left to chance
(Campbell et al., 2004).
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In the Slovenian school system all the conditions for the development
of working activities with gifted and talented (hereafter gifted) students
are in place, but according to Ovid’s thought, “medio tutissimus ibis”
is firmly anchored in Slovenian school policy, which means that the
middle way is the best way (Blažič et al., 2003, p. 29). Some other
countries have established independent departments within subject
ministries to support the development of gifted students, while in other
countries interest in formal and informal forms of working with them
is only beginning to revive (Blažič et al., 2003). According to Strmčnik
(1995), the greatest obstacles to faster development of the gifted are
the weak awareness and competence of all those in charge and the
unsupportive atmosphere that paralyses the motivation and ambition
of capable and successful individuals. There is also a modest scientific
exploration of this complex situation, as it is largely absent from the
concepts that are part of egalitarian rhetoric (such as equity, equality
of opportunity, inequality, fairness, discrimination, social mobility,
responsibility, etc.) (Sardoč, 2017). The problem of the gifted and
talented is therefore one of the least researched in the field, although
they constitute their natural inalienable or non-transferable resources
(Roemer, 1996).
This article reviews a range of literature and research relevant to
the education of gifted and talented students, with the intention of
clarifying some of the terms and concepts that underlie the promotion
of giftedness in Slovenia.