Gifted children in everyday school life

Anyone who is particularly weak in maths or German needs extra tuition, of course. Even high-flyers who get bored quickly in lessons and therefore often disrupt them need to be given special support to cater for their giftedness. This has been the status quo in schools for decades - and not just in Switzerland. That is why there were and still are remedial courses in the afternoon and during the summer holidays for the weak, and competitions and working groups for the smart ones.

Between these two poles lies a large, broad midfield of pupils who can easily manage their schoolwork on their own without always achieving outstanding results. And they usually fall through any promotion grid. For a good two decades now, however, teachers and schools have been focussing more on the midfield. The promotion of gifted and talented children in schools is becoming more popular, partly because successes are being achieved.

The films of the so-called LISSA award winners provide a great insight into the ideas of individual schools in German-speaking Switzerland. Since 2004, the Foundation for Gifted Children has honoured exemplary school projects that are integrated into everyday school life and aim to promote giftedness for all children with the LISSA Prize.

This means that each child is supported according to their needs with strength-orientated teaching. The credo of many LISSA projects is «show interest in the children's interests». Instead of teaching in a standardised way, the teachers try to respond to the individual abilities of the pupils.

Reflect on your own skills and actions

Beat Schelbert and his colleagues founded the Forum for Gifted Education 21 years ago. The aim was to support the development of gifted and talented education in schools. It was pioneering work. The topic has since been taken up by many people and institutions. The Forum for Gifted and Talented Education has been successful and has thus abolished its own raison d'être. Beat Schelbert, however, has remained true to the topic.

For almost 20 years now, the teacher at the Riedmatt school in Wollerau SZ has been working with the talent portfolio, among other things. «In all this time, I haven't discovered any other tool that is as effective at putting young people in a position where they know what they're doing: Ah, now I'm the subject that it's all about, I need to think about myself.»

Thanks to the talent portfolio, young people know: It's all about me now.

Beat Schelbert, teacher

Reflecting on one's own abilities and actions is a crucial point in realising one's gifts and talents, and at the same time a difficult process. «It becomes much more pleasant with the help of the talent portfolio,» says Schelbert. In the sixth form in particular, it becomes clear that the catalogue of subjects alone does not necessarily lead to a suitable career.

«And how can you choose a career if you don't know yourself and your own strengths?» All the more so if these cannot be demonstrated at all or not to their full extent at school. Or are too unspecific. After all, who knows exactly what a pupil can do when their report card states that they have met or exceeded the requirements for social behaviour?

Recognising individual skills

«The portfolio concept attempts to give such statements a picture,» explains Schelbert. Schelbert uses an example to explain how useful it can be to go beyond everyday school life in search of individual skills: a 13-year-old pupil has so far mainly stood out at school for his poor performance. However, his portfolio contains the note «top in leadership». This is because, as captain of a football team, the boy takes on responsibility outside of school, motivates his team when they fall behind and sets a good example in training.

«And who chooses the captain? The other players, they recognise him and show that his portfolio is on a good footing,» says Schelbert, whose colleague has also stood in the cowshed with the whole class when two boys claimed they could milk a cow by hand. It was true, the qualification was allowed in the portfolio.

Knowing your own talents motivates you and can help you choose a career.

Chiara Nemeht, pupil

«What I like about the talent portfolio is that you can learn new skills about yourself,» says student Elena Marty, 13. «It's like a personal portfolio in which my positive qualities are recorded.» Her friend Chiara Nemeth, also 13, thinks that knowing your own talents is motivating and can be helpful later when choosing a career. «You also learn new terms when working with the portfolio and see different things that other children are good at,» says Chiara.

Disillusionment is part of the process

The talent portfolio is also about disillusionment. Sometimes students have to admit to themselves that what they claim to be able to do is not a special skill. That they may have been bluffing or simply exaggerating a little. «This is sometimes painful, but it's an important process in terms of personal development,» says Schelbert.

Whenever he identifies such «false talents» with a pupil, he immediately turns his attention back to the credit account. Because the discrepancy between internal and external perceptions is often huge. A pupil is frustrated because they don't seem to be able to do «anything special». Like many of his classmates, he speaks three languages, so that can't be a talent.

«But one of these languages is Urdu - and then I have to point out to this pupil how unique they are,» says Schelbert. Giving them the impetus to take a closer look and discover their own abilities is essential. «It's important to me that every pupil gets to the point where they can say: I am who I am, I know and I can do something.»