Project for Development of Gifted and Talent’s Education in Finland 2009-2010
1. Background Project for Development of Gifted and Talent’s Education in Finland 2009-2010
Pupils and students may have huge differences in learning new things. They can be naturally very talented or gifted or most able in many ways or many areas. According the Finnish constitutional law we must guarantee equal opportunity for everyone to have education according their abilities and needs. The government program (Matti Vanhanen II government) mention that creativity, skills and knowledge and high civilization are in key role for success. Education must support everyone’s possibilities for learning. That’s way the Finnish National Board of Education (FNBE) has started Project for Development of Giffted and Talent’s Education in Finland. Because Finland has not put extra emphasis towards gifted education during many years, it is very important for the Finns to look abroad, to those countries which has rather long tradition of gifted education. It is also important to understand the limitations we have because of comparatively large country with small population. There are very many local providers of education (mainly municipalities) and very small schools in basic education. Basically it is not possible to have own separate schools for gifted in Finland, because of this. This is challenge for us; how to guarantee equal opportunities for everyone gifted and talented child even rarely lived areas in Finland.
2. Main Goals on project
· There are better possibilities to recognize giftness and talentness in schools and kindergartens by teachers.
· Develop instruction and other activities in schools so it will support better gifted and talented children. Production of supporting materials for teachers.
· Give information for parents of gifted children and increase co-operation of school and homes.
· Support children’s ability to recognize their strengths and prevent underachievement.
· Increase tolerance in schools towards gifted persons.
3. Main areas of activities
Project has a group for steering of the project. It has many types of experts and other peoples interested in development of gifted or talented children. FNBE has a co-coordinator group for concrete work. Program is divided in five sectors:
1. Collecting the knowledge and the best practices.
2. Forming national development network.
3. Teacher training in service.
4. Web services (websites, web 2.0, chat, etc.)
5. International co-operation.