When a student or student stands out from their peers for high potential in one of the areas of human performance, both the family and the school have the responsibility of detecting and developing this potential. Whether this high potential is found in the field of intellectual level, in that of creativity or in that of persistence in complex tasks (or in all three), the academic performance of said student should not be the main concern, but his development social and emotional.
These high capacities constitute a specific need for educational support and therefore must be taken into account with adaptations of the curriculum. But the way to detect and define them is far from following a unique and clear path. Not only between different countries but even within the same country, as is the case in Spain.
There are three characteristics that are considered defining high intellectual abilities, generally marked by an intelligence quotient equal to or greater than 130 according to the Weschler Scale:
The psychopedagogical evaluation collects, analyzes and evaluates the relevant information about the student in question and the different elements that intervene in the teaching and learning process, to identify their educational needs.
In addition, if we take into account the definition of high abilities, any psycho-pedagogical report must include these three areas of evaluation: the intellectual or aptitude area, divergent thinking and creativity, and personality and socio-emotional adjustment.
In Spain, the competence and responsibility for the assessment of high intellectual capacity corresponds to the head of the guidance department, with the collaboration, where appropriate, of the specific guidance teams.
It must have the participation of the tutor teacher, the teachers who attend the students, the family and, where appropriate, other professionals.
We can distinguish two types of psycho-pedagogical reports: those carried out in educational centers, whether public, subsidized or private, and those carried out by external offices. The latter are born from the need of fathers, mothers or families to cover the needs that educational centers cannot meet.
In addition to reporting, these cabinets have comprehensive services to help these students enhance their talent or even work on possible needs or weaknesses that each girl or boy presents, whether of a social, personal or academic nature.
High abilities are not usually a priority area in schools, which deal with these situations, especially when they need to adapt the contents to the student being evaluated or, also, when they manifest disruptive behavior in the classroom.
This can be seen reflected in the graph shown by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Vocational Training, where we find 40,916 children with high capacities compared to 198,186 with learning disorders.
If we take the percentages into account, in Spain there are currently 0.7% of identified students. It is significantly less than the 2 or 3% that indicates, as a population mean, the Gaussian bell of intelligence on the Weschler Scale.
In addition, we can find higher values in intellectual disability (66,266) or in autism spectrum disorders (69,002).
The law does not oblige to accept the results of the external psycho-pedagogical reports, so it may happen that the management teams and guidance departments do not accept them.
For this reason, the ideal would be that once the external report has been obtained, the educational center should carry out a different intelligence test to verify that the data provided is correct. If, on the other hand, the data does not coincide with those of the external report, it will be necessary to wait two years to carry out another psychoeducational report again.
This statement is not contemplated in any educational law, but when families or teachers detect some characteristic feature of this specific need for educational support, they must evaluate said subject in the same way as they do with students who present other needs.
In other countries, such as Portugal, the identification of the special educational needs of students and decision-making on individual needs falls exclusively on the school.
In the US, teachers evaluate the domains or abilities and behaviors of students through an observation scale called Rating the Behavioral Characteristics of Superior Students, which measures learning, motivation, creativity, leadership, artistic, musical, dramatic, precision and expression of communication and planning. The study, evaluation and intervention of high abilities has a longer journey than in Spain and, therefore, its identification rate is around 1-2%. In this country, the intellectual index is around 125 on the Weschler scale.
The lack of identification in students with high abilities could be alleviated by establishing the obligation for teachers and guidance departments to evaluate the student in question and determine the appropriate intervention.
This article originally appeared on The Conversation.
Aroa Otero Rodriguez is a researcher in the department of Evolutionary Psychology and Communication at the University of Vigo
