This paper conceptually defines the categories of giftedness and creativity and associates them with the role of teachers and students in their realization in the process of education. It examines the basic abilities that a teacher should possess and the methods that should be used for proper identification of students’ potential and for their overall development. Giftedness is not reduced to the rational intelligence but is understood in the context of wider spiritual content for the identification of which the enhanced creative sensibility of teachers is essential.
Ways in which teachers can encourage students' creative energy are: a) recognizing wonderment as the basic cognitive impulse, b) identifying and motivating curiosity as a good way of introducing the process of free-thinking, c) developing the gift of observation as an ability of keen sensual and spiritual perception, with which one can discover latent creative energy, d) fostering eloquence as the basis for successful development of verbal communication skills, f) strengthening moral qualities as an assumption of feelings of safety, empathy, motivation of the spirit of tolerance and formation of a positive attitude to life.

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Research studies on teaching practice have shown that not enough attention is paid to the problem of children?s creativity development in our schools in spite of the fact that the development of creative potentials in preschool institutions and school figures as one of the priority educational tasks. The perceptions of creativity and creative potentials of future kindergarten and class teachers can serve as an important basis for encouraging the development of their professional competences. This research was aimed at examining students? knowledge and beliefs on creativity, obtaining self-assessment of their own creative potentials and determining the level of expression of students? creativity based on their abilities of creative problem-solving. The sample included the students of the Faculty of Pedagogical Sciences in Jagodina and Teacher Training College in Vranje (N=300). For examining students? creative potentials we used the Epstein Creativity Competences Inventory and a version of the Saugstad & Rahaim Problem Solving Tests. Research results have confirmed that students possess the knowledge and the beliefs compatible with the modern scientific beliefs on creativity. They assess their own creative potentials as very high and they do possess them. The obtained results can serve as a better foundation for working with students towards fostering the development of their creative potentials and professional competences. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 179034: Od podsticanja inicijative, saradnje, stvaralastva u obrazovanju do novih uloga i identiteta u drustvu i br. 47008: Unapredjivanje kvaliteta i dostupnosti obrazovanja u procesima modernizacije Srbije]

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The aim of this research was to examine whether the development of cognitive abilities of students can be encouraged under the influence of didactic games. The research was conducted on a sample of 163 first grade primary school pupils and an experiment with parallel groups was applied. The results obtained have shown that there is a statistically significant difference (r=0.000 < 0.05) between the achievements of the experimental and control groups in recognizing, naming, abstracting, forming and defining geometric shapes. Hence, this proved that the possibility of applying this approach at the beginning of schooling should be considered.