The National Mentoring Program was created in 2009 by the Division for Gifted and Outstanding Students in the Ministry of Education and is implemented by the Szold Institute. The program aims to cultivate future leaders in Israel. Highly gifted 10th and 11th graders are matched with top rate professionals in students’ areas of interest. They work for a year on a project of mutual interest. Forty-four per cent of students live in geographical or social periphery. The article details program rationale and phases, and presents results of qualitative program evaluation. Each of the 50 students who completed the first three cohorts of the program produced high quality university level work. Some students also received significant recognition by the professional community, publishing their work and presenting it in professional conferences.
• Three major dilemmas: Is there a need for special education for gifted and talented children? What is the best kind of program for gifted and talented students? Which approach should be used to identify gifted students, quantitative or qualitative? Which criteria should be used, absolute or relative?
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.