Gifted Education in the Republic of Tatarstan: New Challenges and Innovative Decisions

Abstract

The issues discussed in the paper are urgent as the Republic of Tatarstan (the RT), situated in the Volga Region of the Russian Federation, places a great emphasis on the correct identification and education of its gifted and talented (G/T) children and youth. Having achieved a considerable success in the field the RT, however, still faces a number of challenges for successful implementation of the decisions made on municipal, republican and federal levels. The aim of the research is to collect and analyze the main issues to tackle and challenges to meet in order to improve the work with G/T learners in the Republic of Tatarstan and about. The leading approach used by the authors was the descriptive method for observation and classification of the investigated material as well as interviewing, collecting, analyzing and synthesizing the data, received via interviews and questionnaire to summarize the general state of the G/T education in the Republic of Tatarstan. Thus the authors managed to define the main problems in the organization and implementation of work with gifted children in educational institutions of the Republic of Tatarstan; to interpret the results of a monitoring research on the quality of services in the field of education and to outline the possible fast track for boosting the system of identification and teaching the G/T students in the Republic of Tatarstan. The paper might be of interest for municipal, republican and national, public and independent institutions and organizations and individuals involved in nurturing the unique abilities and needs of a most valuable human resource of a country-the gifted and talented children and youth. Keywords: the gifted and talented (G/T) children and youth, school and further educational institutions, the Republic of Tatarstan (the RT) Conventionally, there are three categories of gifted children:  Children with unusually high general level of mental development, ceteris paribus. These children are most often found in the preschool and early school age (Shumakova, 2012);  Children with signs of a exceptional intelligence in a certain field of science-usually characteristic of teenagers (Terman, 1959 as cited in Pomortseva, 2014).  Underachievers, however, demonstrating bright cognitive activities, original mentality, extraordinary mental reserves-more common for high-school age (Heller, 1991). Modern trends of social development put new challenges before education marked by an increased interest in the gifted and talented children: away from focusing on the "average" student to the peculiarities of recognizing and developing their skills in the process and by means of education (Renzulli, 1998).