Nuestra NEBRIJA 34 - julio 2020

46 "Normal" in school means diversity, and gifted students represent one of the greatest educational challenges of this "new normality". What have we learned during this time about this portion of the student body? According to some sources, it is estimated that approximately 15% of the population is gifted. Unfortunately, only 3% of people are identified as such. With the most recent data published by the Ministry of Education, only 35,494 gifted students were identified in Spain during the 2018-2019 academic year, which represent less than 0.5% of the total number of boys and girls in school. How do we refer to them? Identification problems come hand in hand with designation problems. There is no generalized criterion on how to refer to gifted students. The issue transcends the educational sphere, since different terms are used to refer to talent in both scientific and informative literature. Are these boys and girls gifted, have high abilities, talented, geniuses, eminences, prodigies or precocious? What is clear is that they are boys and girls with names and surnames in an educational system that must respond to their idiosyncrasy, regardless of the label that qualifies their talent. Giftedness is a potential to be developed that does not have to be linked to either high academic performance or high IQ. However, psychometric tests that determine IQ are still used to identify gifted students. And this is because the IQ, although not a sufficient condition for giftedness, is a necessary condition. Since confinement began in our lives after the emergence of covid-19, the habits of gifted children have undergone great changes. These changes have fully impacted their learning and their socio-emotional development. We must understand how the reality of gifted students was being managed from school before the pandemic, and we must assess how these students have developed their potential during confinement. In this way, we can have a more precise view on how to guide an inclusive education that is respectful of diversity in the aforementioned new normality. The environment and the development of talent The influence of the environment on talent development is a critical factor. From a negative perspective, the deprivation of an adequate educational context, the existence of hostile family environments, as well as the presence of physical, psychological or learning problems, can limit the development of cognitive potential. Seen from a more positive perspective, talent development is closely linked to environmental factors that have the ability to propel the person and boost their abilities. Some authors relate these drivers to the training of psychosocial and cognitive skills, and define coaches as agents of the gifted child's environment. Families, schools, communities and society have the power and responsibility to create opportunities for talent development. Gifted children need an environment that drives them. This period of socio-sanitary crisis has offered us an emergency learning space, and educational improvisation has sharply shown us digital, social, emotional, cultural and economic inequalities. We are nowmore aware than ever that widespread educational change is needed. Attention to gifted children must be a central part of this change in school, guided by an inclusive education. They have learned better than before In the current situation of remote education caused by the pandemic, and according to our observations, a large part of gifted students has G iftedness is a potential to be developed that does not have to be linked to either high academic performance or high IQ