DEVELOPMENT OF METHODOLOGIES FOR IDENTIFICATION AND MONITORING GIFTED UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS

Abstract

It is noticeable the growth in research projects and support activities to promote the inclusion of individuals attendees of special education services in the regular schools in Brazil. Although these efforts, there is a lack of researches on the identification and educational programs addressed to gifted youngsters and adults, especially for those individuals engaged in undergraduate programs. Brazilian universities do not have instruments and methodologies to identify gifted individuals, training programs for professionals to deal with these individuals and educational programs designed to the needs of gifted undergraduate students. Some gifted undergraduate students have lack of motivation for studies and emotional problems which may result in some cases to abandonment of the undergraduate programs or low academic performances. The proposed research project will address the identification of gifted undergraduate students, the development of a monitoring program for these students and preparation of tutorials and support materials to be used in course of undergraduate programs devoted to prepare future teachers. The public of the research project will be professors and fresh students of the undergraduate programs of the Federal University of ABC (UFABC), where around 2000 undergraduate students are engaged every year, which already detected the need of developing actions in favor of gifted students. This project will nucleate a new research field in UFABC, a new public university in the State of São Paulo. As a new university, UFABC is still structuring and consolidating its research activities, which justifies the submission of this research proposal to the Young Researchers in Emerging Centers Program of FAPESP. The implementation of this line of research in UFABC will make possible the development of efficient methodology to identify gifted students and create a program to allow these students to fully develop their academic potentials, emotional stability and professional skills. In the future, this program can be expanded to other interested universities, through the development of informative materials of the program and establishment of scientific partnerships.