Educational experience of gifted students during the emergency remote education

Abstract

Although there have been many studies on the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and emergency remote education (ERE) on students, there has not been enough research about gifted students’ experience. This paper aims to understand gifted students’ perceptions of effective and ineffective school practices during ERE. Gifted students were recruited on the recommendation of school counselors based on students’ demonstrated exceptional abilities and achievements in one or more areas. Thus, purposive homogeneous sample of gifted students in Serbia consisted of 19 gifted students from elementary schools and 11 secondary school students. The conducted semi-structured interviews covered various themes related to students' school and out-of-school life during the pandemic, but for this paper we focused on qualitative data analysis of effective and ineffective school practices Thematic analysis yielded six themes referring to effective, engaging practices and eight themes referring to ineffective, disengaging practices. Gifted students positively assessed additional educational support, video conferencing and using LMS. Additional support was in the form of additional group or individual classes (in-person or online) or posting additional materials in LMS. However, students reported that additional classes were closely tied to competitions and that they are not organized regularly throughout the school year even in regular circumstances. Disengaging factors were predominantly related to traditional teaching methods and lack of interaction, absence of additional educational support from the school, difficult monitoring of assessment, epidemiological measures and lack of individualization and differentiation during the regular classes. Yet, many students showed understanding for teachers and have not developed negative emotions due to insufficient enrichment and support. In addition, when students initiated contact - teachers responded effectively. As a compensatory mechanism, younger students mentioned support from family, while secondary school students managed to improve their self-regulation and employ new learning strategies. We conclude that gifted students were not recognized as a vulnerable group, being left to organize themselves. Future studies should explore their needs related to ERE more deeply and acknowledge the perspectives of their teachers.