Padua – May 18-26 was Gifted Awareness Week, a period in which we celebrate and discuss specially-gifted people, who account for about 5 per cent of the population.
Special giftedness is often linked to IQ, and children with it are intellectually advanced, often in a way that allows them to excel during their formal education. Their intelligence may also be accompanied by creativity and skills in visual and performing arts.
Another common characteristic among gifted children is emotional disharmony and a sensitivity that leads them to experience their emotions very intensely. This can result in behaviors are often perceived as ‘exaggerated’ by observers.
Alice Azzalini is a high school English teacher in Padua. She’s just completed her doctorate at the University of Padua with a dissertation on teaching languages to gifted high school students, entitled Teaching Languages to Raise Talent: An Inclusive and Interdisciplinary Research on Verbal Giftedness in the Upper Secondary School.
During her doctoral years, Azzalini worked alongside Alberta Novello, professor of Modern Language Didactics at the Department of Linguistic and Literary Studies at the University of Padua.
Novello is an expert in the field and the first in Italy to write a book on giftedness in the context of language learning called The Inclusive Language Class. Students with Very High Abilities. The book was published by Mondadori University and will soon be released in English.
“I wanted to study this category of learners that’s rarely talked about in Italy, so I applied to Padua precisely because I wanted to collaborate with Professor Novello, who’s the leading expert in Italy,” Azzalini explained.
“I was lucky enough to work with her for three years, presenting my doctoral thesis last February.”
Historically, gifted children had been so rarely discussed in Italy they were only included in the list of special needs in 2019.
“Italian teachers don’t know [the signs] and don’t recognise them,” said Azzalini. “For me, the doctorate was very useful because it really helped me understand the characteristics of gifted children.”
Azzalini conducted her research through direct observation, spending time in three different classes at a high school and using non-traditional techniques. Thanks to her time there, Azzalini managed to identify not only a group of capable children, but also a boy with very high intellectual potential.
To be able to identify and stimulate gifted students, language teachers should “alternate closed tasks with open ones, [as opposed to burdening] children with closed grammatical exercises”.
“[Teachers should] give space to glotto-didactic techniques that give [students] the possibility of [cultivating] open responses,” added Azzalini.
“[This not only helps their] understanding, but also critical thinking and problem solving.
“Exercises can be constructed where the student must find answers to existing community problems, for example ‘how to get young people into politics’, [inviting them] to create slogans.
“[Teachers should also use] engaging activities that lead to a much more meaninful use of the second language.”
Azzalini says that gifted children, in addition to having a high cognitive intelligence, also have strong emotional intelligence.
“And this aspect usually isn’t considered. They have very strong empathy towards others, nature and the environment.
“It’s as if they see reality through a microscope that leads them to analyse words and emotions in great detail compared to their peers,” she continued.
“This means that, verbally, they use language very early, grasping all those nuances of meaning and understanding abstract concepts that usually appear later in life.”
Azzalini’s passion for the topic also inspired her to write a fairytale to tell the story of a gifted child.
“Because there’s very little research on giftedness in very young children of pre-school age, I hope that the fairytale of Gioda, an unconventional little mouse, reaches families and teachers.”
