Collaborating to meet the needs of gifted children in Brazil

Abstract

HE QUESTION OF COLLABORATION between universities and schools relates to some of the most significant topics in the field of educational research and knowledge production, topics that are currently being reappraised. The purpose of this article is to describe an experience of university/school collaboration in the form of a project developed specifically to explore ways of tailoring a primary school curriculum to the needs of gifted children. This is the only project of its kind in Brazil, and it differs from the approach to special education normally adopted by Brazilian schools in that it focuses on individuals with an above-average performance in addition to the usual attention paid to children with learning difficulties. The article analyzes the stumbling blocks and circumstances that favored the emergence of collaboration, as well as some of the benefits obtained from the experience, in terms of fuller integration between theory and practice in education and the establishment of a policy to provide for differences in individual learning potential. It is difficult to encompass the totality of this experience in an account written by only one participant. The project has been running for 10 years and currently involves nearly 50 people, who work in small teams and meet whenever required by the task