Alunos sobredotados : a aceleração escolar como resposta educativa

Abstract

A educação dos alunos sobredotados tem justificado uma preocupação crescente por parte dos políticos e dos profissionais da educação, assim como dos investigadores nos domínios da Turma), Escala de Auto-Conceito para Crianças e Préadolescentes de Susan Harter ( Self-Perception Profile for Children), e uma entrevista semi-estruturada aos pais. Os resultados obtidos apontam para diferenças estatisticamente significativas a favor dos alunos acelerados nas provas psicológicas aplicadas e nas percepções das suas habilidades cognitivas e académicas por parte dos professores. Esta diferença sugere que níveis superiores de habilidade cognitiva, no momento da avaliação para suporte à decisão de aceleração escolar, permanecem em idades posteriores, parecendo essa superioridade ser mais acentuada nas provas psicológicas de conteúdo verbal (maior associação às actividades curriculares). As diferenças a favor dos alunos acelerados ocorrem seja na área intelectual mais orientada para o pensamento convergente, seja nas tarefas mais voltadas para a avaliação da criatividade. Esta superioridade ocorre, também, na generalidade das matérias curriculares, exceptuando a Educação Visual e Tecnológica e a Educação Física, assim como nas várias dimensões do auto-conceito, em particular nas dimensões “Competência Escolar”, “Aceitação Social” e “Auto-Estima Geral”. Finalmente, os pais mostram-se satisfeitos com esta medida educativa, estando os casos de insatisfação parental associados a acelerações escolares mais justificadas por razões de idade do que da precocidade do desenvolvimento da criança, o que aliás contraria o sentido da legislação.

The education of gifted students has accounted for an increasing concern in sociopolitical and educational fields, as well as in research in psychology and educational sciences. Some difficulties arise from the delimitation of the concept when a complex and multidimensional reality is in question. Other difficulties stem from the definition of an appropriate process of identification and consequent specification of the educational practices most adjusted to each student. Taking these concerns, the theoretical part of the thesis is centered on definition, identification and intervention, the empirical part focusing on two central objectives: (i) to study the functioning of some psychological tests for the identification of potentially gifted students, and (ii) to assess the impact of academic acceleration in terms of the psychosocial and academic adjustment of students. The sample was formed by students who were attending the 2nd Cycle of Basic Teaching (5th and 6th grades), in state-run as well as private schools in the districts of Braga, Viana do Castelo and Porto. The experimental group was comprised of 107 accelerated students (by early entrance to grade school or skipping one year of primary schooling). A comparison group was comprised of 120 students from the same classes of the previous group, who did not however benefit from academic acceleration. Several instruments of psychosocial and educational evaluation were considered in this research: Reasoning Tests Battery 5/6 (BPR-5/6), Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children - WISC-III (some subtests), Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (some subtests), Scales for the Identification of Gifted and Talented Students – Cognitive and Learning Abilities (assessment by class Director), Self-Perception Profile for Children , and a semi-structured interview with the parents. The results suggest significant differences in favour of the accelerated students in the psychological tests applied and in teacher perception concerning their cognitive and academic skills. These differences provide evidence that superior levels of cognitive ability, at the moment of the evaluation that supported the decision of academic acceleration, remain in subsequent ages, this superiority seeming to be more accented in the psychological tests of verbal content (more associated with curricular activities). The differences in favour of the accelerated students occur either in the intellectual domain, more oriented towards convergent reasoning, or in the tasks more related to creativity. This superiority occurs, also, in the generality of the curricular matters, excepting Visual and Technological Education and Physical Education, as well as in some dimensions of the self-concept, especially in the dimensions “School Competence”, “Social Acceptance” and “General Self-Esteem”. Finally, parents show satisfaction with this educational provision, the cases of parental dissatisfaction being associated with acceleration practices more motivated by the child’s age than they are by the precociousness of development, a fact that contradicts the sense and logic of national laws that should be applied to these cases.