A powerful learning environment for cognitively strong pupils

When a flower doesn't bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower (Den Heijer, 2005). How can a powerful classroom learning environment meet the specific educational needs of each student and the support needs of education professionals? There is currently a growing attention and discussion regarding cognitively strong students and their needs in the current Flemish education system. Education professionals indicate that more attention should be paid to this “forgotten” group of students and indicate that cognitively strong students currently receive insufficient tailor-made education (Peuteman, 2019). The Flemish government also recognized this need and in April 2019 approved a resolution is good, so that more attention must be paid to the guidance of cognitively strong students in the coming years (Resolution on the detection, support and guidance of very easy learners and (exceptionally) gifted students, 2019).

Despite the endorsement of this problem by educational professionals, they often get lost in the development work of different individual pathways for cognitively strong students who need more challenge as well as providing reasonable accommodations for students with other special educational needs (Meirsschaut, Monsecour & Wilssens, 2015), as a result of which the focus on this first group may be lost. Within the broad basic care of the care continuum (Pameijer & et all., 2018), investments are made in a powerful learning environment in which stimulation, remediation, dispensing and compensation (Meirsschaut, Monsecour & Wilssens, 2013) are implemented, but what with an accelerated learning pace and a hunger for deepening and enrichment?

However, the few professionalization programs that are currently being organized for cognitively strong students are often not sustainable and not action-oriented (Pameijer & et all., 2018). These programs often start from the (stereotypical) image of a gifted student and thus threaten to get stuck in a very unequivocal interpretation of the needs of these students. Moreover, there are more cognitively strong students in a classroom context than one would expect (Peuteman, 2019). The central research question of this explorative study is: “How can we design a powerful learning environment in the classroom for cognitively strong students?”

We want to realize this powerful learning environment in an action-oriented (Pameijer & et all., 2018) way:

• By making education professionals aware of the importance of a powerful learning environment in the classroom (with a focus on intra-class differentiation), as a first step towards supporting cognitively strong students along with dealing with the special educational needs of each student;
• By responding to the specific support needs of teachers in function of cognitively strong students by concretizing their support needs;
• By providing tools to education professionals to respond to specific support needs;
• By empowering cognitively strong students to formulate their special educational needs within the classroom context.

The strength of this project lies in mapping the needs of teachers and students so that a powerful learning environment can be developed that responds to the development of challenging education in which the specific educational needs of the cognitively strong student and the support needs of the teacher are central. to stand. On the one hand, this involves strengthening broad basic care for cognitively strong pupils and, on the other hand, broadening the view of broad basic care, including strengthening intra-class differentiation. It is a project where not only the voice of the teacher is heard, but also the voice of the cognitively strong students is heard. Recent social discussions indicate that there are still many opportunities to further shape education for cognitively strong students (Peuteman, 2019). It is therefore important that Artevelde University College, as a major player in the Flemish educational landscape, takes the lead and takes on a real pioneering role in the development of pedagogical tools for education professionals in their work with cognitively strong students. This is in line with the Talent project, which is also supported by Artevelde University College as a valorisation partner.