Digital Differentiation Strategies for Educating Gifted Students

International Psychological Forum Child in a Digital World 1-2 June 2025 The Role of Teachers Digital Competencies in School Education of Gifted Students Petrova Svetlana Ph.D., Senior Researcher, Laboratory of Giftedness Psychology, Federal Scientific Center of Psychological and Multidisciplinary Research, Moscow, Russia ,

International Psychological Forum Child in a Digital World 1-2 June 2025 INTRODUCTION Intellectually gifted students require differentiated education beyond general school program because of their exceptional cognitive abilities, needs, interests, and other features. Moreover, they can exhibit extreme variance in their characteristics, which require particular and continued differentiation of education. Modern development of technology provides for this purpose extended application of the digital tools, methods, and resources within and outside the classroom on the grounds of diversified school teaching strategies.

International Psychological Forum Child in a Digital World 1-2 June 2025 Digital differentiation strategies for the content, difficulty, depth, pacing through acceleration or enrichment can be successfully implemented in classroom and distant environment. However, the teacher still retains a key role in integrating these technologies into learning innovations and into students' cognitive and personal development. That is why additionally to pedagogical competence, digital competence of teacher is becoming the most important for teaching advancement with help of the new technologies.

International Psychological Forum Child in a Digital World 1-2 June 2025 The purpose of our study is to submit the issues of digital differentiation as the educational strategy applied in school education of intellectually gifted students; and the approaches to development of pedagogical and digital competencies of school teachers of intellectually gifted students in the context of professional training of educators.

International Psychological Forum Child in a Digital World 1-2 June 2025 The main methods: The analytical review of the latest (2020-2025) domestic and foreign publications from leading journals on the employment of digital technology for learning differentiation in gifted education. A survey of teachers about the advantages and disadvantages of their professional preparation for the use of digital technologies in teaching intellectually gifted students.

International Psychological Forum Child in a Digital World 1-2 June 2025 The main results: Evidence of many studies demonstrates the variety of possibilities for intellectually gifted students to improve own knowledge and skills using the digital technologies. Analytical review of recent publications on research results in many countries confirms, that the strategies of digital differentiation in the depth, breadth, pacing, and difficulty of lesson content can be effectively carried out in classrooms and in distant environment.

International Psychological Forum Child in a Digital World 1-2 June 2025 Digital competency is considered by most researchers as an integration of knowledge, abilities, strategies, and perspectives, and also the awareness for employment of digital media. Digital competency of educators is characterized by their capabilities to integrate digital technology in own teaching practices, supported by a strong pedagogical foundation and an awareness of its role in enhancing learning strategies and fostering students digital skills.

International Psychological Forum Child in a Digital World 1-2 June 2025 The survey of school teachers (postgraduate students) allows us approve that the most of them successfully use of digital tools for differentiation in enrichment and complication of teaching process for gifted students. In addition, the respondents and many articles analyzed point to teachers demands to enhance their digital competency through specific practical and experiential training.

International Psychological Forum Child in a Digital World 1-2 June 2025 Thus, teachers digital competency has become a crucial professional expertise of leveraging the educational opportunities offered by digital tools and advancements. To achieve this, teachers must continuously enhance their knowledge, skills, and digital competencies by integrating the latest teaching and learning innovations. It is especially important to include this knowledge in the process of improving the qualifications of teachers. Doing so enables the teachers to cultivate high ability, creative, and innovative students produced high-quality outputs.

International Psychological Forum Child in a Digital World 1-2 June 2025 CONCLUSION Digital technologies have shown a powerful impact on the education system as a necessary factor toward a successful learning process, especially in enhancing the students knowledge and skills development. Its play an important role in development gifted and talented students who have unique learning needs that are often overlooked in the traditional education setting.

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