Shadow Education for Gifted and Highly Motivated Learners

Abstract

This chapter focuses on shadow education for gifted and highly motivated students. The authors explain that little research exists on the topic because existing research on shadow education tends to take an educational equality perspective. In their effort to understand how gifted and highly motivated learners learn in shadow education spaces, the authors thus draw from their fieldwork in South Korea. They first provide the general features of gifted education in South Korea. Then, they discuss how the various forms of shadow education in South Korea help gifted and highly motivated students with their academic success. The authors describe many teaching and learning materials, teaching methods, and curricula that are used in the shadow education sector, which are generally not found in public schooling. These distinctive features of shadow education provide gifted and highly motivated students with tools and skills they cannot obtain elsewhere.