Creativity and Education: Interactive Teaching Practices with a Gifted Student

Abstract

There is increasing recognition of the need to encourage students of diverse educational levels to develop independent and creative reasoning. Teachers are therefore fundamental mediators in the planning of teaching strategies intended to develop these competencies. Taking these assumptions as a reference, a study1 was developed with the aim of investigating the interactive dynamics used in a Brazilian school to work with a high ability/gifted student, as well as to identify how this student’s relations with other subjects at school (colleagues, teachers, deputy head teacher (pedagoga)) are established. The qualitative research method was used, collecting data based on semi-structured interviews, focusing on a case study. The study involved one gifted student, his parents, six teachers and one deputy head teacher (pedagoga). The study showed that despite getting on well with his teachers, he has difficulty in making friends with students of his age. With regard to his involvement at school, he performs mental calculations easily and expresses himself mathematically in a creative manner, proposing differentiated ways of solving problems in the classroom. Nevertheless, the study confirmed that some teachers still have difficulty in working with gifted students. On the other hand, despite the difficulties, some teachers have made efforts to develop teaching practices based on social interaction, enabling the sharing of knowledge and skills among students, in addition to encouraging students to seek meaning in what they study. These practices are similar to the quest for meanings that Vygotsky (1997, 2004, 2008, 2009) emphasizes. The conclusion is reached that encouraging and developing creative activities are fundamental elements for performance and the incorporation of meanings with regard to contents taught at school.