Psychological Developmental Characteristics of Supernormal Children in China and the Educational Implications
The report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China emphasized that"we will continue efforts to cultivate talent for the Party and the country and comprehensively improve our ability to nurture talent at home.All this will see us producing first-class innovators".Supernormal children are an important source of top-notch innovative talents and national strategic human resources,and are the main reserve force for the cultivation of top-notch innovative talents.Enhancing and optimizing the development of the education of supernormal children in the new era is the key link for China to realize the independent cultivation of talents,to cultivate a quality workforce,and to solve scientific and technological"bottleneck"problems.Reviewing the basic and applied research of the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in the past 40 years on the characteristics and mechanism of psychological development of supernormal children,assessment and selection,education model and evaluation of the effect of supernormal education,it was found that,China's collaborative group on research on supernormal children has conducted a series of longitudinal research and educational practices on the development of gifted children,and the results are consistent with the longitudinal research initiated by American psychologists since 1972.Specifically,high potential in the early stage of children's development can significantly predict their future outstanding creative achievements,professional leadership,life satisfaction,etc.The cognitive advantages of supernormal children are mainly manifested in high-difficulty and challenging tasks,especially those requiring more creative thinking.The cognitive ability of supernormal children developed better under the supernormal education system than under the general education system,and the negative emotions(anxiety,depression and loneliness)of supernormal children in the enriched education model were comparable to those of supernormal children and normal children in general education,and the developmental patterns are similar.The set of cognitive,non-intellectual and creativity assessment tools for the identification of supernormal children based on the basic research,and the exploration of the accelerated,enriched,skipped-grade,flexible and other modes of supernormal education in China,have achieved good results.Based on previous research,the following conclusions have been drawn.Early identification and cultivation of supernormal children is not only necessary but also feasible.Gifted children have the possibility to develop into top-notch innovative talents,while appropriate education and environment are important conditions for realizing this possibility;on the contrary,if gifted children are not provided with appropriate support,they may develop poorly or have problematic behaviors.Suggestions are as follows.Strengthen the policy and organizational guarantee for the education of supernormal children.Adopt a selection method that combines multiple indicators and multiple paths,static and dynamic.Select the mode of supernormal education according to local conditions and strengthen personalized education.Strengthen the cultivation of teachers for supernormal education.Carry out forward-looking longitudinal research and build a database on the development of supernormal children.Carry out empirical research on the selection of supernormal children and the evaluation of the effect of education.Strengthen the publicity for the developmental characteristics and special needs of supernormal children.
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