IDENTIFICATION OF POTENTIAL GIFTEDNESS: THE PROBLEMS OF METHODOLOGY AND RESEARCH EXPERIENCE.

This article deals with methodological issues related to the use of psychometric and non-psychometric approaches to the study of the core factors in the structure of giftedness (intellect, creativity, motivation). Based on the analysis of the results of existing foreign and national scientific research in this area, the main achievements and limitations of each approach are outlined. The methodology of the pilot research to identify the potentially gifted children among 473 adolescents and senior school students of various educational institutions (rural secondary schools and specialized school for gifted children) has been described. Using the standardized tests and the method of expert assessment, the key factors in the structure of giftedness (nonverbal intellect, creativity, motivation to succeed) have been studied and the peculiarities of their correlation have been described. Based on the data of the correlative study of the standardized methodology results, creativity was suggested to be positively correlated with the indicators of nonverbal intellect and motivation to achieving success and to play the key role in the structure of potential giftedness. A direct correlation between the nonverbal Creativity assessment test by F. Williams and Raven's Progressive Matrices was discovered. A direct correlation between the expert assessment of children's level of giftedness made by parents and teachers and the levels of the pupils' intellect and academic achievements has been found. At the same time, there was no correlation between the results of the standardized test, expert assessments and selfevaluation of the pupils for the indicator "creativity". Recommendations concerning a certain sequence of the diagnostic procedures when identifying the potentially gifted children and the priority of the psychometric approach to identifying the potentially gifted at the initial stage of monitoring have been formulated. A number of open issues concerning clarification of the concept «giftedness» and the scope of developing work with potentially gifted children have been identified as requiring further study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]