KAUNAS UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGIES VAIŽGANTAS PROGYMNASIUM
Dovile Valiune
KTU Vaizgantas progymnasium
Skuodas str. 27
Kaunas, LT-45131
Lithuania
We teach 6-14-year-old students. KTU Vaižgantas Progymnasium is a municipal school of general education. It was founded in 1920. The school has been actively working with Kaunas University of Technologies.
The strategy of progymnasium is to recognize and educate gifted and unusually gifted students. In the future, to create an integral model of general education for (unusually) gifted students at school in order to make their socialization easier
KTU Vaizgantas progymnasium has been taken care of the gifted students and also of boosting of teachers competences in this feeld since 2011. Education program for gifted students and workgroup are implemented since 2013. In order to identify unusually gifted students we have four stage selection. We assess creativity, thinking and intellectual abilities. According to these results, we make individual education programs. A psychologist, teachers, student and his parents are involved in this process. Students in grades 5-8 prepare their career plan at the end of the school year, gifted students make their education programs at the beginning of the school year and evaluate themselves at the end of the school year.
In 2015, the first project “The UniJunior”, initiated by KTU Vaižgantas Progymnasium and KTU, took place. The event was attended by representatives of universities and schools that have signed or co-signed their cooperation agreements with them. During the event, the heads of universities and schools agreed to discuss the issues of gifted children education in Lithuania.
KTU Vaizgantas progymnasium has initiated and organized the discussion „The insights of of the teaching of the gifted students“ on the 11th of June, 2015. The representatives from the Municipality of Kaunas city took part along with the representatives of Kaunas University of Technology, Vytautas Magnus University, the Lithuanian University of Health Science and Lithuanian Sports University (25 delegates in total).
As a result of the discussion, the new working group on the search of the gifted and talanted students and their recognision, the system creation and the boosting of the avalability for such students at schools has been created on the basis of the order of the manager of Kaunas city Educational Departament.
Main activities during the last year:
- Progymnasium has initiated a work group “Gifted and talented children, how to find them, how to acknowledge them, and how to maintain a system for schools” of education facilities in Kaunas since 2015. The activities inspired a “Program of Interdisciplinary and especially gifted students” in 2017.
- Erasmus +Ka2 project “Let’s become mathematicians, shall we?” (1-8 grades) of schools’ partnership and students’ mathematical and logical skills improvement began in 2017 (E. Grinkevičienė, J. Stankaitienė + work group).
- The experience of gifted children “Navigation for a gifted teenager towards a good school” was presented in national exhibition “SCHOOL 2017” on the 23rd-24th of November in 2017 (L.Merfeldienė, R.Songailienė + work group).
- Psychologist Valiūnė, D. “Mokyklos psichologo darbas su gabiais mokiniais” (School psychologist work with gifted students) by Juknienė, R., Valiūnė, D. and others. “Psichologas ugdymo įstaigoje. Praktiko užrašai” (Psychologist at the educational institution. The notes of the practitioners), 2018.
Several important achievements by our students during 2017:
- 2017 November 25th – Martynas Janušaitis won 3rd place in National Students’ Academy fifth mathematics competition for 11-12 years old.
- 2017 November 30th – our 13-year-old student Radvilas Rumšas won the 1st place in “Žiburys” mathematicians’ competition created for 14-18-year-old students.
- 2017 Justė Tamošuitytė (J. Stankaitienė) won the 2nd place and Marija Laurinaitytė (A. Venclovienė) won the 3rd place in National digital postcard creating competition “Lithuania’s Hill Forts”.
We are looking for potential partners and participants who work with students of similar age groups for future projects.