Mentorship Program in Gifted Education: An International Review

Abstract

Although some of the innate dispositions of each child are similar, gifted children differ from their peers in terms of cognitive, psychomotor, emotional and social development levels. It is very important to support gifted children from emotional and social aspect as well as cognitive development to develop healthy personality. Mentoring program in terms of self-discovery and support of psychosocial development is being implemented in the education of gifted students in many developed countries, especially in the USA. The purpose of this study is to explore the mentoring program in gifted education in the international context. The document analysis was used in this study. The study consists of three parts. The first part covers mentoring in gifted education while second part explicates the implementation phases of mentorship programs. Finally, the third part reviews mentorship programs for the gifted children in the international context. According to the information obtained from this study, it can be said that mentoring is a powerful model for enhancing gifted education and a successful mentorship program requires a careful planning of each and every stage.