F.A.Q.

Differentiation of teaching involves personalising and individualising the educational process according to the student's particularities. This differentiation stems from the need to respond effectively and in accordance with the needs of the pupils. We are all unique and none of us learns in the same way, so it is the teacher's duty to get to know their pupils and help them in their educational approach.

In the gifted program developed by the Kentucky Association for Gifted Children, differentiation is defined as "the method by which educators make a specific and planned match between abilities, interests, needs, and curriculum requirements for opportunities to enrich and accelerate the educational process." In other words, differentiation occurs both at the level of curriculum, content and approach. Children are unique, they learn at a different pace, they have different abilities and needs and therefore a different approach is needed. The teacher adapts objectives, working techniques, subject content, activities, assessment methods and even the working environment to ensure the best possible results.

Personalising education means modifying objectives according to the pupil's own way of functioning, so that they can be adjusted or accelerated according to competences, interests, motivations and potential.

Individualization refers to the set of instructional strategies that aim to ensure that students achieve the same learning goals, at different paces, at different times, and in different ways of thinking about cognitive styles.

According to the vision of several institutions involved in developing programs for gifted children, such as the Davidson Institute or the Kentucky Association for Gifted Children , "acceleration" is a strategy that allows students to move through a dimension of the educational process at a faster pace than the normal average.

There are several types of acceleration: Subject acceleration, in which the student reaches a higher level in one or more subjects of study, while maintaining the level in other subjects for the age of the student. Another form of acceleration is grade skipping, in which the pupil can skip a grade and go directly to a higher grade without taking the subjects corresponding to the grade skipped. Directly related to this form is early admission to school, whereby children aged 4-5 enter primary education. Another form is also the telescoping of two years into one (telescoping), either for one subject or for the whole subject associated with a class.

All these forms of acceleration of learning come as a natural response to the progress children make in their educational journey. Acceleration cannot be imposed, because its effectiveness is determined by the child's intellectual abilities and motivation. The educator or parent observes the child's particularities and only after it has been established that there is a need to restructure the level and complexity of the curriculum to suit the child's individual needs, is it then decided to introduce a faster pace.

The areas of study and subjects that TIS students study are based on an integrated, cross-curricular and international curriculum, specifically the National Curriculum and Common Core State Standards, USA.

We believe it is a number with many advantages. This is proven both by our own experience and by expert research.

There is no ideal number, some studies talk about 12 students, the NEA (National Education Association), which supports education specialists in the United States, proposes 15 as the optimal number.

The focus should be less on numbers and more on the effectiveness of working in small class sizes. Research has shown that students from small class sizes perform much better on tests than those from large class sizes. This is supported by the fact that the teacher spends more time on each pupil, observes and checks them more carefully, which allows the educational act to be more qualitative and, therefore, the pupils' results to be better. Pupils have much greater opportunities for involvement, can express themselves more freely and exchange ideas more easily. The small group provides the opportunity to create a community, with closer relationships. All this makes us realise that small numbers are an effective way for the principles of our educational philosophy to be assimilated.