Phenomenon of Giftedness in Psychological and Pedagogical Studies

As Ukraine aspired for European integration, it faced a demand to update its educational sphere to facilitate the development of children’s skills, creativity, scientific and research knowledge, to provide for their self-education, self-actualisation and self-perfection. A new Ukrainian school shall establish conditions for comprehensive personal development as the highest value of the society based on revealing and developing person's skills, gifts and talents. The purpose of the article is to summarise the results of scientific surveys on the issue of giftedness, to analyse its aspects and essence. The material was compiled by means of the method of theoretical analysis and systematisation of the scientific sources, which enabled us to form basic research terms and define the essence of giftedness in order to effectively conduct activities with gifted children. We have analysed the definitions of the phenomena “giftedness”, “talent”, “genius”, “abilities”, “potential” and “a gifted child” in the modern scientific literature. We have provided approaches to interpret the notion “giftedness” and define the phenomenon under focus. The concepts of giftedness examined by Ukrainian and foreign researchers have been considered. Based on the analysis of the definitions of the notion “giftedness”, we have distinguished its essential features. The summarising of the scientific research allowed us to detect the components of giftedness for its further diagnostics. They shall include intellectual and cognitive, motivation-related and person-centred as well as creative aspects. Having analysed and summarised the compiled material, we revealed the types of giftedness, categories of gifted children and their peculiarities. Revealing the essence of the phenomenon “giftedness”, its factors, structure, components, kinds and types alongside the main features of gifted children will allow improving the efficiency of specialists’ work with gifted children and developing the skills and talents of the latter in future.