Critique of the French official Vademecum 'Educating a Gifted Student (EHP)'

The critique of the presented document primarily focuses on its main objective, which is to "train" teachers on the functioning of gifted children in a learning process and to guide them on actions to implement based on different situations or problems.
The Importance of Teacher Training and Willingness in the Education of Gifted Students (EHP, EIP, HPI, Gifted)

If you are interested in this topic, you likely know that official texts state that any teacher with a gifted student in their class is required to undergo training. Generally, this training is available on the Éduscol website and through a Vademecum.

In the Vademecum "Educating a Gifted Student (EHP)," it states: "Each teacher must ensure the inclusion of the gifted student in their class, undergo training, change, and offer pedagogical differentiation by leveraging the student's strengths."

This sounds perfectly well-intentioned, but in practice, the first question to ask is whether this training is sufficient. What will it concretely allow the teacher to implement, and with what effects?

When consulting the Vademecum, by reading the table of contents, you notice there are only two scant pages on pedagogical adaptations, pages 9 and 10. This directly impacts what the teacher can propose and implement.
Is the Training Sufficient?

To determine if training is sufficient, in the world of adult education, it involves an iterative process with a feedback session to ensure the relevance and effectiveness of the training.

In our case, let's minimize our expectations and try to define if it at least allows the teacher to understand the student, their actions, and their results to precisely define their skills. Is the teacher trained to evaluate a gifted student?

This raises another question: how to distinguish between a gifted student who has the skills but doesn't want to exert effort and another who lacks the skills, using a standard evaluation given to all students in a class?
The Central Issue of Skill Evaluation

Fine-tuned evaluation of skills is crucial here because a poor assessment of skills will lead to an array of accommodations that may not be beneficial.

This teacher training is essential to understand more precisely the situation and any potential problems as well as the learning specificities, among other things. This is what will allow a fair evaluation of the problem, but it is not enough. The teacher must also spend time observing and questioning the student.
1. The Nature of Teacher Training

So, what does the Vademecum of the Ministry of National Education, the primary training tool for teachers, contain? A lot of important things, without going into detail, a quick look at the table of contents gives us an idea:

    The Gifted Student
    A. What is a gifted student (EHP)?
    B. How to identify a gifted student (EHP)?
    The Schooling Paths of Gifted Students (EHP)
    A. What is the official framework for the schooling of a gifted student (EHP)?
    B. How to adjust and adapt the school curriculum?
        Pedagogical differentiation
        Tutoring by adults
        Enriching the curriculum
        Unstreaming
        Accelerating the curriculum
        Implementing a dedicated space
        C. What tools are available to formalize the paths for the gifted student?
        The personalized educational success program (PPRE)
        The personalized support plan (PAP)
    The Actors Involved in the Schooling and Support of Gifted Students
    A. Who are the actors involved in identifying a gifted student?
        The family or the legal guardian of the student
        Identification by a psychologist
        B. Who are the actors involved in the school path of the gifted student?
        The role of the academic referent
        The role of the school principal or the head of the institution
        The specialized aid networks for students in difficulty (RASED)
        The role of the national education doctor
        The role of the national education nurse
        The role of external partners working with the gifted student
        The involvement of associations
    Conclusion

By reading the table of contents, you can see it is a guide for identifying, making class-level accommodations, and generally managing gifted children.

Parents interested in delving into the accommodation elements should refer to chapter 2, section B: "How to adjust and adapt the school curriculum?"

Let's look at this in detail since it concerns the teacher's qualification to supervise a gifted student, which is the focus of this article.

We find five types of accommodations: pedagogical differentiation, tutoring by adults, curriculum enrichment, unstreaming, and curriculum acceleration.

Pedagogical Differentiation

The text explains what pedagogical differentiation is: "Pedagogical differentiation can range from task adaptation to accelerated progression in one or more subjects based on the student's pace."

A very general statement, lacking detail and prompting many questions. What indicators determine if a task needs adapting? Why these indicators? How to ensure the analysis? In what manner? For what purpose? How is this task adapted and why? Similar questions can be asked about accelerated progression or evaluating the student's pace.

One thing is clear: even without precise elements, the success of this action depends mainly on the teacher's informed eye, how accurately they identify problems, and how deeply they explore the issue. We can imagine that different task adaptation types are explained in another document.

Tutoring by Adults

This is mainly for methodological problems. However, it warrants another article on which methodologies to propose in different situations and why.

Secondary benefits of tutoring are also mentioned, but they are not relevant to this article.

Curriculum Enrichment

This mainly involves offering enrichments in learning, categorized into three types with examples of what could be implemented. However, once again, nothing is indicated about specific indicators to be vigilant about to decide whether to propose type I, II, or III enrichment depending on the situation. Is the teacher able to understand what to do and why, and explain it to the parents when the time comes?

Unstreaming

It is explained that this allows great flexibility and should be implemented as often as possible. It involves having the student take certain lessons in another class to better align with their level.

Again, evaluating the student's skills and general level is crucial, and any error in analysis, deepening, or evaluation by the teacher will prevent unstreaming, even if it might have been appropriate.

Curriculum Acceleration

Different types of acceleration are presented, from simple grade skipping to cycle compaction and enrolling in a mixed-grade class. It is specified that this must meet the student's knowledge expectations, bringing us back to the question of skill evaluation by the teacher, which conditions this curriculum acceleration.

Three fundamental points are also highlighted: acceleration can be a response for some seemingly underperforming gifted students who may have disengaged from schoolwork; their actual level of academic achievement is often difficult to estimate and can differ from IQ-type evaluations; and it is necessary to anticipate grade skipping.

Conclusion

Therefore, we can confidently answer: The teacher is not trained through the Vademecum to evaluate the skills of a gifted student!

They are only trained to identify a gifted student in a class and are informed about five types of accommodations, but not to identify specific indicators in the student's work or to ask type-specific questions depending on the situations to deepen understanding and grasp the origin and reality of the problem or difficulty identified, and to bring relevant solutions.

There is absolutely nothing about indicators or evaluation methods to accurately define skills.