Author(s): Davut HOTAMAN
School programs provide the guidelines for transforming the desired features of education into permanent changes in behavior through learning experiences. As well as being instructive in educational activities, programs constitute a necessity in terms of education’s function of deliberate enculturation. However, education programs which are prepared considering group education cause inequality of opportunities for students who do not possess the qualities of an average individual (such as grasping power, learning skills, interest and motivation, etc.). When the fact that each student with a need of education and learning is essentially unique is considered, it is easy to come to the conclusion that these students will not have equal opportunities in benefiting from similar learning experiences. When practices are considered, it is seen that even though each and every student at a school live through the same learning experiences, they cannot benefit equally from these experiences and not all the students can improve their individual features to their biological limits. Thus, the need for schools and programs which offer educational opportunities for the students in accordance with their abilities and learning paces should be considered as a legal and educational right in terms of equal opportunities in education. In this process, talented or gifted children who are important for the development of their societies and all humanity are a neglected and lost minority. For the solution of today’s problems, it is necessary that education programs for talented and gifted students are revised to offer equal opportunities. The equal opportunities concept which is emphasized here infers equal opportunities “which preserve and promote individual differences” rather than “the same opportunities for everyone”. Today, the efficiency of an education program is closely related to the fact that whether it provides educational experiences which regard and promote individual differences. Educationists should aim to develop programs which offer self-improvement opportunities to talented and gifted students
The Journal of International Social Research received 7760 citations as per Google Scholar report
