Problems to discover and to boost mathematical talent in early grades: A Challenging Situations Approach

Several studies of mathematical giftedness conducted in the past two decades reveal the importance of creation of learning and teaching environment favourable to the identification and nurturing mathematically talented students. Based on psychological, methodological and didactical models created by Krutetskii (1976), Shchedrovtiskii (1968), Brousseau (1997) and Sierpinska (1994), we have developed our challenging situation approach. During 7 years of field study in the elementary K-6 classroom, we collected sufficient amount of data that demonstrate how these challenging situations help to discover and to boost mathematical talent in very young children keeping and increasing their interest towards more advanced mathematics curriculum. In this article, we are going to present our model and illustrate how it works in the mixed-ability classroom. We will also discuss different roles that teachers and students might play in this kind of environment and how each side could benefit from it.