Opportunities and Challenges of Working with Gifted Learners: A Systematic Review

Diversity is a unique characteristic of gifted learners who contribute significantly to developing their nations and innovation and reforming the world. However, existing studies show that these people need more proper handling of their emotional, social, and academic needs and teaching frameworks according to their needs. Teaching intervention is a specially designed program targeting individuals to improve their socio-emotional skills and academic performance. Thus, this study intends to explore various needs and challenges of gifted learners and address them with teaching interventions and frameworks explored by researchers in educational contexts. The study focused on two questions: addressing the needs and challenges of gifted learners in academic canvas and researchers' efforts regarding teaching interventions for gifted learners in existing literature. The paper follows the Systematic Literature Review. Research papers were collected with the help of Google Scholar and Mendeley Search Engine. The reference management was done with the help of another engine, Zotero. A total of 25 research papers were reviewed out of 1478, published between 2020- 2024. The inclusion criteria for paper selection were (i) full-length accessible papers, (ii) papers published during 2020-2024, (iii) papers that worked on needs, challenges, and interventions for gifted learners, (iv) middle school, and (v) preferred in English language only. Findings can be concluded from various studies supporting their emotional needs, such as developing psychosocial skills, aspirational counseling, empathetic companionship, and positive interaction with teachers. Social needs were found in bridging the gap between school and home, social connectedness, social acceptance, developing social skills, social justice, and mixed-ability classrooms. Some studies supported the idea that need-based differentiation, goal orientation, good training and competition, self-regulated learning intervention, and challenging problems are the academic needs of gifted learners. It is found that interventions are essential to address needs and overcome challenges the gifted learners face.