Self-knowledge education: Educating gifted children in Singapore on their hemispheric functioning

Abstract

With the advent of a new millennium, new forms of education are needed to meet the exigencies of the times. This paper proposes to include human education, specifically the education on self-knowledge, in the school curriculum as a catalyst to speed up the development of gifts and talents and hence the realisation of human potential. The entire series of self- knowledge lessons include knowledge of the gifted pupil’s character composition, brain functioning preferences and intellectual attributes, moral and volitional attributes, social abilities, and other personal and interpersonal skills. A total of 497 Primary 5 pupils in nine schools hosting the Gifted Education Programme (GEP) in Singapore were taught a series of self-knowledge lessons over a one-year period. This paper will discuss the profiles of the gifted pupils in terms of their preferred hemispheric functioning and how such awareness could enhance their academic performance.