The Limits of Traditional Assessment and Identification of Gifted children in a Brazilian “Favela”

Abstract

This paper analyzes some of the difficulties occurred during the process, still in the beginning, of extending the activites of a successful program for middle-class gifted students to a favola (slum) population. It presents some preliminary results of a quantitative/qualitative research that focuses the problems related to the use (or misuse) of traditional evaluation procedures in the identification of poor gifted children. The main purpose of the research is to point out some aspects that should be carefully analyzed to avoid not only the simple transposition of assessment procedures from one context to other, but also its consequences, such as discrimination and prejudice.