Primary school teachers’ knowledge about high-ability students in Milan (Italy)

Primary school teachers should be skilled on the topic of high abilities, since they are the first in detecting students with these characteristics and must be able to identify them and address their needs. For this, training in this regard by teachers is necessary, as well as sufficient resources in educational centres to be able to address the peculiarities of students with high abilities. A contextualization of high intellectual ability in the Italian regulatory system has been carried out. To this end, a structured questionnaire was designed for primary school teachers, consisting of 13 questions on socio-demographic aspects and 28 on topics related to the study. The quantitative methodological approach of the research has allowed the collection and analysis of a large quantity of data with a great applied projection. The findings are of great practical importance, as they highlighted how the predisposition and openness towards new knowledge and methodologies seems linked to the personality and sensitivity of the individual teacher. Furthermore, a significant number of primary school teachers in the study have never participated in training courses on the topic of high intellectual ability. A broader view of the primary school context is provided. Despite being a topic that most have at least heard of, upon reading the information collected more carefully, it is actually superficial knowledge and sometimes distorted by prejudices.