"<< Background >>How to respond to the different academic needs of gifted and talented students within academically mixed classrooms is an outstanding teaching challenge. Research indicates that gifted and talented students learn differently and have unique academic and socio-emotional needs. However, these pupils often do not receive specific support in school. Most gifted students, especially those who present a twice exceptional profile and/or came from disadvantaged socio-cultural backgrounds, are hidden in the classroom. The lack of identification can lead to dramatic trajectories of school disaffection, school dropout, and the onset of severe psychological distress. Since 1994 the Council of Europe recognized the special educational needs of gifted and talented students, encouraging all EU countries to define educational measures to support their growth through identification procedures and teaching strategies. However, teachers in Europe do not receive proper education concerning gifted and talented pupils during their education and ongoing in-service training. This lack of training can lead teachers to focus on their personal beliefs about how giftedness displays, identifying only students who meet their expectations. The gifted and talented are a highly heterogeneous group of students who, unlike common stereotypes, can have different profiles, come from any life context, nationality, ethnicity, and socio-economic background. Teachers tend to have low self-esteem in identifying the personal characteristics of gifted students and the appropriate use of teaching strategies when working with them in an inclusive classroom. This can negatively impact the students' whole school experience, especially of the most fragile. Many teachers are still not trained to respond to gifted and talented students' socio-emotional and cognitive special needs: this is true also for all the countries involved in the GIFTED project. Some partners are involved in teacher education and still do not have a formal course on gifted and talented education for preservice and in-service teachers. Thus, the project GIFTED - Game and Inclusion For Teacher Education will address the need for training teachers in gifted and talented education. The goal is to design and implement an innovative online training programme that can support teachers' skills development in gifted and talented education. This digital game-based learning environment will promote the experiential learning of teachers, giving them tools to recognize these students, interact with them and tailor their learning experience in an inclusive classroom context. The game-based training is also aimed at stimulating self-reflective practice, problem-solving, decision-making, and creativity in teaching. One of the added values of digital training tools is implementing game-based instruction activities that make teachers aware and able to identify gifted and talented students and twice-exceptional profiles. In the digital transformation era teachers have to experiment themselves not only on a pedagogical level but also on a technological one, to use resources and build content adequate to the demands of the different learning environments, guiding students in building their knowledge and in the full development of their talents. A digital training tool will help teachers adapt their practice to requests, and the complex and diversified needs of students who require concrete actions beyond mechanically learning contents. Research underlines the potential in the use of game-based software for teacher training as a concrete way to support the development of specific skills and knowledge, motivation, engagement; promoting also positive attitudes towards digital transformation, even more following the covid-19 world pandemic emergency which accelerated the need to use technological tools in teaching practice.<< Objectives >>GIFTED will address the Strategic Priorities of the EU Councils' framework for European educational cooperation 2021-2030. In particular, ""improving quality, equity, inclusion, and success in favour of fair and equal access to the education system for all"", ""improving the competencies and motivation of teachers in education professions,"" and ""supporting the green and digital transformation in and through education and training"". Education and training systems should aim to ensure that all learners — including those from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds, those with special needs, and migrants — complete their education and develop their full potential. These priorities are the basis of developing an educational system that can respond to the needs of students and teachers of each country involved in the project. The school is the primary educational agency through which the new generations can develop educational, social, and citizenship skills to promote the progress of society and the common good. In this scenario, teachers from all countries, all types, and school grades are at the forefront and play a vital role in the education of students who will become the citizens of tomorrow. Central is the need to support teachers in developing the skills helpful in nurturing the development of the potential of all students, giving them the tools to meet also the needs of gifted and talented students. GIFTED is a 3-year project with the clear goal of designing, developing, and piloting an innovative digital game-based training model and tool for teachers in Europe through a transnational, collaborative process involving partners from 4 EU countries (Italy, Portugal, Romania, Croatia) and one extra-EU member (United Arab Emirates) with widely recognised expertise in this field. The project will develop an innovative training curriculum for teachers in education for gifted pupils, which can be used by pre-service and in-service teachers in the countries involved in the consortium and, in a later phase, in other countries. The use of game-based training promotes the development of knowledge, skills, and attitudes by engaging trainees in guided activities with an intensely experiential matrix, in scenarios that reflect real-world situations (the classroom), increasing motivation, commitment and stimulate new approaches and attitudes towards technological tools that are close to the world of the new generation of students.<< Implementation >>The partners will achieve the project goal through an ongoing dialogue with target users (pre-service or in service teachers, students in Pedagogy, psychologists, school support staff). The theoretical approach (methodology) will blend with hands-on practice (use of digital tools). This means that the project will put in place a constant feedback loop between teachers, psychologists, and game designers and developers, all through the methodology and game development and the pilot test phases. All the exchanges will be facilitated through an open digital platform, which will enable sharing both training materials and ideas. Finally, the joint analysis of the results stemming from the use of these innovative game-based tools will allow to identify the strengths of the system as well as ideas for its possible improvements, thereby strengthening the skills gained in the project.The planned activities that will lead to achieve the specific GIFTED project’s objectives are the following:1.The educational experts of NOAH, UniFerrara, UniSibiu, UniZagreb, UAEU and ASA will collect, analyse and fine-tune the teaching methodologies for dealing with gifted and talented children. The activities in this phase will focus particularly on: oknowledge and skills needed for the identification of gifted and talented students in the classroom;osuitable didactic strategies to be implemented in an inclusive classroom perspective 2.NOAH together with the technological partner Grifo will identify the technical requirements for developing the game-based assessment tool for the identification of gifted and talented students in the classroom, and then will design and develop it, starting an ongoing testing cycle of prototypes and feedback provision.3.The educational experts from the academic partners will develop the syllabus of contents for the online training program.4.GRIFO will adapt and fine-tune the online platform that will deliver the training program, developing a suitable visual metaphor to accompany the program using gamification dynamics to increase motivation and engagement. 5.The educational experts from the academic partners, led by NOAH, will organize and produce a “Handbook on methodology for dealing with gifted children in the classroom” that will collect the methodologies and approaches developed in the first phase of the project. 6.Methodology and games will be tested in three sets of consecutive pilot sessions: oA restricted pilot session with teachers and external experts to gain first feedback about the methodology and online training program.oA larger training session to train teachers, school psychologists and support staff on the methodology and tools, so that they acquire or update their skills and competencies. This training will be delivered as a training program based on a gamified framework to increase motivation and engagement of the users. oImmediately afterwards, other training sessions will be organized in each participating country to test those methodology and tools with gifted students in real classroom contexts. These training sessions will follow a Pilot Test Protocol developed, before the beginning of the testing. The results will be collected through Evaluation Questionnaires developed in the same month.The outcome of this phase will be a report on the analysis of the results of the pilot testing, collected through a Pilot Test Protocol and Evaluation questionnaires. This report will feedback and be included in the final release of the Handbook 7.The final release of the Handbook will integrate the best practices collected in the previous phase, and will be aimed at disseminating the key points collected during the pilot testing and the most effective teaching methodologies applied.<< Results >>According to the project objectives described above, the project will bring into existence, promote and share an innovative digital training curriculum for teachers dealing with education of gifted pupils in an inclusive perspective. The online training programme for teachers dealing with gifted and talented students will benefit the teachers involved in the project and those reached after the project by the programme recognised at international level. All users will acquire knowledge in identifying gifted and talented students and in teaching methodology and experience in stimulating their potential in inclusive classrooms.More specifically the following project results will be produced:-A digital game-based assessment tool to improve teachers' knowledge and skills for the identification of gifted and talented students in the classroom-An Online Game-based training programme for teachers and experts working with gifted children, including also the assessment tool that will allow to tailor the training path for each teacher-a Handbook on methodology for dealing with gifted children in the classroom, to be published online in the project web site-an Open Badge certifying the training programme for teachers of gifted students, recognised by the Universities participating in the project. The partners will take steps to ensure that this open badge is widely recognised also after the end of the project by as many organisations as possible, also using the contacts and network of excellence of the Universities that participate in the project.All the project results make up a comprehensive set of tools that will allow training teachers in dealing with gifted and talented pupils, starting from their identification and recognition (the assessment tool) and then acquiring methods and strategies to unleash their potential in the most effective way. The training programme for teachers will be delivered through an online open-access digital platform, that will collect all the training materials developed for teachers (guidelines and methods) using also a gamified approach. All the material is integrated in game dynamics, so that even the training activities acquire elements of fun and engagement. These innovative teaching methodologies will then be tested first with teachers, thanks to the train-the-teacher programmes delivered by the academic partners. The results of the pilot testing analysis will be collected in a study, integrated in the final release of the Handbook, and scientific publications."