Peer to Peer Meetings 2024-2025 – Giftedness                            

• Do you often feel different from others, but you don’t know why?             
• Do you experience external stimuli intensely?
• Do you have difficulties with maintaining motivation and interest when working on something for a longer period of time?
• Do you doubt (yourself) a lot and do you always have questions?
• Are you interested in many different things?                                 

                               

If you recognize yourself in some of these questions, this peer to peer meetings might support you. Contrary to the stereotype, giftedness is not about just having good cognitive abilities or having an IQ above 130. It also entails having a range of characteristics, including high sensitivity, doubt and a critical attitude. These characteristics may add an extra layer of complexity to seemingly common problems. How nice would it be to talk about these topics with others?

 

During these informal gatherings, we discuss giftedness. The aim of these meetings is to increase your knowledge about giftedness and to share some insights and experiences in a casual atmosphere with fellow peers. You don’t have to be officially ‘diagnosed’ with giftedness to join the meetings: also if you’re just interested in one of the themes and/or you recognize yourself in the description, you’re welcome! Furthermore, you can sign in for all meetings separately, so you can choose which topics interest you the most!

Every training is from 15h30 - 17h00
-Tuesday October 8, '24 - I don't feel gifted
-Tuesday November 12, '24 - Giftedness and studyskills
-Tuesday January 14 '25 - Paradoxes in giftedness 
-Tuesday February 11, '25 - Importance of the 'why' in giftedness
-Tuesday March 18, '25 - Misdiagnosis and dual diagnosis in giftedness
-Tuesday April 15, '25 - Profiles in giftedness
-Tuesday May 13, '25 - Multipotentiality and giftedness
-Tuesday June 10, '25 - Friendship matters....matters of friends

SEE MORE DETAILED DESCRIPTIONS OF EACH PEER TO PEER MEETING BELOW

‘Training giftedness’ and ‘peer to peer meetings giftedness’.
What is the difference?

In the context of project ‘shining a light to bright students’ both peer to peer meetings as well as a training giftedness are offered. What is the difference? Peer to peer meetings are informative meetings in a low key atmosphere organized 8 times a year. In each peer to peer meeting, different themes related to giftedness are discussed together and experiences are shared. Anyone who recognizes themselves in characteristics of giftedness is welcome to join, also if you don’t experience any specific problems regarding your giftedness. You can register separately for each peer to peer meeting.
The small group training, on the other hand, is intended for students who experience challenges in the field of giftedness and who want to encounter these challenges in a more constructive way in a small group environment. When you sign up for the training, you commit yourself to attending all four meetings and to working towards your own individual goals. If you are not sure what suits you best, you’re always welcome to join one of the peer to peer meetings first.

Peer to peer meeting Tuesday 8^th of October -  I don’t feel gifted.
Many gifted people don't feel gifted. Do you often have thoughts such as:
- 'Yes, I can do this, but everyone can do this, right?' or
- ‘There are many students who get higher grades while studying less than I do’ or
- ‘If I were gifted, I would not be struggling so much with my studies and friendships’ or
- 'If I really were gifted, I would be able to do this or that (better)'.

Because many gifted people don't feel that way, we will focus on this theme during the workshop.

Firstly, we will dive a little deeper in the question what giftedness is, because the word ‘giftedness’ often has a negative connotation in society due to some perseverant stereotypical views. One of these stereotypes that all gifted people are very successful and perform excellently without any help. In contrary to this point of view, giftedness in everyday life is often not just about having good cognitive abilities or having an IQ above 130, but it involves a range of characteristics, including sensitivity, doubt, and setting (too) high expectations. These characteristics add an extra layer of complexity to seemingly ‘normal’ problems and may therefore lead to lower self-confidence, procrastination, and failed results, thus negatively affecting personal well-being.

Secondly, we will address potential pitfalls of not recognizing or acknowledging giftedness. We hope to see you there!

Peer to Peer Meeting Tuesday 12^th of November  – Giftedness and study skills
The highest concentration of gifted people is found among the population of students in university (10-15%). Despite their talents, there is quite a chance that gifted students do not feel smart at all, underachieve or even drop out their studies.
As a gifted student you may encounter all different sorts of study related problems. For example you have been smart enough to pass previous education without much effort, but in university, you encounter a larger and probably more difficult workload….without earlier developed study skills. Or maybe you never have failed an assignment before and when you do in university, you feel incapable and not smart at all… You may have the feeling that all people who told you before how smart you are, have been totally wrong. Maybe you encounter problems like lack of motivation or setting too high bars and related themes like fear of failure or fear of success, which can lead to lower self-confidence, to procrastination and to underachievement. In this meeting we will have a closer look at different study related pitfalls gifted students more often experience and also we will talk about some advices regarding studyskills and time management. You’re very welcome to join!

Peer to Peer meeting Tuesday 14^th of January – Let’s talk about…paradoxes in giftedness.
This peer to peer meeting is all about starting a conversation together, finding recognition in each other's experiences and getting inspired. Some gifted people struggle with so-called 'all-or-nothing thinking' or, in other words, seeing things in extremes. This can make it really difficult to find and maintain a balance in professional and social life, as well as a balance between these two. In accordance with the World Café concept, we will discuss different paradoxes in giftedness like:

-curious vs easily bored.
-need for autonomy vs enjoying the boundaries set by clear rules.
-setting high expectations for yourself vs difficulties dealing with high expectations.
-need for challenge and variety vs avoidance behavior due to performance anxiety.   
-doesn’t want to be mistaken for a ‘know-it-all’ vs knowing it better.    
-strong need for authenticity vs propensity for adaptive behavior.

Peer to Peer meeting Tuesday 11th of February –Importance of the ‘WHY’ in giftedness
The importance of the 'why' in giftedness can be understood through several key points related to cognitive, emotional, and social development. Gifted individuals for example often exhibit a heightened sense of curiosity and a strong intrinsic motivation to understand the world around them. The 'why' is crucial in giftedness because it drives curiosity, deepens understanding and fosters exploration regarding ethical considerations and personal values. We will also do some exercises to further explore your own values and personal 'why'. These aspects collectively support the personal development of gifted individuals, so let’s dive together a little deeper into the question why the ‘why’ is so important in giftedness.

Peer to Peer Meeting Tuesday 18th of March – Misdiagnosis and dual diagnosis in giftedness.
Overlap of characteristics can be seen in giftedness on the one hand and several different behavioral and emotional disorders on the other hand. Bright and creative children and adults may be misdiagnosed with disorders such as ADHD, anxiety disorders or autism related disorders. Emergence of a false self-image and inappropriate advices and counseling can be a result of misdiagnosis. Apart from misdiagnosis also dual diagnosis in one person can be determined. But what are the differences between giftedness and AD(H)D? and how can the differences between giftedness and autism be recognized? Are giftedness and anxiety disorders probably related? In this meeting we try to shine a bit more light on these questions. Do you join our discussion?

Peer to Peer Meeting Tuesday 15th of April – Profiles within giftedness
Gifted people are usually discussed as an undifferentiated group. When they are differentiated, it tends to be on the basis of differences in intellectual abilities, talents, or interests rather than from a total or holistic point of view in terms of behavior, feelings, and needs. The purpose of this meeting is to describe two different models to profile the gifted and talented that differentiates gifted individuals on the basis of behavior, feelings, and needs and we will discuss your personal insights using these models. Probably the framework of these different profiles may support better understanding of your own giftedness?

Peer to peer Meeting Tuesday the 13th of May – Multi-potentiality and giftedness.
Many gifted students are faced with a dilemma – “I love everything, so which do I choose?” Many gifted students have difficulty choosing from their many interests and narrowing their focus to a few activities. Multipotentiality affects many highly able individuals: Gifted students are frequently offered the advice ‘You can be anything you want.’ This may seem desirable for the student, but for many, this plethora of opportunities amounts to a potential crisis. In this Peer to Peer Meeting we will dive a little deeper in this topic of multi-potentiality.  You’re very welcome to join the meeting if this topic interest you!

Peer to Peer Meeting Tuesday 10th of June– Friendship matters…Matters of friendship.
Are you sometimes surprised by the way your peers handle things? Do you have other interests and/or much higher expectations of friendships? Do you sometimes feel like an outsider? Or did you learn to adapt like a chameleon? Do you often experience a mismatch between you and your peers in tutorials or group assignments? Giftedness may play a role in all of these struggles. As humans we learn from other people and we develop based on a match in development. The tricky part is that as a gifted person you may have had less like-minded people around you. This influences the extent to which you can develop yourself socially and also the extent to which you feel connected to others. As a gifted person you do not have less social abilities: it is more like a mismatch. In this peer to peer meeting we take a closer look at friendship and other relations…

We hope to see you there!

 

Register now

 

 Project ‘Shining a light on bright students’