“Giftedness Should Not Be a Niche Topic” An Interview with Franzis Preckel

This year, the Vereniging Begaafdheidsprofielscholen established a Scientific Council, an advisory body for us and our schools. Such a council is intended to support the goal of bringing scientific research and the practice of gifted education closer together. Alongside Lianne Hoogeveen and Alexander Minnaert, Franzis Preckel is one of the members.

Could you introduce yourself?

“I’m a psychologist, and I currently hold the professorship for Giftedness Research and Education at the University of Trier in Germany. I studied in Münster, which is close to the Dutch border. Actually, I grew up there too, so I’ve always felt a connection to the Netherlands. Before moving to Trier almost twenty years ago, I worked as an assistant professor at LMU Munich, where I also led a counseling center focused on giftedness and talent. We mainly worked with parents of gifted preschool and elementary-aged children.

My chair in Trier is still the only professorship for psychological giftedness research in all of Germany, which makes it quite a special position. It allows my team and me to explore a wide range of topics: from assessing intelligence and developing diagnostic materials for teachers, to evaluating special gifted classes in secondary schools.”

Why did you choose to dedicate your career to the study of gifted children?

“During my psychology studies, I did an internship at a counseling center for gifted children in Münster. My role involved administering intelligence tests, and I quickly realized that testing alone didn’t capture the full picture of a child’s potential. That experience inspired my PhD, where I developed an intelligence test for assessing abilities in the very high range.

At first, I thought it might just be a passing research topic, but the need for better understanding and support of gifted children kept growing. Over time, I realized there was a lot of work to do; not just in practice, but also in integrating giftedness into mainstream psychology and education. It shouldn’t remain a niche topic.

That’s why my colleagues and I try to publish in mainstream journals and create resources, such as textbooks for teachers and psychologists. We published the first German textbook on giftedness in 2013 and we now have a second edition and even an English version available.”

Teachers in Germany aren’t allowed to use intelligence tests. How do you help schools identify gifted students?

“Yes, teachers in Germany cannot administer formal intelligence tests. Therefore, we develop materials that teachers can use in classrooms to recognize students’ potential, especially in math and science at the elementary level.

We also research diagnostic questions, such as how stable intelligence test results really are. Our meta-analyses show that before age 12 or 15, results are not very stable. So it’s not enough to label a young child based on a single IQ score (source: Breit, M., Scherrer, V., Tucker-Drob, E. M., & Preckel, F. (2024). The stability of cognitive abilities: A meta-analytic review of longitudinal studies. Psychological Bulletin, 150(4), 399–439).

Moreover, the higher a student’s general ability, the less meaningful their overall IQ becomes, because their strengths vary across subtests. We encourage looking beyond a single number, to identify specific strengths and patterns (source: Reit, M., Brunner, M., Molenaar, D., & Preckel, F. (2022). Differentiation hypotheses of Intelligence: A systematic review of the empirical evidence and an agenda for future research. Psychological Bulletin, 148(7-8), 518–554).

Our approach is multimodal: in addition to cognitive measures, we include elements like enjoyment of thinking or self-concept. These aspects are essential to understanding a child’s potential.”

How would you describe the situation for gifted education in Germany?

“Germany has a variety of initiatives — parent organizations, special schools, and regional projects. Each federal state (Bundesland) is responsible for its own education system, so the landscape is very diverse.

In 2018, we launched the first national program ‘Leistung macht Schule’, which I helped plan as part of the steering group. It aimed to strengthen talent development nationwide.

However, there are still major challenges. We have many activities and initiatives, but too little evaluation research to find out what truly works. And there are persistent misconceptions, some people still see support for gifted students as elitist or a luxury problem. This makes progress slower than it should be.”

How do German schools approach gifted classes?

“There’s no one-size-fits-all approach. Some federal states offer special gifted classes starting in grade 5. For example, in Rheinland-Pfalz, where there are four secondary schools with such programs that began around 2004–2005. Other states have boarding schools for gifted students.

These classes can be very valuable, especially for children who have had negative experiences in regular classrooms, such as extreme forms of underchallenge, bullying or being misunderstood. Of course, there are also drawbacks, like labeling, but for some children, separate classes are necessary because they are far ahead of their peers and can’t simply skip multiple grades.

At the same time, many children can thrive in regular classrooms if they receive the right support. What matters most is flexibility and individual solutions.”

Could you tell us more about schools in Rheinland-Pfalz and their programs?

“Besides the four secondary schools with special gifted classes, Rheinland-Pfalz has a unique initiative called “Entdeckertagsschulen” (“Discovery Day Schools”). There are 17 of them, each serving as a hub for a network of elementary schools. Once a week, for example on Fridays, gifted and interested students from surrounding schools come together for enrichment activities like experiments or creative projects.

It’s a great organizational model because it connects schools across the region. Of course, the quality of what happens on those discovery days still depends on good diagnostics and planning, but the networking idea itself is very promising.”

Finally, what motivated you to join the Scientific Council of the Vereniging Begaafdheidsprofielscholen?

“It started when I met Lianne Hoogeveen. We were both invited by the Royal Academy in Belgium as ‘Thinkers for Flanders’ in the project Care for Talent. Through that collaboration, we got to know each other, and she later invited me to join the Scientific Council.

What convinced me was the association’s openness to research. The Begaafdheidsprofielscholen want to use scientific evidence to improve their practice, and they’re also eager to share their own experiences and questions with researchers. That kind of two-way communication between schools and science is exactly what we need.

I also think we should strengthen the European perspective on gifted education. Much of the research comes from the US, but their school systems and cultures differ from ours. So we need our own European data, programs, and collaboration.”