Gifted And Talented
Overview
Thsi is a module over gifted and talented students. Specifically, programs, stategies, and supports for these execptional students.
Introduction
Contrary to what many believe, being gifted and talented is not synonymous with a high IQ. Rather giftedness highlights creativty, leadership, talents, and/or academics.
Theory on giftedness is based largely in primary and secondary education. 7,8 There are several definitions and models of giftedness7,8,9,10 and in many respects, the definition depends on the construct. 11 Gagné,12,13 defines it as “the possession of outstanding natural abilities in at least one domain and at a degree that places the individual at the top 10% of age peers”. It is not high intelligence or natural abilities alone. Giftedness arises from the interplay between several factors by which skills are systematically built, namely: outstanding natural abilities; intrapersonal factors; environmental influences; and importantly, chance and maturation. 12,13,14 While outstanding natural abilities are a prerequisite, it cannot be assumed that a gifted or talented child will invariably become a gifted adult. The positive or negative expression of the various factors, the interplay between them and the ultimate outcome will differ for each individual. 12,13,15 The role of chance is primary. 12 It might be, for example, the difference between missed opportunities and opportunities that come at just the right moment to propel the individual forward.
The gifted are often spoken of as being ‘talented’ but having talent and being gifted are not the same. Talent is the “outstanding mastery of systematically developed abilities”12 and can be acquired, whereas special or natural abilities are essential for giftedness. 12,13,16 Giftedness also holds the potential for exceptional achievements and it is only from their work that the gifted are identified. 12,13 Support for the gifted is important therefore, because without it, they may not progress as well as they might. 17
Programs
In the last three decades, concepts of giftedness and talent have been significantly changed
(1). The concept of intelligence has recently been received broader and more specified meanings with recognition of specific and non-traditional talent areas and the popularising of "Multiple intelligences"
(2). Giftedness is the distinguished ability in one or more fields and talent is the higher than normal performance in one or more fields. In Renzulli's three ring model of giftedness, general intellectual ability, creativity and task commitment are the components of giftedness and talent
(3). Sydney Marland has described several aspects of intelligence: general intellectual ability, specific academic ability, creative thinking, leadership ability and artistic potential
(4). In the latest theories of intelligence, more focus has been laid on interpersonal and intrapersonal relationship and leadership ability
(5, 6, 7). On the other hand, our country ranks first in brain drain among 61 developing and less developed countries according to International Monetary Found (IMF) report
(8). Almost 150000-180000 Iranians try to immigrate by various means annually. Of 125 Iranians high school students who have won awards at international science Olympiads over a period of three years, ending at 2001, 90 are now at US universities.
(9) According to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, the order of human needs is as follows: physiological, safety, love, affection and sense of belonging, selfesteem and at the top of the pyramid is the need for self-actualization. The need for self actualization is more paramount in the gifted.
Considering these aspects of the problem, the mission based Gifted and Talented program in Shaheed Beheshti University of medical sciences has been installed with three main goals:
1- Arriving at critical mass of intellectual capital
2- Directing this intellectual capital toward management of health system A Mission – based gifted & Talented program/ Yazdani. Sh, et al. 30
3- Safeguarding this intellectual capital through communicating and supporting networks
Ten axes of the program This mission-based gifted and talented program has been composed of ten axes:
1- Terminology and Definitions
2- Philosophy and Rationale
3- Identification procedure
4- School-wide enriched program
5- Differentiated curriculum
6- Specialized students assessment
7- Training teachers of gifted and talented students
8- Support and counselling system
9- Future career
10- Reversal of Brain Drain phenomenon
Theoretical studies about the program and the gifted and talented education is started from August 2002 this study continued for almost 3 months. In this period many studies and programs regarding gifted and talented students were reviewed from all over the world. New concepts, identification tools, curriculur and extra curricular activities, support networks, counselling service were studied. The problems that we have in our country about the intellectuals and their immigration were discussed and at the end of this primary conceptual phase of study, several components of the program were designed.
Strategies
Renzulli
A lot of the knowledge and research on gifted education comes from theorist Joseph Renzulli. Countries around the world are using his theory on gifted education in their schools. Significantly, the Swiss understanding of these concepts follows the original understanding of Renzulli, who never defined his first ring as “intelligence”, meaning an academic disposition that can be measured by intelligence tests. In his concept, Renzulli (1978) established the basis for so-called “multiple intelligences” (Gardner, 1983, 1999), and for an understanding of giftedness that is much wider than high academic-intellectual abilities. Unlike in earlier conceptions of giftedness, Renzulli also indicated the influences of the social-emotional environment. Already in his first concept (1978), he implemented the “houndstooth design” to his three rings, in order to show the interaction between personal potentials and environmental influences as dynamic factors in the development of high achievement.
Differentiated Instruction
Gifted students, like all special education students, need differentiated instruction to better complete the assignement or task. Some differentation will be more significant and complex. Others will be easy and simple but will make a big difference for the student.
Good Instruction for Gifted Learners
1. Good curriculum and instruction for gifted learners begins with good curriculum and instruction. It's difficult, if not impossible, to develop the talent of a highly able student with insipid curriculum and instruction. Like all students, gifted learners need learning experiences that are rich. That is, they need learning experiences that are organized by key concepts and principles of a discipline rather than by facts. They need content that is relevant to their lives, activities that cause them to process important ideas at a high level, and products that cause them to grapple with meaningful problems and pose defensible solutions. They need classrooms that are respectful to them, provide both structure and choice, and help them achieve more than they thought they could. These are needs shared by all learners, not just those who are gifted. But good instruction for gifted learners must begin there
2. Good teaching for gifted learners is paced in response to the student's individual needs. Often, highly able students learn more quickly than others their age. As a result, they typically need a more rapid instructional pace than do many of their peers. Educators sometimes call that "acceleration," which makes the pace sound risky. For many gifted learners, however, it's the comfortable pace-like walking "quickly" suits someone with very long legs. It's only "fast" for someone with shorter legs. On the other hand, it's often the case that advanced learners need a slower pace of instruction than many other students their age, so they can achieve a depth or breadth of understanding needed to satisfy a big appetite for knowing.
3. Good teaching for gifted learners happens at a higher "degree of difficulty" than for many students their age. In the Olympics, the most accomplished divers perform dives that have a higher "degree of difficulty" than those performed by divers whose talents are not as advanced. A greater degree of difficulty calls on more skills-more refined skills-applied at a higher plane of sophistication. A high "degree of difficulty" for gifted learners in their talent areas implies that their content, processes and products should be more complex, more abstract, more open-ended, more multifaceted than would be appropriate for many peers. They should work with fuzzier problems, will often need less teacher-imposed structure, and (in comparison to the norm) should have to make greater leaps of insight and transfer than would be appropriate for many their age. Gifted learners may also (but not always) be able to function with a greater degree of independence than their peers.
4. Good teaching for gifted learners requires an understanding of "supported risk." Highly able learners often make very good grades with relative ease for a long time in school. They see themselves (and often rightly so) as expected to make "As," get right answers, and lead the way. In other words, they succeed without "normal" encounters with failure. Then, when a teacher presents a high-challenge task, the student feels threatened. Not only has he or she likely not learned to study hard, take risks and strive, but the student's image is threatened as well. A good teacher of gifted students understands that dynamic, and thus invites, cajoles and insists on risk-but in a way that supports success. When a good gymnastics coach asks a talented young gymnast to learn a risky new move, the coach ensures that the young person has the requisite skills, then practices the move in harness for a time. Then the coach "spots" for the young athlete. Effective teachers of gifted learners do likewise.
Support
The support system that is needed with gifted and talented students is as important as the teaching that is involved. It is assumed by many that gifted students also have gifted or above average parents. With this assumption, others think that parents have the "necessary resources and appropriate strategies to deal with the exceptionality both at home and in conjunction with school". Not only are the students thinking in a different way both the support system must also be able to understand by using models. These models are "for parent involvement and parent education". These models are "based on theoretical models derived from the characteristics of the gifted students". There is no exact science to parents of gifted and talented students. However, Callahan states "the science of parenting the gifted child and working woth the gifted child has suffered from the lack of comprehensive and controlled research evidence on the impact of specific parenting involvement models".
This explains different ways that students learn bouncing ideas off of each other, making sure all the students understand. Seeing that, you can see that all the students are learning at a quick and different rate than one another.
Conclusion
Conclusion
If one were to define someone who is gifted and talented they would define them as an intellectual. Giftedness is an intellectual ability significantly higher than average. It is a characteristic of children, variously defined, that motivates differences in school programming. While some of this may be true, students who are gifted are much more than an intellectual. Their brain thinks in different ways that a teacher could never imagine. The type of imagination and creativity that these children have is incredible, but we still cannot allow them to believe they don’t need help or as much attention as a regular student. Gifted students have their strengths and weaknesses just like every other student. They excel in certain areas, but they still lack in others.
References
All YouTube videos are creative commons, free to use.
"Gifted Education in Switzerland: Widely Acknowledged, but Obstacles Still Exist in Implementation" by Victor Mueller-Oppliger is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
"High-performing general practice registrars, the gifted and the talented: Helping them to reach their potential" by George Zaharias is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
"What it Means to Teach Gifted Learners Well" by Carol Ann Tomlinson is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
"A mission-based gifted and talented program" by Yazdani Sh. MD.; 1 Gholami-khoojin R. MD.; 2 Babaie D. MD.;2 Rezaei Shiraz A.S. MD.;2 Hosseinzadeh M; MD. 2 is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0
Bracken, B. A., & Brown, E. F. (2006). Behavioral Identification and Assessment of Gifted and Talented Students. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 24(2), 112–122. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734282905285246
Morawska, A., & Sanders, M. R. (2009). Parenting Gifted and Talented Children: Conceptual and Empirical Foundations. Gifted Child Quarterly, 53(3), 163–173. https://doi.org/10.1177/0016986209334962
Callahan, C. M. (1981). Parents of the Gifted and Talented Child. Journal for the Education of the Gifted, 5(4), 247–258. https://doi.org/10.1177/016235328100500403