Part I: Introduction
Gifted and talented students are so “smart” that they can be left alone with a textbook and will learn the material without much help from the teacher. Gifted and talented students are blessed with such skill, it is unfair to the average students if I spend time with the gifted students. Gifted and talented students have no problems. Gifted and talented students do not deserve more educational funding or resources.
The preceding statements are all myths about gifted and talented students. In reality, gifted and talented students need just as much – if not, more – resources and assistance than their average-by-comparison peers. Yet there exists a reluctance to grant this extra help to a set of students who are, by definition, “gifted” with higher abilities than average students. Thus, challenging and nurturing their abilities becomes less of a priority and these gifted and talented students are left to flounder in boredom in a regular classroom. Lack of recognition and a failure to acknowledge the talents and skills of students with such abilities early in their education can easily lead to negative consequences later in life. Gifted and talented students become depressed and frustrated.
(This section is unwritten, but will contain the following aspects:
- solutions to the problem with an emphasis on one specific solution
- how the solution can be implemented to solve the problem)
Part II: History of Gifted and Talented Problem
Foremost, a topic of great controversy in the world of gifted and talented education is the very definition of the term “gifted and talented”. Some educators define it by demonstrated precociousness while others cite well-known intelligence tests like the Stanford-Binet as in...
... middle of paper ...
...ith depression. The English Journal, 92 (4), 28-32.
Hall, G., Quinn, L., & Gollnick, D. (2008). The Joy of Teaching. Old Tappan, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
Jacobsen, M. (1999). The gifted adult: A revolutionary guide for liberating everyday genius. New York: Ballantine Books.
Marland, S. P., Jr. (1972). Education of the gifted and talented: Report to the Congress of the United States by the U.S. Commissioner of Education and background papers submitted to the U.S. Office of Education, 2 vols. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. (Government Documents Y4.L 11/2: G36)
Slavin, R. E. (2009). Educational psychology: Theory and practice, 9th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
U. S. Department of Education. (Nov. 13, 2009). Purpose: Jacob K. Javits gifted and talented students education program. Retrieved from: http://www2.ed.gov/programs/javits/index.htm
Runco, M. A. (2005). Creative giftedness. In R. J. Sternberg & J. E. Davidson (Eds.), Conceptions of giftedness (pp. 295-311). New York: Cambridge University Press.
A common misconception is intelligence is inherited and does not change, so therefore, gifted children do not need special services. However, this mindset is very dangerous when it comes to the development of gifted children. It is widely believed that gifted students will get by on their own without any assistance from their school. After all,
Gilliam, J. E., Carpenter, B. O., & Christensen, J. R. (1996). Gifted and talented evaluation scales. Austin: Pro-Ed., Inc.
The problem associated with how students are chosen to join a gifted and talented program stems from the way that we define giftedness. Because there are countless ways in which any individual can define talent, the government created a federal task force in 1972 to study gifted education in order to standardize the way in which schools choose students for and implement their gifted and talented programs. The task force’s results are known as the Marland Report and include much information as a result of their research, including a decision that a public school’s gifted and talented programs should aim to serve between 3 and 5 percent o...
Silverman, L. (). Leta Stetter Hollingworth: Champion of the Psychology of Women and Gifted Children . Journal of Educational Psychology , 84, 20-27.
The Talents Unlimited Model was created under the philosophy that all students, both those identified as gifted and those not, would benefit from enrichment programs. The model is used to educate teachers on how to use differentiated instruction to use “higher order cognitive tasks to help students with varying abilities use their preferred thinking talents to manipulate instruction to solve problems, see broad relationships, evaluate varying perspectives, draw comparisons among disparate viewpoints, and predict causes and effects” (Schlichter, 2009, p. 434).
Donovan, M. Suzanne and Christopher T. Cross (2002, August). Minority Students in Special and Gifted Education. Retrieved from http://site.ebrary.com.ezproxy2.library.drexel.edu/lib/drexel/-docDetail.action?docID=10032383.
His anecdotes presented in the article are appropriate in terms of his subject and claims. The author responds back to the naysayers by saying that people only look at the test scores earned in school, but not the actual talent. He says, “Our culture- in Cartesian fashion- separates the body from the mind, so that, for example we assume that the use of tool does not involve abstraction. We reinforce this notion by defining intelligence solely on grades in school and number on IQ tests. And we employ social biases pertaining to a person’s place on the occupational ladder” (279). The author says that instead of looking at people’s talent we judge them by their grades in school or their IQ score, and we also employ them based on these numbers. People learn more each time they perform a task. He talks about blue collared individuals developing multi-tasking and creativity skills as they perform the task they are asked to
The implementation plan for developing student portfolios will adhere to the following criteria for each individual student once eligibility is determined as stipulated by 25 CFR 39.115 and 25 CFR 39.116 (2011). For purposes of this project, the implementation and evaluation components of the portfolio will be aligned to the category of Creativity/Divergent Thinking. The purpose of the Gifted and Talented Portfolio Assessment is to show student growth and progress as they participate in the Gifted and Talented Program and to provide evidence for the multi-disciplinary team in determining whether the student will continue in the program the following
The bulk of legal cases are in the realm of special education, but only time will tell if gifted education will challenge our highest courts. For now, district administrators and teachers must continue with due diligence to meet the needs of gifted learners, but they must always stay abreast of rulings from the Office of Dispute Resolution. By following the due process hearings, districts can identify commonalities with their own district practice and adjust as needed. Gifted education enrollment numbers are dwarfed by the special education numbers, but the parents of gifted students are no less vocal and often have more resources available to them. Regardless of what the law has said or will say, it is the school’s responsibility to grow all learners, but realize that is our gifted learners who have the innate ability to truly make a difference in our
Rogers, K. B. (1991). The relationship of grouping practices to the education of the gifted and talented learner. Retrieved April 14, 2004, from http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/rogers.html
Runco, M. A. (2005). Creative giftedness. In R. J. Sternberg & J. E. Davidson (Eds.), Conceptions of giftedness (pp. 295-311). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Gifted Child Today, 2004: 2000-. Willis Web. City U of New York Lib. 1 Dec
One of the most controversial things about gifted and talented education is the criterion educators use to identify the gifted and talented. In the past, a student’s intelligence, based on an I.Q. score, was considered the best way to determine whether or not they qualified as gifted. As a result of using this method of identification, many gifted and talented students are not discovered nor are they placed in the appropriate programs to develop their abilities. Talents in the arts or an excellent ability to write are not measured on an I.Q. test but are abilities that may certainly qualify a student as gifted or talented.
The term “gifted” can mean many things. Up until recently it was the word used to describe people with profoundly high intelligence. Now, adding the words “creative” and “talented”, the category of giftedness has been extended to include not only exceptionally intelligent people, but also people with extraordinary ability in other areas, not just with IQ tests (Drew, Egan, & Hardman, 2002).