Identifying gifted students can be quite difficult. Gifted students fall into several categories such as: Successful learners, Creative learners, Underground learners, At Risk Learners, Twice Exceptional learners and Autonomous learners. When trying to identify the characteristics of these profiles, they can often be described as for example: Successful learners, complacent, dependent, extrinsically motivated learners who work for the grade, and are eager for approval. Other types of learners such Creative learners are highly creative, and get bored and frustrated easily. They can be impatient and defensive, sensitive and vulnerable, highly energetic and strongly motivated when it comes to learning. For underground learners however, they view some achievement behaviors as a betrayal of their social group, and feel conflicted, guilty and insecure. Other profiles like at risk learners tend to be reckless and manipulative, defensive, unmotivated learners who have unrealistic expectations and are resistant to authority. When identifying the characteristics of twice-exceptional learners, educators can see that the student has an intense frustration and anger, as well as mood disorders. These types of students or learners are prone to discouragement and have a poor academic self-concept. The last profile, Autonomous learners, is self-confident and accepting, they are optimistic, motivated and ambitious. When viewing an autonomous learner, we see that they learn from their mistakes or failures and are respectful. When educators are faced with the task of identifying these profiles within their students, educators can employ a collection of techniques that suit the different profiles needs in order to identify the gifted students and sup... ... middle of paper ... ...ifted student is by having a discussion with the student, sort of an informal interview, where the educator can find out what the students interests are and in turn implement a strategy that will cater for all students learning including the gifted students. Ways in which a student can identify or self evaluate their educational needs and become more involved with their learning is through the process of self-discovery, where students can use graphic organizers as a creative means to brain storming particular ideas about themselves. However for ESL students (English as Second Language) who are gifted, the use of interpreters or translators would be crucial to the students learning and identification process because without them, educators would not have a means for identifying accurately if their ESL students are also gifted or need extra support in their learning.
Ryser, G. R., & McConnell, K. (2003). Scales for Identifying Gifted Students. Waco, TX: Prufrock Press.
Jarosewich, T., Pfeiffer, S. I., & Morris, J. (2002). Identifying gifted students using teacher rating scales: A review of existing instruments. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 20(4), 322-336.
Gifted and talented programs are intrinsically valuable to many children’s education as they provide a system in which all students involved are engaged, challenged, and intellectually stimulated. In "How People Learn", Donovan, Bransford, and Pellegrino (1999) stress the importance of each student being given reasonable and appropriate goals based on his or her level of understanding and competency (p. 20). Gifted and talented programs help institutionalize the attempt to meet all student’s needs by providing uniquely appropriate challenges which aim to keep every student engaged, thus receiving the best chance at success. Although there are many valuable and important aspects of gifted education, there are also significant issues rooted in the base of America’s gifted and talented programs, one of which I will address throughout this paper. In my opinion, the most notable problem which troubles gifted and talented programs is the system by which students are selected to join their school’s gifted and talented program.
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).
Someone’s character can be defined by their non-cognitive qualities such as optimism, curiosity, self-discipline, perseverance, and conscientiousness. In the book titled, “A Summary of ‘How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character’ ”, writer Paul Tough conveys the idea that when it comes to a child succeeding in the future their cognitive excellence comes second to that of their non-cognitive characteristics. He argues that non-cognitive distinctiveness actually predicts success better than cognitive brilliance. He supports this argument by exploring the science behind these findings, and also tracks several alternative schools, education programs and outreach projects that have tried to implement the lessons, as
Pupils who exhibit gifted characteristics along with another disability are referred to as ‘twice-exceptional students’ (Morrison, 2001; Nielsen 2002). This term is used in the article that I have chosen to review, which analyzes the responses and perceptions through interview, of one particular individual (Andrew) who was identified as being gifted and talented (G/T) and who had emotional and behavioral disabilities (EBD). What the researchers aimed to accomplish through this analysis was a clearer understanding of Andrew’s community and school experiences, as they stated that there was a lack of empirical data focusing upon pupils who displayed such behaviors.
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.
Based from the information provided by VanTassel-Baska, et. Al. (2009), gifted and talented students face the same issues as their regular peers but they have different way of viewing these issues and it affects them differently as well. The book discussed different issues that gifted learners face and recommendations on how to address these issues were also available for teachers, administrators and other school personnel. Also, Carol Strip Whitney (2011) in her book entitle Helping Gifted Learners Soar discussed stress as a factor that can distract and overpower anyone including gifted learners and for the gifted learners, there are many reasons and causes of stress. In this reflection, I will focus on two causes of stress, which are gifted learners as social capital and issues related to race and achievement.
We do have our gifted population. We have a very small group of students that are advanced—we advance them in math. So they’re taking math courses a year ahead of where their grade level is. And we have, of course, our identified tier 1, tier 2, and tier 3 students. Tier 3 probably needs some work, but we do have some additional student that we give more intense and more often interventions to. But we have our [tier] groups that we work with at an identified time each day, and they’re made up mostly of our tier 1, tier 2 kids. But our tier 3 kids do go to special education teachers during tier time. Anything specific I’m missing there that you’d like to ask
Often children struggle to understand the difference between ‘wants’ and ‘needs.’ This struggle found its way into gifted education with the case of C.C. v. North Allegheny School District (2011). In this case, C.C. was identified as gifted in elementary school and his academic strengths were noted as problem solving, higher order thinking and analytical thinking skills. At issue in this case was the district’s refusal to permit C.C. to take two Advanced Placement courses, AP Psychology and AP Economics, that are typically not available to students in C.C.’s grade level. Given that these courses do not align with the strengths previously addressed in GIEPs, the district instead offered the student introductory courses in psychology and
Ryser, G. R., & McConnell, K. (2003). Scales for Identifying Gifted Students. Waco, TX: Prufrock Press.
The Integrated Curriculum Model has three main dimensions advanced content, process/product, and issues/themes. The first dimension, advanced content, is content that it at a higher level. In English Language Arts the readings are usually two grade levels above. Within advanced content, diagnostic-prescriptive approaches are used to promote new learning. Teachers are to continually pre-assess students before teaching content to make sure they are teaching at the appropriate level for the gifted students. In the second facet of the model it ensures that the students are thinking and processing information at higher complex levels. The third dimension of the Integrated Curriculum Model centers gifted and talented students learning around major issues and themes. To connect the themes and issues to real world applications is creating a deeper understanding of the material.
It is said that some characteristics are reading slowly and with much effort but often being the one to solve the problem, don’t be able to spell correctly and have messy hand writing but their writing shows amazing imagination, having trouble remembering dates and names but thinking out of the box and grasping a big picture, and having difficulty retrieving and pronouncing spoken words but also having an excellent vocabulary and great ideas. As we can see those are their weakness but also their strengths. Although they might have many problems with reading, math and writing, they have the ability to achieve many more things. They just have to work harder than others. Their main problem is that they are not able to fit in in the classroom or sometimes feel embarrassed when they couldn’t do what other kids were
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.
Parke, B. (n.d.). Challenging gifted students in the regular classroom. Retrieved March 1, 2004, from http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content/Challenging_gifted _kids.html