WHO ARE THE GIFTED?

Traditionally, a gifted child has been one that sits in the top 5% of the population in terms of intelligence and usually one with an Intelligence Quotient around or above the 140 mark.

However, it has become apparent that such a narrow and one dimensional definition lets many gifted children go unidentified and consequently are not catered for appropriately.

When you attempt the difficult and multi-layered task of identifying a gifted child you need to take many other characteristics into account and to ask more questions other than “What is their IQ?” For example:

• Cultural differences of children…Will a gifted Pakeha child present in a similar way to a gifted Maori child?
• Does the child have a specific learning disability (such as ADHD) that may be masking their giftedness to a degree…The “Twice Exceptional Child” (see the work of Dr. Linda Silverman)
• Do boys and girls present differently?
• What is the child’s learning style? Many gifted boys are Visual-Spatial Learners and do not always perform in a standard classroom.
• Is the child a gifted underachiever? If they are, they may not be performing well in class and so standardised test results such as PAT’s or class tests will not be good indicators.
• Is the child a High Achiever or a Gifted Learner? Teachers need to make the very important distinction between children who are high achievers and those who are actually gifted (See Szabo’s checklist below.)

WHY DO WE NEED TO CATER FOR THE GIFTED?

Current research has indicated something we have always known, but not always demonstrated in schools…

The needs of children who are truly gifted are just as pressing and important as those who are learning disabled.

Children who are gifted often suffer at school because they are different. Gifted children can suffer from depression and extreme anxiety. Gifted children can be disruptive and present classroom management issues because their needs are not being met. We need to ensure that we provide for the needs of these children with as much vigour and passion as those of all others.

Until recently an attitude of, “They’ll be okay because they are gifted,” has prevailed, whereas the opposite is more often the case.

A very good example of this is the research of recognised expert in Gifted Education, Carolyn Coil, that clearly demonstrates that large numbers of gifted boys who remain unidentified and consequently not catered for, not only underachieve at all levels of school, but actually fail.

The work of recognised Kiwi expert in Gifted Education, Roger Moltzen, also points to the many hardships and difficulties of growing up gifted and the many possible personas of a gifted person, as opposed to the stereotype that many of us perceive.

The current Ministry of Education directive outlined in “Sharpening the Focus” (National Administration Guidelines) is the first step in ensuring we properly cater for and foster gifted children in New Zealand.

There will continue to be raised eyebrows at providing specialist support for gifted children until we see the needs of all children as important. Are these eyebrows also raised when we provide specialist support for children who excel at rugby or netball? We need to embrace the needs of all children… those with learning disabilities, those with exceptional sporting ability, those with physical illnesses, the socially disadvantaged and those who are gifted.

Philip Toovey 2006

(Dip Tch, B. Ed)

SZABO’S CHECKLIST FOR GIFTED CHILDREN

Screening and Identification.

Research and Background

In searching for the best Information on screening for and identification of we came across the NSW Department of Education and Training’s Support Documents for their policy on G&T that were published last year, they are the most recent and generally comply with what we have learned and Ponsonby Primary School’s developing Philosophy on G&T.

(All text in italics below is from the NSW DET documents.)

The NSW DET Support Package on Identification of G&T students (2004) states:

 The document uses Richert’s 5 principles of identification:

1. Defensibility: procedures should be devised to identify students in all domains of giftedness and fields of talent.
2. Advocacy: teachers should use assessments to promote students’ interests and should not expect students to perform equally well on all measures.
3. Equity: there should be equitable procedures for identifying groups who may be disadvantaged by the mainstream identification procedures.
4. Comprehensiveness: there should be the appropriate use of multiple sources of data.
5. Pragmatism: identification needs to be consistent with the level of resources available.

(Richert, 1991)

The documents also list 4 processes of identification of G&T students:

1. Be dynamic and continuous
2. Allow for identification at any stage of the student’s development
3. Allow for the highly talented to emerge from the larger talented group
4. Ensure that the identification of students from disadvantaged and culturally diverse groups is not overlooked.

 The NSW DET Identification document (2004) also lists these three stages of Identification:

Nomination

This is the identification of gifted and talented students by parents/caregivers, teachers, peers, school counsellors, community members and the students themselves.

It involves the collection of subjective information, usually via checklists. Checklists may need to be translated into the language of the target population to collect valid information.

Screening

Screening involves the use of a combination of measures of potential and performance. It is more objective than nomination. Ability tests are useful for assessing potential, whereas achievement tests assess student performance in syllabus outcomes, and generally classify students into bands. Underachieving students with high intellectual potential may score poorly on achievement tests. Diagnostic tests are designed to identify specific areas of difficulty and do not identify students with higher abilities.

Monitoring

Teachers should ask the questions, “What is being observed?” and “How should the observations be noted?” before beginning to formally observe students. Teachers can develop proformas to aid in recording observations of students. This information can give a picture of students’ performances, interests, strengths, weaknesses and skills. Specific data can be collected to reveal the effectiveness of the identification strategy.

Our Screening and Identification Procedure

The Parallel Curriculum Model is one that provides wide scope for all types of learners, taking many theorists, learning styles, teaching styles, school systems and other needs into account.

The Parallel Curriculum provides us with a framework on which to build our own, unique programme, while still working within the confines of recognised theorists, proven research and a contemporary model.

The authors of the Text/Model are:

• Carol Anne Tomlinson
• Sandra N. Kaplan
• Joseph S. Renzuli
• Jeanne Purcell
• Jan Leppien
• Deborah Burns

Along with a vast list of reviewers, contributors, piloters etc.

They also reflect on work by theorists such as Vygotsky, Bruner, Howard & Jensen, Amabile and others.

The model is based on the concept of the “Zone of Proximal Development.” The authors believe that students learn best when they are taught just beyond their level of independence and supported with scaffolding, modelling etc. If work is too challenging students get easily frustrated and if it is too easy they develop apathy.

The model relies on the premise of catering to “Ascending Intellectual Demand.” The Parallel Curriculum suggests that learners;

Should work consistently with concept focussed curriculum, tasks that call for a high level of thought and products that ask students to extend and use what they have learned in meaningful ways. As a student becomes more advanced, task demand will need to escalate to ensure ongoing challenge for that learner and to ensure continual progress towards expertise. (pg 13)

 The premise of this model points towards each learner developing their capacity to the maximum by fostering both cognitive and effective growth in learners;

Teachers who continually strive to be reflective, respectful and responsive, who support their students in developing those same traits, and who constantly assess the impact of environment, curriculum and instruction on the security, affirmation, validation and affiliation, and affinity of each learner are far more likely to make a major, positive impact on the learning and lives of their students than are teachers who undervalue any of these factors.(pg15)

Overview of the Parallel Curriculum Model.

The model is a way of presenting challenging curriculum in four parallel ways of thinking about course content (parallel does not mean distinct or separate in this model.)

The three main assumptions of the model are:

1. There is no such thing as THE gifted learner
2. Curriculum and instruction for gifted learners must be flexible
3. Teachers who are effective in developing high potential will be curriculum decision makers.

…There is no single curricular or instructional approach that will be adequate for all high potential learners. Any model of curriculum development that seeks to serve the broad population in which high potential learners exist will have to promote flexibility to match curriculum to learner. (pg 19)

 THE CORE CURRICULUM

• Knowledge
• Understanding
• Skills

In line with national guidelines and all essential to a discipline.

The Driving Questions of the Core Curriculum are:

Ascending Intellectual Demand and the Core Curriculum:

This can be achieved by the following generic channels:

• Using more advanced readings
• Adjusted pace
• Application of ideas/skills to the unfamiliar
• Open ended/Ambiguous tasks
• Using Rubrics

 THE CURRICULUM OF CONNECTIONS

• Builds directly on the Core Curriculum|
• Designed to help students learn from the interconnectedness of knowledge

Asking students to explore and describe connections within a discipline typically aids them in building depth of knowledge about a discipline… asking students to make connections across disciplines... aids them in building breadth of knowledge. (pg 22)

 The “Obsolescence Concept” example.

 The Driving Questions of the Curriculum of Connections are:

 Ascending Intellectual Demand and the Curriculum of Connections

 This can be achieved by the generic channels and

• Applying understandings or skills in contexts that are markedly unfamiliar
• Generating defensible criteria against which students then weigh diverse perspectives on a problem or issue
• Searching for legitimate and useful connections among seemingly disparate elements (e.g. music and medicine)

 THE CURRICULUM OF PRACTICE

• Builds on the Core Curriculum
• Application of understandings and skills just like or as close to as possible as professionals in the discipline
• Moves students from novice to scholar or even expert
• The students experience learning in context
• Works well with NZ AO’s

The Driving Questions of the Curriculum of Practice

Ascending Intellectual Demand and the Curriculum of Practice

This can be achieved by the generic channels and:

• If students are working as a scholar they would do expert “like” work, if they are function as an expert they will do expert level work.
• Distinguish between the rules of practice often learned in text, lectures and at school and those that seem relevant in the practice/in the field.
• Develop a language of reflection about problems and scenarios in the filed
• Submit best quality exemplars of their work to experts in the field for expert-level feedback

THE CURRICULUM OF IDENTITY

• Derives and extends from the Core Curriculum
• Self-reflection and the impact of what they are learning on the themselves
  Helps students to think about themselves, goals and their opportunities to make a contribution to their world… by examining themselves through the lens of a particular discipline (pg 35)
• The Analogy of medical students doing their field rotations.

The Driving Questions of the Curriculum of Identity

Ascending Intellectual Demand and the Curriculum of Identity

This can be achieved by the generic channels and the following:

• Looking for and reflecting on truths, beliefs etc that typify the field
• Look at roots of the field and compare this to their own
• Looking for and reflecting on the meaning of paradoxes and contradictions in the discipline or field.

USING THE PARALLEL CURRICULUM MODEL

• Using one, several or all of the components in one of many possible ways to address the “Key Curriculum Components” (Content, Assessment, Activities, Resources, Products, Extension, Grouping, Modification etc)

 The Core Parallel ensures that students focus on the facts, concepts, principles and skills that are essential to the content they are studying. The other three parallels are rooted in the same conceptual approach but offer students a chance to;

1. see the concepts, principles and skills at work in other contexts (CURRICULUM OF CONNECTION)
2. understand how experts in their field do their work (CURRICULUM OF PRACTICE)
3. extend their understanding of themselves by comparing their own skills, perspectives and goals to those of experts in the discipline and/or people studied through the discipline. (CURRICULUM OF IDENTITY.)(pg 252)

 Flexible Options for Using the Parallel Curriculum Model:

• Thematic Study
• Build From a Common Foundation
• A Layered Approach
• Varied Purposes Within a Single Unit
• To Develop Individual Pathways

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE PARALLEL CURRICULUM MODEL SEE THE ORIGINAL TEXT THAT THIS SUMMARY IS BASED ON:

THE PARALLEL CURRICULUM: A DESIGN TO DEVELOP HIGH POTENTIAL AND CHALLENGE HIGH-ABILITY LEARNERS

(TOMLINSON ET AL 2002, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR GIFTED CHILDREN. CORWIN PRESS)

Where to purchase: http://www.learningnetwork.ac.nz/default.aspx

The Ministry of Education has set no common definition of Gifted and Talented for NZ schools to use.

We have examined definitions used in countries similar to NZ and taken advice from recognised NZ experts in Gifted and Talented Education to develop our own definition at Ponsonby Primary.

This definition is used to inform our Gifted and Talented Identification Process.

Ponsonby Primary's Gifted and Talented Definition

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This definition has been developed over the several years at Ponsonby. It is used to inform our screening and identification process.