Gifted and Talented

It's been a while.

Had the pleasure of being at a Jenny Smith seminar for gifted and talented.

She blew a few MYTHS out of the water first.

1. Gifted children don't need provision ie school works for them.
2. Being gifted is the ability of work produced.
3. Providing support will alienate the gifted child ( It will in fact create peer support)
4. Providing for gifted make other learners feel bad. (Peer identity is very valid).

Next we had a go at defining gifted and talented. 

There is a wide range of definitions from being a "Mozart" to being "bright".

The Differentiated Model of Giftedness and Talent (Gagne) was offered. 

Giftedness- possession and use of outstanding natural abilities, called aptitudes, in at lleast one ability domain to a degree that places an individual at least among the top 10% of age peers. 

Talent- TALENT designates the outstanding mastery of systematically developed abilities, called competencies (knowledge and skills), in at least one field of human activity to a degree that places an individual at least among the top 10% of age peers who are or have been active in that field.

As one person suggested, you can be gifted but not be talented. The step between having those gifts and developing them as a talent is where parents and teacher are responsible. This is allowed (or not) depending on environment, intra personal skills and developmental processes allowed for. It also is depends if the gift is a passion of the individual. 

Features of Gifted Children may include:

• Curiosity and wide knowledge base
• Advanced verbal skills
• Excellent observation and memory
• Preference for adults and older children
• Heightened sensitivity
• Little patience or need for repitition
• Independent and creative thinkers
• Work well in the abstract
• Can get frustrated and act out or withdraw if bored misunderstood. 
• Above average ability in reading, understanding of maths concepts and ability in languages. 
• Lack of physical maturation may affect fine motor coordination and difficulties in producing work. 
• Easily sidetracked by  more interesting ideas
• Can be a perfectionist

The speed of learning was a theme that popped up throughout the day and is a feature of giftedness. 

Assessing for Gifted and Talented children needs to include a few of the following.

• Understanding of the child from the parent. Listen to them
• Observation in open ended choice based activities.
• School work
• Tests such as PAT, SEA and TOSCA
• High achievement in competitions such as Australian maths, ICAS etc.
• If in doubt after that a Educational Psychologist could test.

A number of masks may hide giftedness.

• Physical and emotional dyssynchrony- Uneven development Eg difficulty of coordinating writing with their natural fast mental rhythm and creative ideas.
• Learning disabilities
• Gender issues- Eg areas of ability (Maths and science may not be a passion for boys even though they may excel, girls may understate their ability to find peer acceptance at an early age)
• Cultural and social issues. 

How can Giftedness be addressed

Acceleration

Enrichment

Differentiation

Learning Contracts and Inquiry

Outside clubs and activities.

Questioning in the Classroom

Within the normal class setting Gifted children are helped to develop their talents by the role of Good Questions in teaching, thinking and learning. Dead questions reflect dead minds.

• Questions are needed to promote critical thinking. High level thinking within Bloom's Taxonomy.
• Don't be afraid of closed question (convergent) that can channel children's ideas or bring to a particular focus. Open ended question produce divergent ideas helping children to predict, construct, generate, design, create and develop ideas. 

But this type of questioning will assist all learners. 

In thinking about catering for the Gifted in a class I was often reminded of the Inclusive Classroom initiative with dyslexia; if you implement not only will the targeted children benefit but the whole class.

Finally Jenny suggested we consider:

• Working with the learner's energy
• Educating citizen's for the future
• Thinking about the idea of Renzulli and that teaching for the gifted and talented will benefit all and have social capital. 

Enjoy the links, and if you want anymore details colleagues, come and see me.