2. GIFTED IN MATHEMATICS
INTRODUCTION:
”WE MUST BELIEVE THAT WE ARE GIFTED FOR
SOMETHING, AT WHATEVER COST WE MUST BE
ATTAINED”
-MARIE CURIE
The students in a class vary widely in individual abilities and
skills. There are wide variations in ability, ranging from the
academically gifted to slow learners. If instructions is to be
really effective, it must reach the individual students and
promote their learning as individuals. The Scales for Identifying
Gifted Students (SIGS) is norm referenced rating scale designed
to assist school districts in the identification of students as
gifted. The SIGS assesses seven areas :general intellectual
ability, language arts, mathematics, science, social studies,
creativity and leadership.
The term “gifted” when used in respect
to students, children or youth means students, children or youth who
give evidence of high performance capabilities in areas such as
3. intellectual, creative, artistic or leadership capacity or in specific
academic fields, and who require services or activities not ordinarily
provided by the school in order to fully develop such capabilities.
DEFINITON AND MEANING OF GIFTEDNESS
“Talented or gifted child is one who shows consistently
remarkable performance in worthwhile performance
of behavior”
Gifted children have high cognitive ability, creativity and
superior talent in special areas. Gifted child is worthwhile asset
of the society. Gifted children are the torch bearers of social
progress. They deserve more consideration for developing their
giftedness.
4. The intersection of ABOVE AVERAGE INTELLIGENCE,
TASK COMMITMENT, CREATIVITY will give giftedness.
IDENTIFICATION OF THE GIFTED IN MATHEMATICS
The identification of mathematically gifted is as important as
nurturing their mental abilities and skills. A student who is
5. scoring very high in mathematics test need not always be
mathematically gifted because a student can score high in
achievement test by rote memorization, drill and practice. There
are many other factors contributing to mathematical giftedness.
The unique characteristics exhibited by the gifted student will
help the teacher in identifying them.
CHARACTERISTICS OF GIFTED STUDENTS
The major characteristics of gifted students are the following.
Unusually large vocabularies for their age.
Greater comprehension of the subtleties of language.
Ability to read earlier than most children, often before
entering school.
Highly developed curiosity and a limitless supply of
questions.
Ability to retain a great deal of information.
Ability to learn basic skills more quickly and with less
practice.
Interest in experimenting and doing things differently.
Longer attention span, persistence and intense
concentration.
Tendency to put ideas of things together in ways that are
not obvious and unusual.
1. PROBLEMS OF GIFTED CHILDREN
6. The gifted children face several problems from the
teachers, parents, friends, society etc. Let us see the
prominent problems faced by them.
Inability to adjust with substandard teaching.
Difficulty to tolerate sub standard opinions.
Indifference of the society towards the gifted.
Interest to be in company with elders instead of
peers.
Desire for trust worthy rapport with teachers.
Lack of extra competent teachers.
Teachers negative attitudes towards unusual
doubts of the gifted.
Contempt for the gifted from others.
2. EDUCATIONAL PROVISIONS FOR THE GIFTED
The gifted children requires special
educational provisions and considerations. Some
such provisions are given below.
Accept their superiority.
Give due recognition to the gifted.
Offer special support and encouragement to
them.
Channelise their giftedness.
Consider their feelings and problems.
Engage them in peer tutoring.
Arrange special schools for the gifted.
Frame special curriculum.
Hold special camps for the gifted.
Ability grouping.
Early admission.
7. Double promotion.
Advance placement and credit system.
Contact with the gifted.
Enrichment programme (Giving additional tasks).
Counselling service
Special care and Consideration.
Give additional materials.
Provide scholarships.
3. EDUCATIONAL PROVISIONS FOR THE
GIFTED
For providing additional learning
opportunities, under the enrichment programmes, the
following two channels are suggested.
I. Differentiated curriculum for the gifted.
A curriculum is more challenging can be
devised for the gifted students.
Such curriculum should contain more
advanced topics and challenging tasks.
The differentiated curriculum should
provide opportunities for the students to
explore, investigate, critically analyse,
reason out and discover mathematical ideas
and facts independently.
A parallel track curriculum (Example: ‘A’
level and ‘O’ level) will provide the
necessary flexibility.
II. Enrichment within the existing curriculum.
Under the second scheme, attempts may
be made to provide enrichment
8. programmes and opportunities within
the existing curriculum.
The following steps may do greater justice to
them.
A differential curriculum providing as
enriched syllabus to motivate the
mathematically gifted students.
Differential assignments such as
multiple level and contract type
assignment which are challenging and
stimulating.
Opportunities for independent an
original work demanding extensive
reading , use of cyber resources and so
on.
More scientific and sophisticated
evaluation tools to assess the
performance of the students, so that the
evalution is reliable and valid.
Adopting teaching methods such as
project method, Analytic method,
Heuristic method, Discovery method
and problem solving method, so that the
learning process involves participation
and independent thinking.
9. More time can be allotted for
independent study through projects,
seminar and assignments.
As the gifted students do not require
drill and practice, routine problems can
be avoided. Instead challenging and
thought provoking problems should be
presented to them.
Mathematically gifted students should
be trained to take up mathematically
challenging tasks such as organizing
mathematic exhibition, preparing
models, presenting papers, solving
puzzles, writing articles and so on.
They can be encouraged to participate
in panel discussion on topics in
mathematics and quiz competition in
mathematics.
In solving mathematical problems, the
gifted students can be encouraging to
try and use alternate methods of attack
and any such attempt should be
appreciated and recognized by the
teachers.
10. The gifted students can be involved in
supervised study and tutorial classes for
the slow learners in mathematics .
The gifted students can be made
responsible for organizing the school
mathematics club and its activities.
CONCLUSION
The gifted students can be encouraged
to participate in National Talent Test such as National
Talent Search Scheme conducted by NCERT and
Mathematical Olympiads such as International
Mathematical Olympiad (IMO), the Mathematical
Olympiad programme organized by National Board of
Higher Mathematics (NBHM) of the Department of
Atomic Energy etc. such participation will provide
ample opportunities for the students to quench their
thirst for knowledge and face real mathematical
challenges.
REFERENCE
1. Techniques of teaching mathematics- Dr.
Anice James