Teaching The Gifted & Talented
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The document discusses managing learning for gifted and talented students. It defines giftedness and discusses identifying gifted students through tests, work quality, and teacher observation. Teachers recognize students with potential ability who don't always try their best. Gifted students display various personalities and learning characteristics like perfectionism and thinking differently. Formal definitions focus on thinking styles and strategies. Teachers should involve gifted students as partners in learning through open discourse, assessment, and independent inquiry.
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Teaching The Gifted & Talented
- 1. More than I am …A life without risks is just as good as death, But in my lifetime I want to take risks, I need to, Is it too much to ask to want to Managing the Learning of become more, Gifted & Talented More than I am, Dr Linda Rush more than they Vice Dean (Primary ITE & QA) tell me I can be…
- 2. Objectives: definitions of high ability/giftedness what it means to be a successful lifelong learner the role of the teacher in ordinary classroom settings the use and management of teaching time a framework of teaching and learning - an orientational device which allows teachers to recognise the boundaries and borderlines of their interactions with learners, and a prospective device which allows teachers and learners to develop the qualities of their interactions in the future.
- 3. Positionality: ‘Plasticity’ of the human brain Ability & environment are deeply intertwined Interested in the basis for intellectual superiority Belief that everyone can be ‘more able’ Conscious of ‘potential ability’ Prospective view of ability and the role of assessment in respect of this
- 4. Key Question/Task What’s your view of high ability or giftedness (Maybe helpful to consider an actual student or group of students). Do you bother to identify or make yourself aware of students with high ability or giftedness? How do you go about identifying high ability or giftedness? How do we get to know our students?
- 5. PhD findings: More Able child profiles – identification All teachers used tests of intelligence to identify the cognitive ability of children in their class & Assessment Tasks Teachers also made specific reference to the quality of the children’s work being a useful indicator of ability Recognised ability through teacher observation Areas of ability highlighted: cognitive; technical; practical
- 6. PhD findings: More Able child profiles – ‘demonstrated achievement’ & ‘potential ability’ Some teachers stated that the high performers were not necessarily the more able… Teachers also recognised individuals as having the potential to be more able: ‘needs to be pushed’, ‘doesn’t always do his best’, ‘doesn’t always give the extension’, ‘will do as little as possible’.
- 7. PhD findings: More Able child profiles – personalities & learning characteristics ‘amazing humour’ ‘very serious . . . an absolute perfectionist’ ‘laid back . . . very good at seeing patterns and things . . . he will tease you and kind of challenge you’ ‘deep thinking’ ‘Can be quite difficult, obstructive at times . . . eccentric in some of his behaviours’ ‘stolid plodder’
- 8. PhD findings: More Able child profiles – personalities & learning characteristics most able liked to get their work right and that they didn’t like failing ‘Perfectionism’ was used more than once to describe these individuals tend to give up if he didn’t get what he was doing right first time some enjoyed working with others… always challenging things – not to undermine the teacher but ‘purely out of curiosity’
- 9. PhD findings: More Able child profiles – personalities & learning characteristics ‘had his own agenda…he will come back at me with a counter idea’ enjoyed bringing in his ‘own ideas not directly related to [in class] projects’ ability to ‘think of where a problem is going’ motivated by challenging work some were confident to be challenged and questioned, and to question themselves others were quite shy or particularly All teachers also recognised that a straightforward correlation between ability and achievement does not exist
- 10. Formal definitions of giftedness: literature on the more able indicates that they think differently from others… they are Gestaltist in their thinking. 'in contrast to the less gifted who use either atomistic or serialistic strategies of perceiving information, the more gifted have an analytic strategy’. (Merenheimo, 1991, cited in Freeman1998, p. 23)
- 11. Giftedness: Metacognitive – knowing how you know things & the processes by which you think Self-regulating – autonomous learning, being able to prepare & supervise one’s own learning Underpinning this thinking is the notion of 'individualisation’
- 13. Information processing psychologists see intelligence as steps or processes people go through in solving problems. One person may be more intelligent that another because he or she moves through the same steps more quickly or efficiently, or is more familiar with the required problem solving steps.
- 14. Advocates of this view (e.g. Sternberg, 1979) focus on: how information is internally represented the kinds of strategies people use in processing that information the nature of the components (e.g. memory, inference, comparison) used in carrying out those strategies how decisions are made as to which strategies to use
- 15. Urban’s model of giftedness
- 16. Cigman’s (2006, p. 200) four- fold distinction: 1. The child who is very bright, and benefits from propitious environment 2. The child who is very bright, but lacks a propitious environment 3. The trophy child, who achieves highly as a result of a pressured environment, but who seems not bright, and strained or alienated by the experience 4. The child seems 'not bright', and lacks a propitious environment.
- 17. Giftedness: Broader perspectives Cigman (2006) Suggest two 'loose' criteria or 'indicators' of giftedness: exceptional or remarkable insight, shown in unsystematic ways...occasional brilliance, unsteady concentration or performance a passion for learning
- 18. Key Points: No general agreement about the nature of intelligence and that of being more able or gifted An artificially constructed concept Identification of ability needs to be carried out in a useful way – not just to classify individuals A concern about ability is a concern about student developing as individuals so that their potential is translated into achievement
- 19. Key Question/Task Do you recognise such students in your classrooms? In what ways do your highly able students (drawing on earlier identification and definitions) fit within the above categories?
- 20. ELLI’s seven ‘learning dimensions’ 1.Growth orientation v being stuck and static 2.Meaning making v data accumulation 3.Critical curiosity v passivity 4.Creativity v rule bound 5.Learning relationships v isolation 6.Strategic awareness v robotic 7.Resilience v dependence
- 21. Claxton’s Positive Learning Dispositions Resilient Resourceful Reflective Reciprocal Curious Questioning Clear-thinking Collaborative (proactive) (“How come?”) (logical) (team member) Adventurous Open-minded Thoughtful Independent (up for a (‘negative (Where else (can work alone) challenge) capability’) could I use this?) Determined Playful Self-knowing Open to (persistent) (“Let’s try ...”) (own habits) feedback Flexible Imaginative Methodical Attentive (trying other (could be ...) (strategic) (to others) ways) Observant Integrating Opportunistic Empathic (details / (making links) (serendipity) (other people’s patterns) shoes) Focused Intuitive Self-evaluative Imitative (distractions) (reverie) (“How’s it (contagious) going?”)
- 22. Pedagogic implications of teaching the more able Students encouraged to take control of their own learning Teacher to involve the learner explicitly as a partner in the learning process Notion of 'open discourse’ Assessment is not something that is done to them but done with and by them Collaborative and open-ended enquiry is promoted This type of pedagogy can be seen in terms of a particular type of mediatory power in teaching/learning interactions
- 23. PhD findings: Involving the more able as partners in the learning process Allowing the pupils to extend in-class learning further than anticipated or planned for. Flexible time – frame for pupils to work within. Modification of planning or learning to take into account the interests of pupils. Co-operative and collaborative learning promoted.
- 24. PhD findings: Involving the more able as partners in the learning process Whole class, self and peer assessment. Questions asked or problems set allow for personal interpretation. Method(s) and solution(s) of problems set are unknown to both teacher and learner. Inclusive use of language. Interactive displays.
- 25. PhD findings: Involving the more able as partners in the learning process Availability of independent activities. Whole class discussion where pupils as well as teacher have to explain their ideas, and where the process of learning is analysed The promotion and support (in terms of time and resources) of independent study, the focus of which is decided by the student or group of pupils
- 26. To varying degrees the roles of ‘teacher’ & ‘learner’ were floating: Expectations were made clear to the pupils that they were dual partners in the learning process Pupils’ contributions were frequently volunteered rather than elicited and were always valued Pupils were encouraged to co-construct one another’s learning at whole class and group level Discussion was allowed to shift in an unpredictable manner Inclusive use of language was deployed ‘we’, ‘us’, ‘our’ Manner and tone of teacher whilst demanding was warm and friendly
- 27. Key Question/Task How do you manage to mediate and promote the learning of your highly able students during non-contact? How do you promote interactive learning?
- 30. Key References: Baxter Magolda, M.B. 1992. Students’ epistemologies and academic experiences: Implications for pedagogy. Review of Higher Education 15, no. 3: 265–87. Biggs, J. (2004), Teaching for Quality Learning at University: What the Student Does. 2nd edn. Maidenhead: Society for Research into Higher Education & Open University Press Bransford, J., A. Brown, and R. Cocking, eds. 2000. How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and School Committee on Developments in the Science of Learning. Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education of the National Research Council National Academy Press. Cigman, R. 2006. The Gifted Child: A Conceptual Enquiry. Oxford Review of Education, 32, no. 2: 197-212
- 31. Key References: Claxton, G. 2007. Expanding Young People’s Capacity to Learn. British Journal of Educational Studies, 53, no. 2: 115-134. Daly, A., Penketh, C., and Rush, L. 2009 ‘Academic preparedness: Student and tutor perceptions of the ‘academic experience’’. Society for Research in Education (SRHE) Conference proceedings. Fontana, D. 1995. Psychology for Teachers, 3rd Ed, Revised and updated, London: The British Psychological Society Fredricksson, U., and B. Hoskins. 2007. The development of learning how to learn in a European context. The Curriculum Journal 18, no. 2: 127–34.
- 32. Key References: Lucas, L., and P.L. Tan. 2005. Developing reflective capacity: The role of personal epistemologies within undergraduate education. Research seminar discussion paper, Fourteenth Improving Student Learning Symposium, September 4–6, University of Bath. Moon, J. 2005. We seek it here . . . a new perspective on the elusive activity of critical thinking: A theoretical and practical approach. ESCalate discussion paper. Available online at: http://escalate.ac.uk/index.cfm? action1⁄4resources.search&q1⁄4criticalþthinking&rtype1⁄4itehe lp&rtype1⁄4project& rtype1⁄4publication&rtype1⁄4resource&rtype1⁄4review Moseley, D., Elliot, J., Gregson, M., and Higgins, S,. 2003. Thinking skills frameworks for use in education and training. British Educational Research Journal 31, no. 3: 367-390
- 33. Key References: Northedge, A. (2003), ‘Rethinking Teaching in the Context of Diversity’, Teaching in Higher Education, 8.1, 17-32 Perry, W.G. 1970. Forms of intellectual and ethical development in the college years: A scheme. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. Poerksen, B. 2005. Learning how to learn. Kybernetes 34, no. 2/3: 471–84. Putnam, R.T., and H. Borko. 2000. What do new views of knowledge and thinking have to say about research on teacher learning? Educational Researcher 29, no. 1: 4–15. Rawson, M. 2000. Learning to learn: More than a skill set. Studies in Higher Education 25, no. 2: 225–38.
- 34. Key References: Robinson, M. Nancy. 1997. The Role of Universities and Colleges in Educating Gifted Undergraduates. Peabody Journal of Education. 72, no. 3/4, Charting a New Course in Gifted Education: Parts 1 and 2 (1997), 217-236 Rush, L., and Fisher, A. 2009. Expanding the capacity to learn of student teachers in Initial Teacher Training. ESCalate, Academic online paper (http://escalate.ac.uk/5802). Rush, L. 2009. Bridging the gap between theory and practice: one tutor’s endeavors to embed and enact a distinctive pedagogic approach to learning-to-learn (L2L). NEXUS Journal 1: 197-212. Edge Hill University, Centre for Teaching and Learning Research (CLTR)
- 35. Key References: Fisher, A and Rush, L. 2008. Conceptions of learning and pedagogy: developing trainee teachers’ epistemological understandings. The Curriculum Journal. 19, No. 3 pp 227-238. Routledge. Rush, L. 2002. An Exploration into how Effective Upper key Stage Two Teachers Manage to Intervene with More Able Children in the Classroom Setting Ph.D. Schommer-Aitkins, M.A. 2002. An evolving framework for an epistemological belief system. In Personal epistemology: The psychology of beliefs about knowledge and knowing, ed. B.K. Hofer and P.R. Pintrich. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Wingate, U. 2007. A Framework for Transition: Supporting ‘Learning to Learn in Higher Education, Higher Education Quarterly, 0951-522461. No. 3: 391-405
Editor's Notes
- Extract poem written by 14 year old Leona Salami, winner of Seamus Heaney poetry competition
- This presentation invites us to draw parallels between findings in my PhD study with the context of secondary classroom settings and how teachers in this context translate the potential of ALL their students into achievement. This is of particular importance for the highly able or ‘gifted’ student whose specific needs are increasingly lost within the context of mixed-ability classes.
- On completion of my initial review of the research literature as part of my PhD study I was particularly inspired by the exciting discoveries about the 'plasticity' of the human brain. Plasticity implies that the brain can re-programme itself if it becomes damaged. It tells us how the brain can adapt to changes in the environment and reflect the state of things around it. If the environment is enriched and interesting then the brain becomes enriched, interested and efficient at working (Burnett, 2002). In the light of contemporary brain science research and recent developments in our understanding of cognition and metacognition, educationalists and practitioners are becoming more interested in the basis for intellectual superiority. That is, the specific environmental conditions that can positively impact on ability. Such thinking reflects a personal belief of mine that everyone has the potential to achieve more. This, in turn, has led to the focus of the research shifting towards an overall concern about how teachers might translate potential into achievement. An area of particular interest was the interaction between the teacher and learner – the mediation of learning.
- Closely allied to this promotion of higher order thinking is the concept of metacognition . Metacognitive knowledge is concerned with knowing how you know things and the processes by which you think (Fisher, 1990). There are many educational psychologists who believe that metacognitive factors are central to intellectual superiority and that it is essential that learning situations and curriculum materials positively encourage and develop higher order cognitive abilities , in particular metacognitive skills (Sternberg, 1998; Adey, 1991). Integral to metacognition is the concept of self-regulation. Freeman (1998, p. 23) explains that 'Self-regulation implies autonomous learning, being able to prepare and supervise one's own knowledge acquisition, provide one's own feedback and to keep oneself concentrated and motivated'. Span (1995) cited by Freeman (1998, p. 23) argues that: the equation is relatively straightforward: the more able an individual the more self-regulation will be needed for high achievement; the less able an individual the more teacher regulation is needed. Underpinning this thinking is the notion of 'individualisation'. Individualisation, Freeman goes on to explain, is to do with the student having greater responsibility for the content and pace of their own educational progress . In this students are required to monitor their own learning . The more able are the ones who can make the most use of metacognitive information and self regulative modes of study, and therefore are likely to benefit from exposure to it.
- If the importance of creative and practical abilities is to be accepted as having equal standing alongside analytical ones to succeed in life it is imperative that these are embedded in any means of identification. Testing with a view to identifying such ability, however, is not straightforward. Earlier creativity tests, for example, so closely resembled the IQ based ones, that they tended to replicate their weaknesses (Cropley, 1995, cited in Freeman, 1998). Urban's (1990) model of creativity illustrates well the complexity in this single component.
- It is important that educators' are able to raise questions re: under and over achievement and generally to try and understand interactions between children's natural abilities and the environments in which they find themselves.
- The concept of exceptionality is not straightforward, and its susceptibility to different interpretations lies behind the charge of 'raggedness'. A child who is exceptional in one context may be unexceptional in another...We also have the concept of being exceptional 'by any standards'...(p. 207) Cigman suggests two 'loose' criteria or 'indicators' of giftedness , i.e. Indicators of potential ability to perform exceptionally well. The first is exceptional or remarkable insight, shown in unsystematic ways...occasional brilliance, unsteady concentration or performance - points to a worrying discrepancy between potential and actual ability...raises concern about wasted potential...The second indicator of giftedness is a passion for learning...The passion for learning is an important and neglected aspect of giftedness. The term 'enjoy' does not capture the single-mindednesd with which gifted individuals often pursue their interests...given their unusual capacities and passions, achievement is often something that gifted children need if they are leading fulfilling lives...
- Ruth Cigman (2006, p. 197) in her paper The Gifted Child: A Conceptual Enquiry argues: “Giftedness is conceptually challenging because decisions about who is and is not gifted bring us to the threshold of our disagreements about values”. In reality, giftedness is a 'purely artificially constructed concept' . (John White (1970) cited in Cigman, 2006, p. 198). Cigman goes onto to suggest that the overarching intention should be to identify learner as 'gifted' , in a way that is useful. The point is not merely to classify individuals . One ’s concern about giftedness is inseparable from a concern about them developing as individuals. All this raises the question about potential. The literature (including my own PhD findings) concerning giftedness, for example, discusses not only 'demonstrated achievement' but also 'potential ability'. The issue of potential is more acute with children where the concern about giftedness is largely a concern about missing this window of opportunity (Cigman, 2006, p. 198) Cigman (p. 199) states that “a gifted child is more than usually bright, at least in some area or other...” But, a naturally bright child may be passed over as such because their performance is unexceptional. Their performance may be unexceptional because they were never read with, given first-hand experiences, felt loved or nurtured etc...Observations about (natural) brightness are 'basic to interest in giftedness'. Natural ability and environment are of course deeply intertwined. Indeed, there are occasions on which natural and environmental influences can and should be evaluated (as distinct from measured) independently.
- ELLI (Effective Lifelong learning Inventory) an exciting new project being carried out in Bristol has captured the imagination of many teachers/educators. The project demonstrates that when teachers are free to focus on ‘learning’ they are able to create a climate which helps students get better at learning itself, rather than just passing assessments. Researchers at Bristol Uni School of Education have identified what makes some people interested in lifelong learning throughout their lives, while others drop out of the system early on. They have also developed ways of tracking, evaluating and recording people’s growth as learners and developed methods to improve learning. Seven aspects of the learning process termed ‘learning dimensions’ which helped them develop the ‘ELLI Profile’ - an assessment tool which can differentiate between ineffective and effective learners.
- Ref: Resnick ’s ‘habits of mind’ & Costa/Perkins ‘ways of being, seeing and doing’… Claxton (2002) discusses the notion of being a successful lifelong learner in the following way: Being a good real-life learner means knowing what is worth learning; what you are good (and not so good) at learning; who can help; how to face confusion without getting upset; and what the best learning tool is for the job at hand. Just as being a reader involves much more than simply being able to read, so ‘being a learner’ means enjoying learning, and seeing yourself as a learner, seeking out learning as well a knowing how to go about it.
- In a sense what the more able learner requires is for the teacher to develop pedagogies that will encourage and support them to take control of their own learning . An active control over learning fosters what Ireson et al (cited in Mortimore, 1999, p. 216) refer to as a 'mastery orientation' towards achievement: A mastery orientation to learning is linked with numerous beneficial motivational characteristics, including a preference for challenging work, high persistence in the face of difficulty and a focus on learning as a goal in itself (Ames and Ames, 1992; Dweck and Leggett, 1988; Nicholls, 1989). Of particular importance in terms of this study is the claim that: learners using a mastery orientation are more likely to use effective learning strategies to monitor their own learning, checking that they understand the meaning of their work, and to relate learning in formal education to their own experience (p. 217). To intervene judiciously or promote a mastery orientation of learning can, in turn, be linked to Bruner's (1996, cited in Mortimore, p. 58) preferred conception of pedagogy; one in which students are helped to become more metacognitive – to be aware of how they go about their learning and thinking as they are about the subject matter they are studying. Rather than the teacher giving up responsibility for student learning and progress, this conception of pedagogy requires the teacher to take on the added responsibility of involving the learner more as a partner and doing so explicitly. Such thinking reflects the move from an impoverished conception of pedagogy 'in which a single, presumably omniscient teacher explicitly tells or shows presumably unknowing learners something they presumably know nothing about' (Bruner, 1996, p. 20 cited in Mortimore, p. 58). MacGilchrist et al (1997) liken Bruner's preferred conception of pedagogy to a 'pact' between teaching and learning in which the interdependence of the teacher and learner is highlighted. Closely associated with the aforementioned teaching and learning pact is Taylor et al's (1997) notion of 'open discourse' where 'communication is orientated towards understanding and respecting the meaning perspectives of others' (Mortimore, 1999, p. 56). When an open discourse prevails learners are given the opportunity to negotiate with the teacher about the nature of their learning tasks. Assessment is not something that is done to them but done with and by them (involving different forms of self and peer assessment). Collaborative and open ended enquiry is promoted and the learners positively encouraged to share in the setting up of the classroom rules and routines.