Chapter Seven: Giftedness

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Chapter Seven Giftedness
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Giftedness Definition

• IDEA does not cover gifted and talented.
• Federal definition from the 1994 reauthorization
  of the Jacob K. Javits Gifted and Talented
  Students Education Act
• The term gifted and talented when used in
  respect to students, children, or youth means
  students, children, or youth who give evidence of
  high performance capability in areas such as
  intellectual, creative, artistic, or leadership
  ability, or in specific academic fields, and who
  require service or activities not ordinarily
  provided by the school in order to fully develop
  such capabilities.

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Renzullis Definition of Giftedness

• Renzulli proposed that an individual who produces
  new, original contributions in a field possesses
  the following characteristics 1) above-average
  ability, 2) creativity, 3) task commitment.

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Pentagonal Implicit Theory

• Excellence Superior in some dimension or set of
  dimensions to peers
• Rarity High level of an attribute that is rare
  relative to peers.
• Productivity The dimensions along which the
  individual is evaluated as superior must lead to
  or potentially lead to productivity.
• Demonstrability The superiority of the
  individual on the dimensions that determine
  giftedness must be demonstrable through one or
  more tests that are valid assessments.

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Pentagonal Implicit Theory

• Value Superior performance in a dimension that
  is valued for that person by his or her own
  society.

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Domain-specific Giftedness

• Domain-specific giftedness regards intelligence
  as multidimensional, spanning several domains of
  giftedness.
• Gardner proposed a domain-specific giftedness
  model which describes eight multiple
  intelligences musical, bodily-kinesthetic,
  linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial,
  interpersonal, intrapersonal and naturalistic.
• According to Gardner, expertise pertains to the
  technical mastery of skills and knowledge within
  a domain while creativity refers to unusual or
  unique expressions within a domain.

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Common Characteristics of Gifted

• General intellect Students who demonstrate high
  general intellect are able to grasp concepts,
  generalize, analyze, or synthesize new ideas or
  products than other students their age.
• Specific Academic Aptitude Students with
  exceptional ability may have an unusual aptitude
  in specific scholastic areas such as verbal or
  mathematical reasoning.
• Creative Productive Thinking Compared to their
  peers, these students may be more adventurous,
  independent, curious, spontaneous, flexible,
  sensitive, intuitive, and insightful.

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• Leadership Ability Students classified in the
  leadership category typically display
  well-developed social skills, empathy, ability to
  motivate others, ability to keep others united or
  on task, and effective communication skills.
• Visual and Performing Arts In addition to
  general intellect and creativity, these students
  may have highly developed nonverbal communication
  skills physical coordination exceptional
  awareness of where they are in relation to other
  things and people or specific skills in music,
  dance, mime storytelling, drawing, or painting.

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Giftedness Behavioral, Social, and Emotional
Characteristics

• Bore easily
• High sensitivity
• Resist authority
• Easily frustrated
• Excessive amounts of energy
• Have preferred ways of learning
• Cannot sit still unless absorbed

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• Very compassionate, have many fears
• Learn from explorations, resist rote memory
• Require emotionally stable adults around them
• May give up and develop permanent learning blocks

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Giftedness Origins

• Nature- genetic Some research suggests that the
  brains of children who are gifted may be shaped
  and function differently from the brains of
  children in the normal range of intelligence.
• Nurture- psychosocial Doman and Doman (1994)
  believe that environmental factors have the
  greatest influence on intellect.

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• Prevalence of Giftedness
• When IQ scores are equated with giftedness the
  top 2-3 of the general population is considered
  gifted.
• In contrast to using IQ scores, another theory
  suggests that there is a talent pool that
  includes the top 15-20 of students.

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Giftedness Assessment Approaches

• First educators must determine the presence of
  giftedness then they must determine the nature
  and extent of special education services.
• Three benefits result from formal assessment
• 1. Schools obtain data to validate a students
  performance.
• 2. A student is more likely to receive an
  appropriate education.
• 3. Meeting specific criteria will ensure federal
  funding of services.

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Giftedness Assessment Approaches

• Multiple assessments minimize discrimination of
  minority populations.
• Assessment measures include
• Individualized intelligence tests
• Individualized achievement tests
• Tests of creative ability
• Multiple intelligences tests
• Documentation assessment (portfolio or authentic
  assessment)

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Giftedness Assessment Approaches

• Checklists of traits for giftedness
• Anecdotal records
• Ongoing Assessment
• Product evaluation
• Process or reflective evaluation

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Determining the Nature and Extent of Special
Education

• After identifying a student as gifted, educators
  implement educational planning and regular
  evaluations.
• Product evaluation An academic assessment based
  on written product from the student, such a test.
  This method is restrictive because it does not
  help teachers or students understand the process
  of learning.
• Process or reflective evaluation Involves
  observing and teaching students how they learn.

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Focus Points for AssessmentTeacher uses

• Product
• teachers grade book
• report card
• How student compares to other students
• Process
• Teachers understanding of student
• Teachers instructional planning
• Parent conferences

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Focus Points for AssessmentStudent uses

• Product
• Student understanding of what still needs to be
  learned
• Review of material
• How student compares to peers in the class
• Process
• Active participation and responsibility in the
  assessment process
• Development of self-monitoring strategies that
  use higher-order thinking skills

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Augmenting Curriculum

• Enrichment means modifying the curriculum that is
  greater in depth or breadth than what is
  generally provided.
• The Enrichment triad model was developed to
  encourage creative productivity on the part of
  the students by exposing them to a variety of
  topics, areas of interest, and fields of study,
  and to teach them to apply advanced skills to
  self-selected areas of interest.
• Type 1 enrichment exposes learners to a wide
  variety of topics, disciplines, occupations,
  hobbies, persons, places, and events that
  ordinarily would not be included in general
  education curriculum.

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Enrichment

• Type II enrichment focuses on resources that
  promote creative thinking, problem-solving, and
  critical-thinking skills.
• When a student becomes interested in pursuing a
  self-selected area of interest and commits the
  time necessary for the endeavor then a Type III
  occurs. The goals for Type III enrichment
  include Providing opportunities for applying
  interests, acquiring advanced-level understanding
  of the content and process that are used within
  particular disciplines, developing authentic
  products, developing self-directed learning
  skills, and empowering the individual to take
  control of own learning through organization and
  feelings of accomplishment.

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Altering Curriculum Problem based learning

• Problem based learning helps develop
  problem-solving and critical thinking skills as
  well as content knowledge and skills by using
  real-world problems.
• The problems drive the curriculum and do not have
  one simple solution.
• The students solve the problem with teachers
  servings as facilitators.
• Guidelines are given for how the student can
  approach the problem.
• Assessment is authentic and performance-based.

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Collaboration

• Flexibility means the students should be allowed
  to move forward at their own pace after they have
  mastered a topic, learn from other experts and
  try lessons that require higher order thinking.
• Acceleration refers to speeded-up learning,
  learning the same amount in less time.
• Variety refers to different means for learning.
• Mentors are people who know more than students
  do about a particular area and are willing to
  work with them individually.

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Giftedness Setting Curricular Goals

• Tailor the pace of instruction to students pace
  of learning.
• Ensure that the depth of content coverage
  correlates to students aptitude and level of
  sophistication.
• Relate instruction to students interests.

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Programs and Practice

• Early Childhood Years- Identifying preschool
  students with exceptional ability is difficult,
  but the current educational focus on early
  readiness is encouraging many new programs.
• Elementary and Middle Years- Elementary programs
  that build on curricular goals, focus on
  students interests, and ensure depth of content
  coverage are critical for student success and
  ongoing learning.

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• Secondary Years- The most common programs at the
  secondary level ensure depth of coverage with
  enriched curriculum meant to expand students
  understanding of the content. Similarly,
  problem-based learning captures students
  interests and challenges them to show their true
  potential.

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• Transition and Postsecondary Years- Planning for
  college needs to be a systematic process with
  steps beginning as early as seventh grade. With
  structure planning, gifted students can often get
  a jump start on the college experience by
  participation in enriched or advanced-level
  courses designed to complete high school and/or
  curricular requirements at the postsecondary
  level.

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Encouraging Participation

• Practice Inclusion
• Use Renzullis School Enrichment Model (SEM)-
  incorporates advanced learning experiences and
  higher-order thinking skills into existing
  programs
• Use differentiated learning techniques

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• Foster Collaboration
• Professional-to-professional- peer coaching
  between classroom and gifted program teachers
• Family and professional- hiring tutors/ coaches,
  homeschooling, and attending special schools
• Community- mentorships, pairing community
  experts with students