Reflection Paper-the gifted and talented: A synthesis of the research on educational practice

REFLECTION ESSAY

LESSONS LEARNED ABOUT EDUCATING THE GIFTED AND TALENTED

By

Ahmad Z. Al Khatib

201080033

Reflection Essay

Current Issues in teaching and learning

Dr. Nagib Balfaqih

United Arab Emirates University

March, 2012

GIFTED: REFLECTION ESSAY 2

©2012

Ahmad Z. Al Khatib

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED


Introduction

This article introduces five lessons learned from research on gifted and talented. “This

synthesis of the research covers instructional management options, instructional delivery

techniques, and curriculum adaptation strategies are an attempt to aid school system

administrators and educators to identify which practices will best fit their respective settings

rather than see the research as a more generalized set of “best practices” that every school should

implement.” (Rogers, 2007, p. 382).

First of all, a definition of Gifted and talented needs to be adopted in order to determine

the target group. The one coined by the US Department of Education (1993) defines the Gifted

and Talented as "Children and youth with outstanding talent who perform or show the potential

for performing at remarkably high levels of accomplishment when compared with others of their

age, experience, or environment." The UAE ministry of education has adopted a similar

definition: " العالي لألداء القابلية على دليال يعطون الذين أولئك هم والمتفوقين الموهوبين األطفال

: مثل مجاالت وهؤالء في محددة، أكاديمية حقول في أو القيادية، والقدرات الفنية اإلبداعية، العقلية،

هذه لمثل الكامل التطوير أجل من وذلك العادية المدرسة تقدمها ال وأنشطة خدمات إلى يحتاجون

أوالقابليات "االستعدادات

Which can be translated as “"Children who perform or show the potential for performing

at remarkably high levels of accomplishment in: cognitive, creative, artistic, leadership, or

specialized academic areas and who require services and activities which are not presented by

regular schools in order to fully develop such capabilities and potentials (UAE MOE, 2012)


This article provides significant lessons, supported by research and practical application

on five lessons that can be adopted to start and run a program for Gifted and Talented learners at

the school or district level. In order to get the most out of it, I shall review the most important

points and reflect on each of them then finish up with a conclusion and reflection.

Lesson 1: Gifted and Talented learners need daily challenge in their specific area of

interest.

The outcome of lesson 1 is that each recognized gifted child must be given

consistent, progressively difficult curriculum which has been expressed across

grade and building levels and delivered deliberately.

To be able to achieve this, some kind of structured regrouping is required since

leaving this task to the regular classroom teacher to implement would make the

system vulnerable to failure because of the other responsibilities, lack of training,

and lack of motivation to provide differentiation the regular classroom teacher

suffers from.

Bringing gifted learners together through a pull-out or send-out program can be a

feasible option.

For the program to be effective the focus must be on specific extensions of the

school’s regular curriculum or on specific skills and processes integrated within a

curriculum area.

Providing gifted learners with systematic daily or regular challenge has been proven by

research to help advance the gifted learners and motivate them. This would require a separate


teacher who can be tasked with this apart from the regular classroom teacher who can only assist

in differentiated instruction if provided by adequate training and time.

Lesson 2: Opportunities should be provided on a regular basis for Gifted Learners

to be unique and to work independently in their areas of passion and talent.

Research shows that Gifted Learners prefer independent study, independent

projects and self instructional materials.

Independent study does have an impact on motivation to learn, but it requires

appropriate structuring through the use of a curriculum model, well trained

teachers, and collaboration between the teacher and the library in order to

translate this independent study into academic achievement.

Credit must be given to Gifted Learners for their time in independent learning.

Credit by examination, Curriculum compacting (pre-assessment of mastery and

replacement of mastered activities with differentiated ones), and credit for prior

learning (allowing a student to pass a course or class because of mastery of this

content area through independent learning).

Compacting has strong positive influence on motivation and attitudes of the

Gifted

Keeping the gifted restricted and forcing them to repeat what they have already

mastered can cause all sorts of problems from reticence to cognitive risks to

underachievement, to lowered academic self-esteem and to social and behavioral

maladjustments


Acknowledgment of the efforts which the gifted have demonstrated through independent

learning can take many forms of which compacting seems to have a strong positive influence on

their motivation and attitude to learn by letting them feel that they are making progress in their

learning. Many problems arise when they are made to sit year after year repeating what they

have previously mastered.

Lesson 3: Provide various forms of Subject-based and Grade-based acceleration to

Gifted Learners as their educational needs require

Subject-based acceleration such as early entrance to school, subject acceleration

(exposing the talented learner to content in the talent area that is 1 or more years

in advance of the learner’s actual grade placement), university-based programs

(residential, Saturday, summer, or commuter courses for middle and high school

gifted learners held on college campuses), individualized distance or online

learning (courses offered via television or Internet that offer advanced content set

at an individualized pace and complexity), cross-graded classes (students cross

grade lines within a school in a content area taught at the same time in all grade

levels, to work at the level of curriculum they are currently in the process of

mastering), advanced placement or international baccalaureate courses (provision

of college-level content in specific content areas to high school learners, with

college credit provided on successful performance on an external national or

international examination, respectively), dual enrollment (allowing a student

coursework at the next higher building level in his or her area of talent), college-

in-the-schools (offering college courses on the high school campus for both high


school and college credit), and mentorships (connecting the talented learner with a

content expert who structures the learning experiences over a specific period of

time).

The shortening of the actual years spent in the K-12 school system is often

defined as grade-based academic acceleration. This options includes grade

skipping, grade telescoping, non graded or multi-grade classes, credit by

examination, and early admission to college.

Many subject-based and grade-based acceleration options show substantial, positive

academic gains for gifted learners. Emotional impacts are small and positive in general.

Lesson 4: Provide opportunities for Gifted Learners to socialize and to learn with

like-ability peers

The research on the ability grouping and performance grouping of gifted learners

is extensive and substantially positive.

There are different types of ability grouping such as:

o ability grouping (providing all academic learning for gifted learners within

a self-contained setting such as a special school or full-time gifted

program).

o performance grouping for specific instruction (sorting and placing students

in a classroom with others who are performing at the same level of

difficulty in the curriculum).


o within-class grouping (individual teachers sorting children in their own

classroom according to their current performance in the curriculum).

o cluster grouping (placing the top 5 to 8 students at a grade level in an

otherwise heterogeneous class so that they become a “critical mass” for

whom the teacher can find time to—and does—differentiate).

o pull-out groups (gifted students removed for a consistent set time to a

resource room for extended curriculum differentiation).

Affectively, students in pull-out programs are more positive about school, have

more positive perceptions of giftedness, and are more positive about their

program of study at school than are gifted students not participating in pull-out

programs.

In summary, the evidence is clear that powerful academic effects and small to

moderate affective effects are produced when gifted children are grouped with

like-ability or like-performing peers and exposed to differentiated learning tasks

and expectations. It is also clear that the grouping has positive effects whether

full-time or part-time, although logically the more time this occurs for gifted

children, the more positive the effects on them, socially and emotionally.

It is clear that providing the opportunity for Gifted Learners to socialize with like-ability

peers, produces powerful positive academic and affective results. Depending on the school,

available resources and availability of trained teachers we can select the most appropriate type of

grouping.


Lesson 5: for specific curriculum areas, instructional delivery must be differentiated

in pace, amount of review and practice, and organization of content presentation.

Pacing:

If Gifted children are to retain what they have learned in mathematics and science,

it must be presented at their actual learning rate, not considerably slower than that

rate.

Some research has suggested that this fast pace is also conducive in other

educational areas and settings, such as foreign language and online distance

learning, but the research is not as extensive nor definitive.

This will require separate instruction, either individually or in a like-performing

group, rather than delivery through the more traditional whole class concept

presentation followed by individual practice and application.

Pacing then is teaching gifted learners at a faster rate. This approach has proven to be

successful in Math and science, but might also be extended to foreign languages and on-line

distance learning. This of course shall require some kind of grouping and separate instruction..

Practice and Review:

Experiential learning in mathematics, using inquiry and problem-based strategies

versus teaching for automaticity through drill and practice, leads to deeper

mathematical understandings among gifted mathematicians.

The general work on distributed versus massed practice also applies to this

differentiation in the amount of practice and review required of talented


mathematicians and scientists, suggesting that practices or reviews, even though

limited in number to 2 to 3 reviews for the gifted, be distributed across periods for

successful re-encoding of the concept to occur. Correlation is found between

spaced reviews of mathematics and greater retention and understanding.

Providing the Gifted with more in depth, and application of mathematical concepts

correlates with better achievement than exposing them to a wide variety of superficial topics. In

addition spaced reviews of mathematics and science correlates with a greater retention and

understanding.

Whole-to-Part Concept Teaching:

In mathematics, gifted students were able to envision the class or problem

category of even a single problem, identifying the hidden generality of what

might be seemingly disparate elements to other learners. Gifted learners are more

likely to switch to an alternative strategy when faced with a mathematics

challenge they cannot resolve, than to resort to trial and error.

In science, it was found that gifted learners ultimately apprehended the

generalization of the curriculum

Research shows that Gifted Learners are generalists tending to acquire information as a

whole and store it in long-term memory as a whole, whereas average learners tend to acquire and

store information in small, disparate chunks, from which their teachers will need to help them

make connections to ultimately see the whole of a concept.


Conclusion

Can we establish a practical, able to implement program for the Gifted and Talented in

our school? This research article is evidence that “Yes” it can be done. The five lessons derived

from research and applications provide an evidence for this claim. To do so we need to provide

the GT with steady challenge and daily development of talent, opportunities for regular and

independent work, subject or grade – based accelerations, opportunities to socialize and learn

from their ability-like peers, and differentiated whole-to-part, fast paced instruction that provides

depth and complexity in addition to limited drill and review (Rogers, 2007). To be able to

achieve this some sort of grouping is required and acceleration programs. Schools should offer

two options for each and allow GT learners, teachers, parents and the society to have a say in

that. Schools should move away from the role of identifying GT learners to nurturing and

provision of services that suite their needs. Training is required for novice teachers on how to

identify individual differences and preparation and delivery of differentiated instruction. I’m not

aware of the availability of such programs in our schools in the UAE. This article is an eye

opener and it changed my view and perceptions of gifted learners. From readings on the

characteristics of GT learners I believe that as a child I had some Giftedness in me, but the lack

of such programs in our regular schooling system has led to me being De-Gifted as years passed

by.


References

Rogers, K.B. (2007). Lessons learned about educating the gifted and talented: A synthesis of the

research on educational practice. Gifted Child Quarterly, 51(4), 382–396.

US Department of Education, (1993). http://www.nsgt.org/articles/index.asp

UAE MOE, (2012). http://www.moe.gov.ae/Arabic/Pages/GiftedandAlvaiqon.aspx

http://www.nsgt.org/articles/index.asp

Documents

Reflection Paper-the gifted and talented: A synthesis of the research on educational practice