It is particularly important
for teachers to understand and identify to the best of their ability in the
interest of the gifted and talented students and the class in its entirety.
The
identification of a student’s gift or talent is an important part of the
teacher’s process of recognising and catering for individual student needs
within the classrooms. A gifted or talented student may exhibit a few or many
of the ‘gifted and talented characteristics’ set aside by Silverman (1993,
cited NSW DET 2004b). Whilst not all of the gifted and talented
characteristics are seen as positive, it is still important for teacher to
recognise the attributes of giftedness in order to be aware of the student’s
educational needs.
Within
the gifted and talented category there are six types of profiles that have been
developed by Betts and Neihart (1988). 1. The High Achiever, 2. The Challenger
Type, 3. The Underground Student, 4. The Dropout, 5. The Double Labeled and 6.
The Autonomous Learner (Betts & Neihart, 1988).
Each category varies in the presence and strength of characteristics
found in individual students, as they will each differ in intellectual level,
strengths, weaknesses and mental cognition (Silverman, 1993). It is because of
this diversity that a broad range of criteria is employed to identify these
gifted and talented students.
Gagné’s (2004) Differentiated Model of
Giftedness and Talent (DMGT) assists in the identification of gifted and talented
students. Gagné’s model determines not only the difference between gifted and
talented, a gifted child being one who demonstrates “untrained and
spontaneously expressed superior natural ability” (Gagné, 2004, p1), a talent
based child identified by a “superior mastery of systematically developed
abilities” (Gagné, 2004, p1). Gagné’s model
also identifies and the natural abilities of a child and the domains that
influence them.
For
a teacher the identification of all students potential abilities, whether or
not they be gifted or talented, is fundamental to providing a developmentally
appropriate learning program (Vygotsky
1978). It is through this knowledge of each student’s potential
abilities, skills and interests that programs can be designed that will provide
ongoing opportunities for all students, enabling them to be challenged at their
own levels of learning and mental cognition (Bloom 1956). Through
differentiated learning a gifted and talented student can easily participate in
lessons that utilise diverse levels of thinking and expectations in accordance
with each students learning capabilities, whilst ensuring
that the program is meeting each and every students mental and educational
needs (Tomlinson 2000).
It is imperative that teachers
identify students that demonstrate gifted or talented abilities within their
classroom. This identification allows teachers to create a program that will
engage the students and challenge them whilst encouraging higher-order thinking skills, problem solving and creativity
(NSW DET, 2004c). As
with all students under a teacher’s care, it is the aim of the teacher to
ensure each student receives the very most out of their education.
DEC G&T Documentation
References
Betts,
G.T. & Neihart, M. (1988). Profiles of the gifted and talented. Gifted
Child Quarterly, 32(2), 248–253.
Bloom,
B.S. (Ed.). (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives: e
classification of educational goals. New York: Longmans, Green & Co.
Gagné,
F. (2003). Transforming gifts into talents: e
DMGT as a developmental theory.In
N.Colangelo&G.A.Davis(Eds.),Handbookofgiftededucation(3rd ed., pp. 60–74).
Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
NSW DET (New South Wales Department of
Education and Training) (2004a), Policy and Implementation Strategies for the
Education for Gifted and Talented Students, State of NSW, Department of
Education and Training, NSW
NSW DET (New South Wales Department of
Education and Training) (2004b), Policy and Implementation Strategies for the
Education for Gifted and Talented Students; Support Package, Identification,
State of NSW, Department of Education and Training, NSW
NSW DET (New South Wales Department of
Education and Training) (2004c), Policy and Implementation Strategies for the
Education for Gifted and Talented Students; Support Package, Curriculum Differentiation,
State of NSW, Department of Education and Training, NSW
Silverman, L.K. (1993). A developmental
model for counseling the gifted. In L.K. Silverman (Ed.), Counseling the gifted
and talented (pp. 51–78). Denver: Love Publishing Company.
Tomlinson. C, (2000). Reconcilable
differences: Standards-based teaching ad differentiation, Educational Leadership,
Vol 58, No.1, pp6-11
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind and
society: The development of higher mental processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press
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