Howard Gardner's Theory Of Gifted Education

In 2015, I wrote about my personal philosophy of the gifted learner. I stated in my paper that, “Giftedness is not a one, set definition. The definition of gifted must encompass intellect, ability, creative talent as well as emotional awareness. It cannot be micro-managed and be a “one size fits all” definition” (Dauber, 2015). People, who are gifted, need differentiation and opportunity to express, demonstrate and show their giftedness. Educators must be able to provide opportunities for the gifted learner to express his/her abilities and/or talents. Gifted students learn differently and require special educational experiences in order to grow academically and achieve their highest potential. Therefore, the education field must be able to understand not only the cognitive side of a gifted learner but the affective or social/emotional aspects too.

Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligence’s (MI theory) is a valuable resource for teachers, if they understood how they could apply this in the classroom (Snowman & McCown, 2012). In this class, there are multiple intelligences observed amongst the students; however, there is minimal differentiated instruction to allow the students the best opportunities for success. It is critical that teachers understand that their teaching methods may not be wrong, but they

In “A Rounded Version: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences”, Howard Gardner illustrates how there are a variety of intelligences. Gardner starts off with an example how IQ tests may predict achievement in school but may not predict achievement in life. After finding out certain parts of the brain are responsible for certain functions, such as “Broca’s Area” which is responsible for sentence production, Gardner proposes the existence of multiple intelligences. Multiple studies later led him to propose seven distinct intelligences; Musical, bodily-kinesthetic, logical-mathematical, linguistic, spatial, interpersonal, and intrapersonal. Each intelligence has certain classifications. According to Gardner’s classifications, I realized my intelligences are bodily-kinesthetic, logical-mathematical, and intrapersonal.

Middle school is a period of transition for adolescents. Students are no longer the children were once were in elementary school; they are beginning to mature into the adults they will need to become. Gifted learners at the middle-school level face the same developmental and tasks tasks and challenges that their peers do. Yet, gifted learners also possess traits that are different from their peers, which often make them misunderstood or ignored. The need for teachers to identify these students and differentiate instruction in a way that addresses the needs of the gifted students in the classroom is becoming more crucial than ever.

I evaluated the information in the document above based upon Moon’s (2013) nine measures to consider in comprehensive gifted education program. I think that FCCPS does a considerably good job addressing these nine guidelines. However, I believe they should consider more non-standardized materials and data while considering students for identification.

Albert Einstein stated that “everyone is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid”. At Highland Middle School, we understand that each student contain personal strengths and weaknesses in aspects of education. For this reason, we place a high amount of focus on incorporating Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligences concept in our classrooms, lesson plans, assessments, and learning objectives. Essential elements that are conducive to implementing Gardner’s concept include allows students to have choices and let their curiosity direct their learning, incorporating technology that increases student learning outcomes, and incorporating hands-on learning opportunities throughout the school day.

In this case, some people refute that gifted students are practically children with adult minds who are capable of diving into the real-world while they have merely begun to test the waters. Others counter with the belief that pushing gifted youth to tackle subjects above the average student of their grade is socially damaging. However, K. Elijah (2011) explains that gifted students who are not being challenged can develop an extreme boredom in school which can lead to disruptive behaviors that will evolve into dropping out of school. In the same article, gifted students are credited with learning quicker, more deeply, and tend to practice material for memorization less (Elijah, 2011). Also, “Acceleration of Gifted Students” (2003) further clarifies that when gifted students are properly assisted in developing an educational program, they report to be satisfied emotionally and academically. Students also tended to have more self-confidence, and no negative effects of acceleration were reported in a survey of non-gifted and gifted students (“Acceleration,” 2003). Assisting gifted students is imperative whether it be through homogeneous grouping, heterogeneous grouping, and/or acceleration in order to provide proper instruction that will benefit these

There is little difference in the self-concept when it comes to gifted students and their same-aged peers. Gifted students have lower self-concept and experience more anxiety and isolation, as they progress through school. They also feel more confident if academics situations, as opposed to social ones (p.13). Colangelo points out that gifted students are not except from underachievement, suicide, or delinquency (p.13). Gifted minority

National Association for Gifted Children website mission is to support those who enhance the growth and development of gifted and talented children through education, advocacy, community building, and research. They aim to help parents and families, K-12 education professionals including support service personnel, and members of the research and higher education community. We can find the Twice-Exceptional Special Interest Group, this group provides professionals a network where they can meet to discuss research, programs, curriculum and new developments for this special area of gifted education. I couldn’t find specific information for children from 0 to 8-year-old, but they give relevant information for parents who notice something exceptional

This challenge has proven to be easier said than done, and its solution varies from state to state. For the purpose of this paper, the state of Delaware’s method will suffice. Delaware uses a combination of standardized assessments and teacher nominations in order to suss these children out (Hansen 9). While the state does not promote one method over the other, the Legislative Task Force For Gifted and Talented Education does claim that a physical, tangible measure of intelligence, such as a standardardized assessment score, may be a more concrete identifier (Hansen 9). However, as any high schooler who didn’t score as highly as they had hoped on the SAT can attest to, standardized tests can’t measure everything, and this is why administrators must take additional information into account, such as class performance and recommendations, to determine who is gifted and who is

There are many cognitive and affective characteristics of intellectually gifted adolescents which differ from those of their non-gifted peers. These characteristics have the potential to assist academic and social development, or conversely may present social and academic difficulties for the adolescents.

Lastly, my philosophy thoughts and beliefs follow that of Howard Gardner. Gardner’s work in education suggests that everyone has multiple intelligences that aids in the way that they learn. He believes that because everybody processes information in different ways, then their learning and understanding will differ as well. Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence theory mentions seven main ways in which he believes that students learn. These multiple intelligence include visual-spatial such as visual aids, bodily-kinesthetic involves movement, musical, interpersonal or the interaction with others, intrapersonal or independent learners, linguistic, and logical-mathematical (Lane, n.d.).

My interest gifted education started, when I reflected on my teaching experience and philosophy. Before start pursuing my master degree in the US, I was a kindergarten teacher. During my practice in a public school kindergarten classroom, I had a very bright student who immediately picked up cues that I gave about the activity of the day. She was quickly and correctly finishing the basic math activities. In addition, she was very creative during the art activities. She also demonstrated leadership skills among her classmates. While I was evaluating her, I attributed her success to her family environment. Compared to her classmates, she had very attentive parents. Moreover, she was the last child of the family and her older two siblings were academically successful role models for her. Most importantly, she also attended preschool before she started kindergarten; therefore, her performance was higher compared to classmates who did not have these same experiences. Once I become familiar with advance courses in gifted education, I now realize and feel my mistake, which was either not to consult schools guidance counselor or learn more how to engage her with different type of activities. Therefore, as a part of my professional development, I wanted to focus on the teacher role in the early childhood gifted education. However, I had very little knowledge about

Gagne, 1995 via Mansfield, 2016 ) believes that giftedness is static, or innate , “either you have it or you don’t,” and the other believes that giftedness is dynamic (i.e. Renzulli, 2012 and Vopat, 2011) and can be developed provided the appropriate nourishment and/or access to opportunity. According to Ward (2005), if one agrees that giftedness is innate, then he or she likely favors specialized instruction to meet gifted children’s unique needs similar to how SPED students require differentiated instruction. Alternatively, if one agrees that giftedness is dynamic, then he or she might favor retaining gifted students in the general education setting to capitalize on their “gifts” for the greater good.

Gifted students demonstrate characteristics and behaviors that differs from their peers because they are self-motivated, finds joy in learning, think creatively and take many risks. Most truly gifted students go above and beyond to expand their knowledge. During my case study, I was granted the opportunity to get to know “Bella”. Bella is a 4th grade student at Canby Lane Elementary which she has attended since Kindergarten. She entered the gifted and talent program at the age 6. She is 10 years old. Her birthday is November 18, 2006. Bella lives with both of her parents. They were both born in Togo, West Africa. She is the oldest of four children. She has two brothers and a sister.