The Gifted and Talented Essay

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.

To begin, genius comes about through passion, creativity, and natural talent and cannot be “born”. First, intellect is the obvious foundation for any genius, however, it involves more than natural intelligence. To illustrate, an individual may have great talent in a certain subject but lack of practice, imagination and passion will prevent him from being a genius. On the other hand, one may not have an astounding natural ability nevertheless he practices, has a passion for this subject and an open imagination; this individual may turn out to be a genius. Thus, intellect is an aspect of a genius not the only component.

Howard Gardner introduced the theory of multiple intelligences stating that each person possesses a blend of at least eight different kinds of intelligence: verbal/linguistic, logical/mathematical, visual/spatial, bodily/kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and environmental/naturalistic (Bruno, 2009).

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.

One of the difficulties in identifying the needs of low-income students is the profound cultural barriers which exist that prevent their strengths and deficits from being identified. Children from low-income homes frequently have poorer vocabularies and a weaker basis of the type of knowledge that is frequently considered 'intelligence' on most forms of assessment. A low-income child's IQ may be high, even though he lacks a framework of accepted middle-class knowledge. "In January 2003, the National Academy of Sciences released a report on the seeming overrepresentation of minorities in special education and underrepresentation of those students in gifted education. The NRC reported that, nationwide, 7.47 percent of all white students and 9.9 percent of Asian students are placed in gifted programs. Meanwhile, 3.04 percent of African-American students, 3.57 percent of Hispanic students, and 4.86 percent of American Indian students are classified as gifted" (GT-minority identification, 2003, ERIC Clearinghouse). The discrepancy, the NAS believed, could not be solely explained by talent alone but was at least partially rooted in the methods of identifying students labeled as gifted. Biases in standardized and other tests identifying student strengths, combined with prejudices, however unintentional, amongst educators and administrators lead to under-identification of the gifted

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.

Some people believe that intelligence is inherited through genes and that they never change. Giftedness is not one of the inherited talents that are possible to inherit. Giftedness has to be developed and practiced as the child grows out of their early years. They also believe that gifted students read all the time, wear glasses, and are most of the time called “nerds”. This is called stereotyping. Gifted comes in different varieties varying from great athletes, talkative or shy persons, or just normal individuals with gifts. Not one specific type of person is gifted. You might think of the word gifted as bad such as mentally gifted, physically gifted or just gifted in general in a bad

While the definition (“the ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or trying situations”) seems self-explanatory, what this translates to in showing someone with above-average intelligence is definitely a matter of opinion. The first definitions of giftedness all focus on intelligence as a quantifiable characteristic. Take a test and be given a number – this is the way that we can make sure to be fair to all students. And this definition is used for quite a long time, being California’s definition of giftedness maintaining IQ as the only characteristics that matters in determining intelligence until the late 1970s. Later definitions begin to include achievement as a qualifier of giftedness and, in turn, intelligence. The definitions

Gifted students should be provided advanced opportunities to be challenged, to experience both success and growth, to develop higher level study, creativity, and productivity. To develop their interests and talents their individual characteristics, needs, learning rates, motivations for learning, cognitive abilities, and interests must be taken into account. Differentiation can be included in the curriculum by incorporating acceleration, complexity, depth, challenge, and creativity. Students can also be given fewer tasks to master a standard, use multiple resources and higher-level skills, conduct research, develop products, make cross-disciplinary

Howard Gardner is a psychologist that developed the multiple intelligence theory. He identified three original domains of functioning, each of which has several more specialized functions. :(a) cognitive or thought area which involves verbal-linguistic intelligence (learning and using language); (b) Logical mathematical intelligence is how a person understands and uses logical mathematics and abstract symbol systems; (c) a sensate area, which helps with auditory components. A few other domains include practical intelligence and creative intelligence. With practical intelligence you may ask questions such as: how does a person relate to the world around them? Do they have the ability to adapt to certain situations? With creative intelligence you may ask questions such as: how quickly can this person solve a new problem when presented with it? Can they automatically apply a new skill when they are presented with the problem again?

The theory of multiple intelligences was developed by Dr. Howard Gardner in 1983. The Theory of Multiple Intelligences is a critique of the standard psychological view of intellect: there is a single intelligence, adequately measured by IQ or other short answer tests. Instead, on the basis of evidence from disparate sources, the theory claims that human beings have a number of relatively discrete intellectual capacities. IQ tests assess linguistic and logical-mathematical intelligence, and sometimes spatial intelligence; they are a reasonably good predictor of who will do well in school. This is because humans have several other significant intellectual capacities (Harvard University).

Before the 1950s, most educators and school systems tended to follow Louis Terman’s example and based most decisions about gifted individuals on IQ and scholastic achievement scores. Standardized group intelligence tests, such as California Test of Mental Maturity, were often used to determine IQ. In these tests, educators were looking for exceptional ability in verbal or performance IQ, or a combination of the two. For the final identification, individual IQ tests such as the Wechsler scales and the Stanford Binet were used. Most school systems around this time considered an IQ of 130 or above to fall in the "gifted" range. This information comes from a book by Frederick B. Tuttle, Laurence A. Becker, and Joan A. Sousa (48).

Firstly, we already know what intelligence is, however, in psychology, intelligence is difficult to define, as it is seen differently by everyone. There are different kinds of intelligence, such as academic, creative and emotional. There are also several theories and research studies which have explored whether intelligence is inherited or how it should and can be measured. The five main intelligence theories that are used are Spearman’s Two Factor Theory (1904,1927), Thurstone’s Theory of Primary Mental Abilities (1938), Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences (1983), Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory (1985) and Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence Theory (1998).

Pupils who exhibit gifted characteristics along with another disability are referred to as ‘twice-exceptional students’ (Morrison, 2001; Nielsen 2002). This term is used in the article that I have chosen to review, which analyzes the responses and perceptions through interview, of one particular individual (Andrew) who was identified as being gifted and talented (G/T) and who had emotional and behavioral disabilities (EBD). What the researchers aimed to accomplish through this analysis was a clearer understanding of Andrew’s community and school experiences, as they stated that there was a lack of empirical data focusing upon pupils who displayed such behaviors.

A common explanation of intelligence includes “the importance of learning from experience” and being able to “adapt to the environment.” Later the “importance of people’s understanding and control of their own thinking processes” was added along with the other two to attempt to measure intelligence itself (Williams, 1996). When measuring intelligence, there are two extreme sides that take up about four percent of the population according to the normal distribution of intelligence, one being intellectual disability and the other being giftedness. The other 96 percent of the population fall in the average intelligence (Weiten, 2013).