The Importance Of Giftedness In 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.

Education was built, along with many other things, to the average standard. It was designed with the average student in mind, never really adapted towards those who grasps concepts quickly, accelerate at rapid rates beyond their peers. As gifted, or exceptionally intelligence children make up around 6 to 10 percent of the students within America, roughly 3 to 5 million students (“Gifted Education in the U.S”). But as America is behind in the general education, it is bounds behind in gifted education. Teachers aren’t equipped to challenge the gifted students, or simply have no time to spend developing and nurturing the child’s talents. Schools don’t have programs to help the children develop at their quicken pace, and programs in place aren’t

Gifted education is very stressful for students in middle school, but if you start in elementary school with a gifted program it could be less stressful on your child. Gifted programs are good programs but there are things that could make your child feel pressured and they may want to leave the program. To get into the programs depending on the district you are in there could be discrimination to be accepted or recommended to test for it. This discrimination could be based on race, income, gender, or ethnicity, if you’re in a school district that lets you apply without being recommended then you won’t have to worry about this. Studies show that in Broward County they started with teachers recommended students and then changed their system to where any students could apply to the gifted programs and there was a major increase in low income, latino, and black students that were accepted.

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

A Gifted and talented (G/T) student” is “one who . . . exhibits high performance capability in an intellectual, creative, or artistic area, possesses an unusual capacity for leadership, or excels in a specific academic field” (Aldine ISD Board Policy Manual, 2014). The Texas Education Agency (TEA) provides a state plan, which outlines the standards for Texas schools to be in compliance. It also offers the educational opportunities these students should receive. In fact, there are performance measures for five aspects of G/T programs including student assessment, service design, curriculum and instruction, professional development, and family and community involvement. The plan assists districts in delivering these comprehensive services to

Many educators feel that teachers aren’t trained to teach gifted students. Teaching accountability has teachers focus more on

Growing up in the New York Public Schools system, I realized many similarities and differneces today. In 1993 all 50 states had formulated policies (legislation, regulations, rules, or guidelines) in support of gifted education. The study portrayed state policy as uneven and called for a re-examination of present policies in light of research, experience, and developments in education, psychology, organization, and related fields. Further support for this reexamination included the climate of school reform and restructuring, the changing environment of society and schooling, and the diverse ways that local districts interpret and implement state rules. These findings still resonate today. I graduated high school in 1994 and the gifted and

A fifth grader may come in at a “second-grade level” and graduate at a “fourth-grade level,” which is a tremendous achievement on the part of the educators; however, because standardized testing fails to account for such circumstances, the entire year would be seen as a failure from the perspective of the state (Berger). To put it crudely, “poor schools can’t win at standardized testing” because students in areas of poverty start school academically behind and are unable to catch up as there is the lack of resources and funding (Broussard). On the other extreme, gifted students are also hurt by attempts to standardize education, for instance, with the No Child Left Behind Act, an act that many say has “failed our adolescents” (Steinberg). Teachers say that the legislation has resulted in a “race to the middle” that means “talented students have their potential squandered” as schools “[don’t] foster growth” (Weller). In effect, standardization attempts to remove individuality from learning and ignores that students have different capacities for learning, that some students may need more help while others need to be challenged above their grade level - instead it averages it all out to a “standard” that harms both

Validity is the assessment of the test’s informational construct, content, and criterion (Jarosewich, Pfeiffer, & Morris, 2002). Despite the fact that GATES does not reference any giftedness theory or theory of support, content validity is confirmed for GATES since the test was developed based on literature reviews, critiques of existing rating scales, and academic and test construction experts of the field (Jarosewich, Pfeiffer, & Morris, 2002, p. 330). A combination between federal guidelines on giftedness and a confirmatory item analysis is the basis of GATES creation.

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

High IQ is still considered part of definition of gifted and talented, and most students who are so categorized have IQs above 130. Children who are intellectually gifted typically have strong motivation. (Colangelo & Davis, 2009; Gottfriend & Gottfried, 2004). They also are academically superior, usually learn to read early, and generally do excellent work in most school areas. One of the most important studies of children with intellectual gifts, begun by Lewis Terman in 1926. Terman ‘s

I agree with Worrell’s (2013) statement. We should be asking and assessing not only if the student is gifted, but how are they gifted? As Worrell point out “most gifted and talented programs in elementary and middle school involved a broad range of enrichment activities, which may have no relationship to the talents of the students in the program” (Worrell, p. 140). Many students are placed in a “one size fits all” G & T program, and are not gaining the special instruction and

There have been many changes over the past 50-75 years in the provision of services to gifted children. They discuss the ethical and professional cited with the provision of educational assessment and intervention service to gifted children. The research has reviewed the various ethical and professional issues that may arise in the delivery of services to gifted and talented students. The first issue that they mention is that was addressed involved the definitions of giftedness, and how such definitions are becoming sufficiently broad nationally to include students having exceptional abilities, such as creativity, artistic, and leadership potential.

The identification process is perhaps the biggest problem in gifted education. In the United States, it is estimated that 47,846,000 children are enrolled in K-12 public schools. Of these students, approximately 2,393,000, or five percent, are considered gifted (Genius Denied, 2005). Developing procedures to identify these exceptional students can be an arduous task. However, Coleman has stated that, “Identification remains critical to ensuring that children receive the services they need to thrive in school” (2003, 1). There are several problems educators deal with when identifying gifted students. First, students from economically disadvantaged families or from culturally diverse backgrounds are considerably

A student who gets good grades, behaves well, and excels above the academic average has in the past been considered gifted. The student who does not perform at this level is less likely to be identified and less likely to receive assistance. The term gifted was limited to academic achievement. In today’s society this definition has changed because giftedness spans to more than one area of development and achievement (Turnbull, Turnbull, Wehmeyer, & Shogren, 2013).