First Person
Below are some of the most frequently asked questions about educating high-ability students, with responses from Michael Hall, director of gifted education for the Montana Office of Public Instruction.
Q: The term "gifted and talented" is not always viewed very positively. How can I avoid the misconceptions brought to mind by the term and focus on providing appropriate services to my students?
Michael Hall: Some people believe it is against the concepts of democracy to provide a different learning experience for one group of students. They criticize the learning experiences provided to gifted students, arguing that all students should have those experiences.
When confronted with this viewpoint, I try to focus the discussion on the issue of educational need. As individuals, we have different levels of knowledge and different abilities to learn. Some students learn slower than others; some learn faster. I prefer the term "high ability/high potential" over talented and gifted to describe these students. This term, I believe, focuses the discussion more clearly on educational needs. The discussion can then progress to specific learning needs and appropriate learning experiences to help that student maximize her abilities and potential.
Q: How can I help others understand the need to provide a more challenging curriculum for high ability/high potential students?
Hall: I have started many professional-development workshops by having participants spend the first 10 minutes completing two or three pages of first-grade math-drill worksheets. When they finish, I give them another copy of the same or similar worksheets. When they finish those, I let them sit (just like kids, they talk, make noise, and so on). Then I talk with them about how it felt to do work that was too easy. I ask them to think about what it would be like to do endless repetitions of the same material, day in and day out. I ask them to think about what it felt like to be bored. I then relate their feelings to those of high ability/high potential students who must do work that does not challenge them and does not further their education. This activity raises educators' awareness of these students' specific needs. We then can focus on possible solutions.
Q: Isn't it elitist to provide learning opportunities to high ability/ high potential students that not everyone can participate in?
Hall: It is not elitist to provide appropriate, challenging curriculum to students based on their educational needs. We know that students learn at different rates. We also know it is the task of educators to provide the best curriculum and instruction to maximize students' individual potential.
Learning opportunities provided to high ability/high potential students should be tied to district curriculum goals and be based on the district's core curriculum. To help determine if the learning opportunities are defensible and appropriate, I like to apply the "could, should, would" test: Could this work be done by all students at this grade level? Should it be done by all students at this grade level? Would all students at this grade level do this if given the chance? If the answer to these questions is "yes," I probably have not truly met the student's need for higher-level, challenging curriculum. Nor will
I be able to defend the learning opportunities based upon the student's needs. Those learning opportunities may be considered elitist because they are offered to only a few while they should be offered to all.
Learning opportunities are not elitist, however, when they match the student's educational need. Rather, they are just good education.
Q: How can we identify high ability/high potential students in our school?
Hall: The identification of high ability/high potential students is a very complex process. We need to be sure that the students we identify truly have learning needs that require special attention to appropriately challenge them and to maximize their potential. To accomplish this, screening instruments and tests have been devised.
Documentation demonstrating a student's need for more advanced curriculum and learning opportunities should be kept. Documentation should include samples of student work, anecdotal records, a variety of ongoing assessment data, and input from parents, students, and teachers.
Dr. Mary Frasier of the University of Georgia suggests:
- The focus should be on diversity within gifted populations; the gifted are not a homogeneous group, nor do they express their talents the same way
- The goal should be inclusion rather than exclusion
- Data should be gathered from multiple sources; a single criterion of giftedness should be avoided
- Both objective and subjective data should be used
- Professionals and nonprofessionals who represent various areas of expertise and who are knowledgeable about behavioral indicators of giftedness should be involved
- Identification should occur as early as possible and should be continuous
- Special attention should be given to the different ways in which children from different cultures manifest behavioral indicators of giftedness
- Decisionmaking should be delayed until all pertinent data on a student have been reviewed
- Data collected during the identification process should be used to help determine the individual child's curriculum
For more information see Planning and Implementing Programs for the Gifted by James Borland (Teachers College Press, 1989) and Education of the Gifted and Talented, second edition, by Gary Davis and Sylvia Rimm (Prentice Hall, 1989).
Q: What can we do to be sure we are fairly identifying high ability/high potential students from all minority groups?
Hall: Beyond the general practices that Dr. Mary Frasier recommends, there are several checklists and tests that can be used to ensure fairness in the identification process. For example, the Frasier Talent Assessment Profile (FTAP) helps teachers to look at the characteristics of high ability/high potential students over time in the classroom and to note students who display the characteristics. These characteristics are not culturally specific and may be displayed in different ways by students from different cultures.
One good resource specific to American Indian students, Identifying Outstanding Talent in American Indian and Alaska Native Students, is available from the U.S. Department of Education.
Q: What is the best service model to provide for the educational needs of high ability/ high potential students?
Hall: I recommend a research-based comprehensive programming framework that is designed to meet student needs and provide a variety of service options. Not tied to a specific theoretical model, the framework requires support functions such as parent involvement, flexible pacing in the curriculum, and staff development to strengthen the programming options. The framework should be designed based on a needs assessment that collects information from parents, administrators, teachers, and students.
The framework includes a variety of options for students on three basic levels. Envision a pyramid divided into thirds from the base up: The bottom level is the home classroom. Sixty percent of the identified student needs should be met in the home classroom. So the framework must include a wide variety of options for students and teachers at that level. For students whose needs are more specific (about 30 percent of identified student needs), a second layer of options should be provided. Pull-out/ send-out classes, special courses, and other options can help to meet the needs at this level. At the top level (10 percent of identified student needs) the options become very specific and advanced. A service at this level might be sending the student to high school or college years before her age peers (a practice known as radical acceleration).
The framework is comprehensive because it includes the programming options already in place, validates them, and expands them to include other options to meet local needs. It recognizes the strength of the regular classroom as the base of services. It also recognizes the opportunities and enrichment that the "essential" classroom teacher brings to that base. It then builds on the base to include options outside the regular classroom to serve the special needs of some students, while also recognizing the needs of those few students who require even more individualized programming. It emphasizes the importance of support services throughout a well- designed program.
According to Neil Daniel and June Cox in Flexible Pacing for Able Learners (1988), the key concept in providing appropriate services to high-ability students is to offer options that place students at "an appropriate instructional level, creating the best possible match between students' achievement and instruction, and allows them to move forward in the curriculum as they achieve mastery of content and skills."
For more information on this subject, and a visual representation of the pyramid, see the "Comprehensive Programming" document in the general information section of the Gifted Education Connection Web site at http://www.netc.org/web_mod/gifted_ed/.
Q: I've heard that a student can be both high ability/high potential and have a disability that would qualify him for special education services. Is that true?
Hall: Yes. High ability/high potential students may have a variety of problems that affect their ability to learn. They may have learning disabilities, attention deficit disorder, or physical disabilities. Students who fall into both categories require the coordination of services to maximize their learning abilities.
For more information on this subject, see the Council of Exceptional Children's "Frequently Asked Questions" on gifted children with disabilities or attention deficit disorder at http://ericec.org/faqs.html.
—Michael Hall
Michael Hall of the Montana Office of Public Instruction is president of the Council of State Directors of Programs for the Gifted.
| Back | Index | Next |
This document's URL is:
Home | Up & Coming | Programs & Projects: Northwest Education | People | Products & Publications | Topics
© 2001 Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory
Date of Last Update: 9/28/01
Email Webmaster
Tel. 503.275.9500