Gifted education
Gifted education refers to teaching practices that meet the individual needs of gifted and talented students. Learn about the characteristics gifted and talented students display and the strategies that can be used to give them appropriate challenges and opportunities.
Education for gifted and talented students
Gifted education refers to teaching, learning and assessment practices that meet the individual needs of gifted and talented students.
Gifted students
Gifted students have the potential for outstanding performance in one or more domain:
- intellectual
- creative
- social-emotional
- physical.
Talented students
Talented students show potential through high performance.
Supporting students to realise their potential
All gifted students need the right support to turn their gifts into talents. The development of talent requires specific provisions to enable students to achieve their full potential. Some gifted students may lose interest or underachieve if they aren’t identified or provided the right educational opportunities1.
Teachers play an important role in talent development. They are critical to providing opportunities for gifted students to realise their potential.
All students should have opportunities for challenge, extension and enrichment. Strategies used for gifted students can also be used for students who may not meet the traditional criteria or definition of giftedness. This includes the range of students who show above average potential, ability or performance.
Schools should make decisions about the best way to support students based on their individual needs.
Diversity of gifted and talented students
Gifted and talented students come from diverse backgrounds and lived experiences. They have diverse characteristics. Gifted and talented students include:
- Aboriginal students
- students learning English as an additional language or dialect (EAL/D)
- culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) students
- students with disability
- students from low socio-educational advantage areas.
Students facing disadvantage are often under-represented in gifted education programs.
How gifted students think and learn
Gifted and talented students vary in their abilities and learning characteristics. Some of the common learning characteristics associated with gifted and talented students are:
- advanced reasoning skill
- superior spatial awareness
- curiosity
- fast processing speed
- coordination and motor control
- quick to build connections
- analytically thinking
- vivid imagination
- abstract concepts and ideas
- complex thought processes
- intrinsic motivation or passion for learning
- focus and sustained attention
- creative or divergent thinking
- humour
- reflection.
Social and emotional characteristics
Gifted and talented students may display particular social and emotional characteristics. Some common characteristics associated with gifted and talented students are:
- perfectionism
- perceptiveness
- persistence
- self-awareness
- empathy.
Not all students will display all these characteristics all the time. An understanding of these characteristics is important in addressing the needs of gifted and talented students.
Assessment
Regular assessment of a student’s ability or achievement should occur to determine:
- their learning needs
- their levels of mastery
- the most effective strategies to provide them with appropriate challenge.
Assess using a variety of sources
Assessment should be recurrent and use a variety of sources. Teachers should collect data multiple times to inform teaching and learning. This is particularly important when assessing students who:
- are learning English as an additional language or dialect
- have a disability
- are from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
Types of evidence to collect
Using multiple sources of evidence helps identify students’ strengths across the different domains2&3. It also ensures that all students have the opportunity to show what they can do. Some types of evidence to collect could be:
- Student interview or self-nomination.
- Teacher or parent nomination or observation. For example, anecdotal records, behaviour checklists, class notes.
- Subject achievement or formative assessment results:
- pre-testing of knowledge, understanding and skills that will be taught in future teaching and learning programs
- school-based assessment tasks at various points throughout a teaching and learning program
- student work portfolios
- International Competitions and Assessment for Schools (ICAS) results.
- Standardised tests. For example, NAPLAN, Progressive Achievement Tests for reading and mathematics.
- Ability tests:
- ACER selective tests
- Cognitive Ability Test (CogAT)
- Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test (NNAT)
- above-level tests
- creativity assessments.
- Psychologist reports or intelligence test scores:
- Stanford Binet Intelligence Scales Fifth Edition (SB5)
- Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children Fourth Edition (WISC IV).
Effective teaching strategies
There are a range of strategies that can be used for gifted and talented students and students with above average ability or achievement. Selecting an effective strategy requires evidence of individual student ability or achievement. It also requires a collaborative effort. Teachers, parents or carers, and other significant people should be involved. One or more strategies may benefit a student. Consider a variety of approaches based on individual student learning strengths and needs. Ongoing assessment is essential for monitoring the effectiveness of strategies used.
The most effective strategies include:
- Instructional strategies:
- differentiation
- acceleration
- extension – providing opportunities to add depth to knowledge, understanding and skills
- enrichment – providing opportunities to broaden knowledge, understanding and skills.
- Organisational strategies such as ability grouping.
- Other talent development strategies such as external programs or mentoring.
These strategies can also benefit students with above average ability or performance. Some students may also need extra support, interventions, or adjustments to stay engaged and continue to progress in their learning.
Acceleration
Acceleration is a form of intervention. It allows students to learn at faster rates or access advanced content earlier. Acceleration can occur at any stage of schooling, from Kindergarten to Year 12. It can be:
- early entry to school
- quick progression into one or more courses
- grade advancement (all courses)
- advanced pathways to tertiary education.
To accelerate, students must demonstrate achievement in relation to the outcomes for their current stage. This is to ensure they are progressing to the next stage of schooling with the required knowledge and skills.
Where a student demonstrates talent or aptitude in a course, they can accelerate into one or more courses. These students demonstrate achievement in relation to stage outcomes in the course sooner than other students. They do so due to their prior knowledge, skills and understanding, or their rapid pace of learning. These students move to higher stage outcomes for an appropriate challenge and to achieve progress in learning.
Accelerating into a course may include curriculum compacting. Curriculum compacting assesses a student’s current achievement in relation to course outcomes. It focuses teaching and learning on aspects of the curriculum that are not yet mastered so the student doesn’t repeat learning unnecessarily.
Grade advancement is one of the most effective forms of acceleration. It achieves stronger gains in learning when used earlier in a student’s schooling, or for early entry to school or university4. Students can accelerate wholly into a higher year level or stage.
What schools should do
When considering acceleration, schools should look at:
- the student’s academic achievement, ability or potential
- early achievement of the required syllabus outcomes for their stage of schooling
- impacts on the student’s future patterns of study
- school staffing and resources.
Principals make decisions about student acceleration. This happens in collaboration with parents or carers, staff and the student. Decisions about acceleration must be made on an individual case-by-case basis. Schools should only accelerate a class, group, or cohort if each student is assessed and found suitable.
Student progress should be monitored. In some cases, it may be appropriate for the student to return to their original stage of learning or repeat a course they have accelerated into.
Guidelines and procedures for acceleration can be found in the ACE rules:
Differentiation
Differentiated teaching meets the needs of all students. This includes high ability or gifted and talented students. Many gifted students will have already mastered as much as 40–50% of the regular curriculum5 and also learn at a fast pace6.
Differentiation involves modifications to the:
- content
- process
- product, and/or
- learning environment.
Teachers need regular information about how students are going. They need to know a student’s achievement and provide ongoing formative assessment. This allows them to modify their teaching in response to student learning. Differentiation helps to keep gifted students challenged, engaged, and progressing.
Differentiation strategies for gifted and talented students include the following:
The syllabus content is for all students. The differentiating content strategy asks, ‘How can I ensure appropriate challenge for students when I teach the syllabus content?’.
- Complexity
- Abstraction
- Real-world problems
- Choice of topics or texts
The differentiating process strategy asks, ‘How will students learn?’.
- Complex thinking
- Creative and critical thinking
- Idea exploration and deep thinking
- Processes used by experts in the field
- Pace
The differentiating product strategy asks, ‘How will students demonstrate learning?’.
- Real-world audience
- Choice of product to demonstrate learning
- Transfer to new contexts
The differentiating learning environment strategy asks, ‘How can I establish a classroom conducive to learning?’.
- Accepting
- Flexible groupings, resources and activities
Ability grouping
Gifted students have more in common with peers who have similar cognitive ability7. Grouping them together allows them to build connections with like-minded students.
Ability grouping can impact student self-concept if they compare themselves unfavourably to other gifted learners8. Temporary and flexible grouping arrangements can help reduce these impacts9.
Enrichment and extension
Schools may offer enrichment and extension programs for students, including gifted and talented students. These programs include:
- debating
- student leadership
- mentoring partnerships
- counselling
- Olympiads
- problem-solving challenges
- competitions.
References
'The identification of gifted underachievement: Validity evidence for the commonly used methods', British Journal of Educational Psychology, 92, 1133–1159. https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/bjep.12492
Consistency of the performance and nonperformance methods in gifted identification: A multilevel meta–analytic review. The Gifted Child Quarterly, 60(2), 81. https://doi.org/10.1177/0016986216634438
Describing the status of programs for the gifted: A call for action. Journal for the Education of the Gifted, 40(1), 20–49. https://doi.org/10.1177/0162353216686215
The academic, socialization, and psychological effects of acceleration: Research synthesis. A nation empowered: Evidence trumps the excuses holding back America’s brightest students, 2, 19–29.
Challenging gifted and talented learners with a continuum of research–based interventions strategies. The Oxford Handbook of School Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195369809.013.0157
Evidence–based curricular/instructional suggestions for meeting the needs of all learners including those who are advanced. Gifted Child Today, 41(1), 5–6. https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1076217517735904
What one hundred years of research says about the effects of ability grouping and acceleration on k–12 students' academic achievement: Findings of two second–order meta–analyses. Review of Educational Research, 86(4), 849–899. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654316675417
The big–fish–little–pond effect on academic self–concept: A meta–analysis. Frontiers in Psychology, 9(1569). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01569
Applied meta–analysis for social science research: Guilford Publications.