Gifted and Talented Research Project

Julie Snow
The Exceptional Learner Class EDU 330
Kathy Mc Cauliff











Introduction
Gifted and talented students can be found at all age levels and at all grade levels. They
concern both males and females and come from all economic, ethnic, cultural and language
backgrounds. A gifted student is one whose intelligence, which is typically described as having
an IQ score resulting from one or more tests is 130 or higher. (Teachers First. 2014) In this
research project for the Exceptional Learner Class, I will present facts and statistics, what are the
indicators of possessing talent and giftedness, the positive aspects and the negative aspects,
myths and truths, identification procedures, and how to promote creativity and problem solving. I
will conclude this paper with a paragraph presenting my personal reaction towards my gifted
and talented research findings.
Findings
According to Rena B. Lewis and Donald H. Doorlag, Gifted and talented individuals are
among the most neglected of all groups of students with special needs. (Dooorlag R.B.
2011) Most spend their school days without the attention paid to their special learning needs.
(U.S. Department of Education. 1993) Although the earliest federal program on gifted education
was created in 1931, it was the post-World War II threat of communism that stimulated major
federal interest in the gifted. In the 1972 Maryland Report to Congress, which was the first
national report on gifted education, gifted people were federally defined as, students, children,
or youth who give evidence of high achievement capability in areas such as intellectual, creative,
artistic, or leadership capacity, or in specific academic fields, and who need services and
activities not ordinarily provided by the school in order to fully develop those capabilities.
(Strauss, V. 2011, November 7)
Currently, there are approximately three million academically gifted and talented students in
the United States. (National Association for Gifted Children) According to the National
Research Center on the Gifted and Talented, they discovered that many gifted elementary
school students already know between 40 and 50% of the material to be covered in the class,
most gifted and talented students spend atleast 80% of their time in a regular education
classroom and according to a 1991study, between 18 and 25% of these students drop out of
school if they come from a low socio-economic status family and if they had little or no access to
extracurricular activities, hobbies or computers. (National Association for Gifted Children)
The Thomas B. Fordham Institute and a survey conducted by the National Association for
Gifted Children revealed 32% of teachers say that advanced students are a low priority in their
schools and 77% of the teachers agree that getting underachieving students to reach proficiency
has become so important that the needs of advanced students take a back seat. (National
Association for Gifted Children) 84% of teachers say that in practice, differentiated instruction is
difficult to implement, while 50% of high school teachers say honors and accelerated classes in
the schools are rigorous and challenging, while 40% report that they are too often watered down
and lacking rigor.
Farther in on m research, I have learned that it appears teachers are not trained to meet the
needs of the advanced students. According to the National Association for Gifted Children,
65% of teachers report that education courses and teacher preparation programs focused either
very little or not at all on how to best teach academically advanced students and 58% say they
have had no professional development over the past few years and that are focused on teaching
these students. (National Association for Gifted Children)
Sadly, 18 states do not collect information about students in the state who are gifted and
talented and 21 states do not monitor or audit the district programs. On the most recent
international PISA exam, 24 countries outperformed U.S. students on the mathematics literacy
test, students in 13countries performed better on the reading test and 16countries performed
better on the science literacy test.
Gifted students possess some common characteristics such as asking many questions and are
very curious, possesses a large amount of information, has a good memory, learns new
information easily, finishes class work quickly and becomes involved in a variety of activities.
Other characteristics include being motivated to try new things, enjoys a challenge, thinks
independently, is self-motivated, expresses unique and original opinions and makes connections
other students dont see.
Implications
Some positive aspects of gifted behavior are that the children are able to express ideas and
feelings well, they can move at a rapid pace, work conscientiously, seek to learn and to explore,
makes steady progress, learns material quickly, completes assigned tasks and contributes to
enjoyment of life for themselves and others. Some negative aspects they could demonstrate is
dominating discussions, they may be considered nosey, they may struggle against rules and
standardized procedures and they may lead discussions off the track. These special people may
be frustrated by the apparent absence of logic in activities and in daily events, they can become
bored by repetitions and may lose interest quickly.
There are plenty of myths about the gifted and talented students. There are a few that I would
like to share. #1.) They are so smart they can do fine on their own in school, they dont need help
and they always get good grades. Not true, as they are not always gifted in every subject and
when unchallenged, they get bored, frustrated or develop bad study habits. #2.) Students with
learning disabilities cannot be considered gifted and talented. This is also incorrect. Some gifted
students have various disabilities, including learning. Sometimes a learning disability can hide a
gifted ability. #3.) These high-achievers develop socially and emotionally faster than other
children their age. Actually their social and emotional needs are the same as their peers, although
because they are academically gifted, many adults think they are more emotionally mature than
they really are.
Some truths pertaining to gifted students include their perfectionistic and idealistic styles,
they are problem solvers, they benefit from working on open-ended and interdisciplinary
problems, they often think abstractly and with so much complexity they may need help with
concrete study and test-taking skills. Gifted students who do well in school may define success
as getting an A and failure as any grade less than an A.
The classroom teacher is usually the first one to notice the special abilities. School districts
differ in procedures and measures used to identify these special people. These measures include
referral, screening, assessment and identification. When individualized programs are
implemented, usually the student remains in the general education classroom and a special
instructor can be provided by the general education teacher, a special teacher in a resource room,
or at a last resort in a setting outside the school when school is not in session.
There is also the three-ring conception of giftedness. This research tells us that highly
productive people are characterized by three interlocking clusters (Renzulli, J.n.d.) like a Vienn
Diagram, which are above average ability, task commitment and creativity. This
system emphasizes the interaction among the clusters rather than an single cluster, and task
commitment and creativity are viewed as developmental goals of the special program that bring
the rings in together to promote the development of the gifted behaviors. (Renzulli, J. n.d.)
What sets the gifted children apart from other students in the classroom is their ability to
absorb abstract concepts, organize them more effectively and apply them more appropriately. To
promote creativity and problem solving, there are nine ways to develop a classroom environment
that will challenge and nurture gifted learners. These include: 1.) Independent projects-Use their
extra time to help them to develop their creativity by allowing them to explore a special area of
interest related to the topic being studied.2.) Academic competition-Use computer-based tests
that test the knowledge in a variety of academic disciplines. They academically challenge and
provide an opportunity to develop skills in leadership and group dynamics. 3.) Vertical
enrichment- Design the projects so they reach above and beyond what is covered in the regular
classroom to develop a higher level of thinking skills and problem solving abilities. 4.)Find a
mentor who is willing to work with the student in an area of interest so they reach their potential
5.) Try a new approach- instead of being the expert, become the facilitator and rather than just
giving them information, help them to discover it. 6.)Use Blooms Taxonomy which is a model
of critical thinking that progresses from the most basic level to the most complex. Analyze,
synthesize and evaluate. 7.)Use Gardners Theory of Multiple Intelligences that states all people
possess at least 7 kinds of intelligences. By applying Gardners theory, it ensures every student
will be individually challenged in one or more specific areas. 8.) Learning centers- Set them up
so students can work at their own speed. 9.) Leveling assignments- Explore the same material
with all of your students, but require different outcomes depending on the students individual
abilities. Perhaps include higher-level questions on exams for the gifted kids.
Reaction
When the Thomas Fordham Institute looked at data from the National Assessment of
Educational Progress exam, it found that in the last decade since the passage of No Child Left
Behind, the lowest performing students have made learning improvements while the nations
highest performing students have made almost no learning gains. (National Association for
Gifted Children) this statement is both pleasing as well as disappointing. Before I researched the
concepts and the facts about gifted and talented students, I had no idea that these special students
suffer implications and require adjustments like students with learning or physical disorders.
Through m research, I have learned that the characteristics of gifted children often lead to social
and emotional problems that can affect their development. And, to understand a gifted child
completely, it is a good idea to see how the childs giftedness can influence their behavior. In
reviewing some problems that result from the advanced verbal and reasoning ability, I believe
parents and other adults need to remember that although credit should be given for logical and
convincing agreements, a child is still a child and requires appropriate discipline, no matter how
clever or cute the behavior might be. I believe all of the characteristics of gifted and talentedness
can make them feel different from their peers even at an early age. Therefore, it is important to
get them together with children like them and with people who understand them. Schools also
are in need of properly trained teachers so the students can excel to their highest potential,
because the 61% of the teachers who did not receive any training in meeting the needs of these
students is ridiculous. And to the Obama Administration, please allot more financial assistance
towards the federal K-12 educational budget that goes towards the gifted and talented students
because these students are individuals with special needs, too.














Works Cited
Doorlag, R. B. (2011). Teaching Students with Special Needs in General Education Classrooms. New
Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.
National Association for Gifted Children. Advanced Studentsin Today's Classrooms: What Do We Know?
Washington, D.C.: NAGC.Org.
Renzulli, J. (n.d.). University of Connecticut. Retrieved from Naeg Center for Gifted Education and Talent
Development: http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/sem/semart04.html
Strauss, V. (2011, November 7). The Answer Sheet. Retrieved from Five myths about 'gifted and talented'
students: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/five-myths-about-gifted-and-
talented-students
TeachersFirst. (2014). Retrieved from Working with Gifted and Talented Students:
http://www.teachersfirst.com/gifted.cfm
U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement. (1993). National
Excellence: A Case for Developing Americas Talent. Washington, D.C.