Understanding Gifted Students
Who are the Gifted?
The population labeled "gifted" who purchase Duke TIP's Learn on Your Own workbooks and CD-ROMs -- who are they? If the student qualified for the Duke TIP 4th & 5th Grade Talent Search or the Duke TIP 7th Grade Talent Search, s/he scored at the 95th percentile or above on a grade level standardized achievement, aptitude, or mental ability test or approved state criterion-referenced test.
We know that the gifted are far more than their qualifying scores. The gifted may be those who are voracious consumers of any reading material or single-subject readers. They may struggle with attention deficit, emotional issues, learning differences, family problems, or self-doubt. They may win contests with ease or fear to enter them, have friends or walk alone. They may be obsessive perfectionists or immobile slackers, armed with study skills or the "skills" of distracting others. They may be home schooled or attend public or independent schools; they may receive accelerated and/or differentiated instruction, or none at all. In short, they comprise an incredibly diverse group, even if they represent only the top ten percent of the student population. Their skill sets are thus just as incredibly varied. Duke TIP recognizes that gifted individuals rarely fit the norm; each is special and unique.
Students who take Duke TIP Independent Learning courses and units are more likely to be successful if they possess a great deal of self-motivation, self-discipline, and love of learning – traits that are necessary to learn independently. These courses are well-suited to gifted students identified by a school for advanced classes, cluster arrangement, pull-out study, or compacting/independent study.
Characteristics of Gifted Students
Joyce VanTassel-Baska (1998), a leader in gifted research, outlines the following characteristics of gifted students:
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Instructional Strategies |
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Gifted students learn at a rate that is different from other students.
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Accommodation of this learning rate is important to the development of gifted students. Instructors can differentiate instruction to address a student's readiness for learning with extension activities that allow a student to move at his or her own pace to the level of depth and complexity s/he prefers.
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Gifted students crave depth in the academic areas that interest them.
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To achieve a deep understanding, gifted students often approach learning with a questioning and at times a critical attitude. Coursework should allow a student to generate questions from the outset and pursue those questions by practicing in-depth research skills. Besides questioning skills, curriculum should also teach "answering skills" -- the art of providing clear argumentation, substantive evidence, and elaborative commentary.
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Gifted students need to be challenged and stimulated intellectually through interactions with other students of similar readiness levels.
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Curriculum should present models of student products created by gifted students of similar aptitude and skill level.
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A gifted child is most likely to reach his/her full potential when instructors and parents set high expectations.
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Instructors can establish challenging criteria for assignments, activities, and projects while maintaining a rigorous academic pace. Assessments for a 5th-7th grade curriculum can be similar in rigor to high school advanced courses.
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VanTassel-Baska, Joyce. Excellence in Educating Gifted and Talented Learners. Denver: Love Publishing Company, 1998.
For more information about gifted students, see the following page.