Gifted and Talented

Kathleen Hoellerich, Gabrielle King,

Josh Miklos, Christian OMalley,
and Sandy Nunez

Definition
A child who is considered gifted and talented demonstrates or has
potentially high level of performance at the preschool, elementary, or
secondary levels. Areas in which the students have displayed these
capabilities include intellectual, creative, specific academic, or leadership
ability.
Students can also demonstrate early proficiency in the performing and
visual arts.
Because of these, it is difficult to accommodate for these students.

Characteristics
Potential areas of giftedness include:
o Musical
o Bodily-kinesthetic
o Logical-Mathematical
o Linguistic
o Spatial
o Interpersonal
o Intrapersonal
o Naturalist

Additional Focus
Creativity
Further ways creativity can be expressed

Leadership Ability
Increased levels of insight, as well as consideration for individuals and
communities

Potential Causes
Nature vs. Nurture

Nature
.86 correlation in IQs of identical twins raised together
62% of individual academic achievement (GSCE scores) attributed to
genetics
But even the authors admit the studies have flaws

Nurture
Brain physiology/ability can change within four days
Studying in certain subjects may help others
music and math

Students may be taught outside of schools

Gifted Identification

Instructors use a combination of ability and

achievement testing for identification.
DISCOVER - Discovering Intellectual
Strengths and Capabilities Through
Observation while Allowing for Varied Ethnic
Responses.
High General Intellect/IQ
Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking

Designing Education
Differentiated Instruction
o Multifaceted,
Multidimensional
instruction.
o Targets strengths
o Foster high level
reasoning
o Fluid Objectives
o Tiered Lessons

Universal Design
How to create a curriculum that appeals to
the whole class?
o
o
o

Curriculum extension
Curriculum enrichment
Provide multiple means of representation,
expression, and engagement

Designing Education
How do you challenge and encourage high-level
learners?
o
o
o
o

Acceleration
Compact the curriculum
High degree of difficulty or increased complexity
Maintain relevant content

Accommodations for test

Provide a pre-test
Create a test with a higher thinking level
~For the student
Deep breathing
Study sessions
Pace through a test

Accommodations in a classroom
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFsPwyEr
B2w

Educational Needs
Underdeveloped executive functioning
Not interested in work outside of their gifted
area
Work is more repetitive for them

Educational Needs
Give a scenario where executive functioning
is necessary
Relate work to their main interests
Allow more choice in work

Students Progress
Learning contracts
Student understanding what still needs to be
learned
Measuring progress on goals set by the
student and teacher.

Creativity
Fluent thinkers, able to generate possibilities or related
ideas
Use alternative approaches to problem solving
Elaborate thinkers
Sensitive to beauty
Display intellectual playfulness
They can show relationships among unrelated
objects,ideas, and facts

Community Outreach
http://www.arizonagifted.org/
http://www.giftedstudy.org/resources/famili
es/organizations.asp
http://www.gilbertgifted.org/programsforyo
uth.html
http://www.azed.gov/gifted-education/

Risks for Gifted and Talented Students

Unlike the laws benefiting students with disabilities,
such as IDEA, section 504, and ADA, there is no federal
legislation that requires state or local educational
agencies to offer special education to students who are
gifted or talented.
It is hard to identify how many students are gifted and
talented because state and local educational agencies
use so many different definitions and criteria for
classifying gifted and talented students.

States with gifted and talented

education policies
When a survey asked how many states define giftedness
out of the 47 states that responded to the survey 41 said
they do have a state-adopted definition, but only 29
states require local school districts to follow that
definition.
Because the states have their own definitions and
requirements for local school districts different ones
recognize different characteristics.

Out of the 47 states that responded to the

survey
ONLY
34 address intellectual giftedness.
26 address creative giftedness
25 address giftedness in performing and
visual arts.
23 address academic giftedness
17 address giftedness in leadership and
specific academic areas.

Survey
For more information on states gifted education policies
please visit The Davidson Institute for Talent Development
website www.davidsongifted.org/db/statepolicy.aspx

The stress of being gifted

PRODIGY- refers to a child who, before the age of ten,
performs in a valued domain at a professional level.
How would it feel to be called a prodigy or gifted?
Michael Kearney described it as being both thrilling and
terrifying.
The thrill was being told that I am extremely bright,
but the terror was knowing that society could never
learn to put a square peg in a round hole.

Stresses
Because of the characteristics of being gifted the person
may be described as being obsessed in their particular
area of interest.
They can become bored in class
Have peers that are much older than them. Such as an
eight year old attending college.
Develop a sense of perfectionism that can lead to
negative self-judgments.

What we can do as future teachers

The autonomous learner model(ALM) can be used to help students
with social-emotional issues that may come with being gifted.

Explore what it means to be gifted

Explore what intelligence and creativity mean
Explore aspects of their personal/social development
Consider their strengths and limitations
Learn organizational skills
Engage in self-directed study about topics in which they
are interested
Learn the importance of autonomous lifelong learning

Poll
Gifted and Talented Poll

Sources
Turnbull, A., Turnbull, R., Wehmeyer, M. L., & Shogren, K.A. (2012). Exceptional lives: Special education in todays schools (7th
ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

DISCOVER Projects--Overview. (n.d.). Retrieved April 2, 2015, from http://www.discover.arizona.edu/overview-uploaded.htm

Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT). (n.d.). Retrieved April 2, 2015, from
http://www.ststesting.com/ngifted.html
(n.d.). Retrieved April 2, 2015, from http://www.education.udel.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/GiftedStudents.pdf
(n.d.). Retrieved April 2, 2015, from http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/nrcgt/reports/rm02168/rm02168.pdf
(n.d). Retrieved April 1, 2015, from
http://www.cbv.ns.ca/giftededucation/modules/mastop_publish/?tac=Adaptations
(n.d). Retrieved April 1, 2015, from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFsPwyErB2w
(n.d). Retrieved April 3,2015, from
http://www.ri.net/gifted_talented/character.html

Sources
Gladwell, M. (2008). The 10,000-Hour Rule. In Outliers: The Story of Success. New York, NY: Back Bay Books.
Vogel, A. (2013, October 8). Is Executive Functioning the Missing Link for Many Gifted Students? - Nurturing Wisdom. Retrieved
April 7, 2015, from http://nurturingwisdom.com/is-executive-functioning-the-missing-link-for-many-gifted-students/
Uppervention: Meeting the Needs of Gifted and Talented Students. (2014, May 20). Retrieved April 7, 2015, from
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/uppervention-for-gifted-talented-students-josh-work
Rotigel, J., & Fello. (2014, January 1). Mathematically Gifted Students: How Can We Meet Their Needs? Retrieved April 7, 2015,
from http://www.davidsongifted.org/db/Articles_id_10514.aspx
Biography: Beethoven's life - Ludwig van Beethoven's website. (2013, January 1). Retrieved April 7, 2015, from
http://www.lvbeethoven.com/Bio/BiographyLudwig.html
Ripp, P. (2010, December 22). So What's My Problem with Homework? Retrieved April 7, 2015, from
http://pernillesripp.com/2010/12/23/so-whats-my-problem-with-homework/
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2014, February 1). Flow, the secret to happiness. Retrieved April 7, 2015, from
http://www.ted.com/talks/mihaly_csikszentmihalyi_on_flow?language=en