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Internet Gifted Resources

Content for gifted learners must be enhanced through depth, complexity, novelty, and acceleration.  Depth will include the language of the discipline, understanding of the rules that govern the discipline, and understanding the generalizations,m theory and principles of the information.  Complexity will include seeing information over time or from another point of view, seeing it from different perspectives, and seeing it in a disciplinary way.  Novelty includes research, real problems, and primary sources.   Acceleration means individual pacing, adjustment in time, and more advanced resources and experiences to the gifted learner.

Process is cognitive and affective thinking skills, learning how to learn, research and reference skills, and written, oral and visual communications skills.

Products are the results of the content and the process.  Products and performances should be assessed for student learning.

Content

Content consists of ideas, concepts, descriptive information, and facts, rules and principles that are presented to the learner.   Content modifications include the use of:

• Acceleration- Providing the opportunity for students to move more rapidly through a particular curricular sequence without regard to age or setting.
• Compacting- Adapting the regular curriculum by either eliminating work that has already been mastered or streamlining work that may be mastered at a quicker pace.
• Variety-Ideas and content areas should be extensions of the regular curriculum.
• Reorganization- Selecting new arrangements of content e.g., functional similarities, categorical groups, descriptive similarities, in place of the typical chronological organization.
• Flexible pacing- Allowing for individual characteristics to determine the pace.
• Use of more advanced or complex concepts, and materials- Posing more challenging questions or situations that force the learner to deal with the intricacies of the content.  Using novel and sophisticated content.
• Use of abstractions-Going beyond the facts and the obvious to the conceptual framework, underlying ideas, symbolism, and hidden meaning of the content.

Additional suggestions:

• When possible, students should be encouraged to move through content areas at their own pace.  If they master a particular unit, they need to be provided with more advanced learning activities, not more of the same activity. Thematic, broad-based and integrated content, rather than single-subject areas in isolation best serve their learning characteristics.  In addition, such concept-based instruction expands opportunities to generalize and to integrate and apply ideas.
• Middle and secondary schools are generally organized to meet student needs within content areas.  Providing an interdisciplinary approach is another way of modifying curriculum.  Jacobs and Borland (1986) found that high ability learners benefit greatly from curriculum experiences that cross or go beyond traditional content areas,  particularly when they are encouraged to acquire an integrated understanding of knowledge and the structure of the disciplines.
• Testing out and compacting of required curriculum. (KAR 91-40-3 (g))
• Dual credit can also be given for college courses taken at the high school level. (KAR 91-40-3 (h))

Process

Process is the presentation of content, including the learning activities for students, the questions that are asked, as well as the teaching methods and thinking skills that are used.

• Higher Levels of thinking- Emphasizing questions that enable the learners to analyze synthesize, or evaluate.
• Open-endedness- Asking questions that promote critical and creative thinking.
• Inquiry and discovery- Providing opportunities for the learner to arrive at self-drawn conclusions or generalizations.
• Active exploration- Providing opportunities for movement and learner-driven exploration.
• Inductive and Deductive reasoning- Asking the learner to cite the sources, clues given, and logic used in drawing conclusions.
• Freedom of choice- Providing opportunities for self-directed activities such as independent study.
• Group interactions/simulations- Using structured simulations for group problem solving.
• Variety- Encouraging a variety of teaching strategies.
• Pacing- The rapidity with which content is presented; the extension of time and deadlines so that further integration of ideas may take place; and/or flexibility in time allowance.

Although instructional strategies depend on the age of the students and the nature of the disciplines involved, the goal is always to encourage students to think about subjects in more abstract and complex ways.  Activity selection should be based on student interests, and activities should be developed in ways that encourage self-directed learning.  Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (1956) offers the most common approach to process modification.

Products

Products are the outcomes of instruction that consolidate learning and communicate ideas.  Modifications in products should:

• Possess characteristics that are professional in nature.
• Address real problems, audiences, and concerns.
• Synthesize rather than summarize information.
• Include a self-evaluation component.

All italicized text is from  "Effective Practices for Gifted Education in Kansas" manual.  You will be able to access the document in its entirety at the Kansas State Department of Education (www.kansped.org-available October 2008)

Permission granted for use by Bruce Passman, State Director, Kansas State Department of Education 120 S.E. 10th Avenue, Topeka, Kansas 66612

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Nancy Bosch

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Last update 01/13/07 04:55 PM
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