This is a review/summary of chapter 1, by Karen B. Rogers, PhD, from The Social and Emotional Development of Gifted Children, What Do We Know?.
Weighing the disadvantages and benefits, it is essential for the academic, social, and psychological well-being and development of gifted students, for educators to create accelerated learning opportunities and environments. What form this acceleration takes place depends on many factors, some specific to the child and some to the allowances of the educational system. For the greatest benefit to occur, both need to work in a delicate balance.
Good points to bring up with a staff working with gifted students:
- “…when high ability is exercised only in environments that provide little challenge, students tend to abandon hope of real learning and begin to expect themselves to excel at everything they try, avoiding situations at which they might not be instant experts and becoming more involved in demonstrating their ability than in the learning task itself.” p. 3
- “As Foster (1985) and Gross (1989) have both discovered in their studies, when gifted children are not with their intellectual peers, their social self-concept declines and their negative self-criticism increases.” p. 4
- “…in order to address [gifted] emotional and social issues, three educational provisions must be in place: (1) placement with others of like ability when the learning is ’serious,’ (2) exposure to progressively more complex tasks in a prestructured continuum of learning experiences based on mastery and readiness, and (3) flexible progression at an appropriately rapid pace.” p. 4
Questions/Implications raised:
- Is the greater success of subject acceleration in the “lower grades” than the “older grades” due to the nature of the increased complexity of the content or the varying ability of the schools to offer accelerated opportunities at various grade levels? What can secondary schools due to change this trend?
- Do secondary schools not appropriately address the social and emotional needs of gifted students in accelerated situations, and if so, could this lead to the decrease in the effectiveness of subject acceleration in “older grades”?
- How can a school or district system support Rogers’ “four prerequisites of successful accelerative placement: (1) cognitive functioning, (2) personal characteristics, (3) learning preferences, and (4) interests,” p. 10? How does this process and the designed acceleration opportunities vary for our gifted students from “culturally different” or “poverty” backgrounds?
- “For cognitive functioning…the child must be processing and achieving well above most others at the current grade level…” p. 10. How do we definer “well above”?
- “In terms of personal characteristics, the child must generally be motivated by challenge and learning, be independent in thought and action, persist in other-directed and self-directed tasks, be socially mature and comfortable with older children, and have a positive relationship with at least one adult,” p. 10. How do we keep this from limiting acceleration and instead design differentiated acceleration opportunities for gifted students who do not fit all the qualities listed above? We need to find ways to engage all gifted students appropriately at higher levels of learning.
- “The child’s learning preferences should include a willingness to work at his or her own pace, but not necessarily always alone,” p. 10. This is another great argument for homogenous grouping for gifted students. How do we overcome the rampant myths in education against leveled groupings of students while still honoring the benefits of heterogenous partnerships for specific learning targets in mixed-ability classrooms?
- “The interests of the child should generally favor academic work, while his or her involvement in a variety of activities and hobbies outside of school might preclude time to supplement school learning in the home,” p.10. Again, we cannot ignore our gifted students who have become disillusioned and are currently underachieving academically. What work needs to be done with this subset of gifted students to prepare them for successful acceleration?
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