tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1715426946806318582024-03-28T05:39:49.171-07:00Gifted Education PerspectivesThis blog features periodic thoughts, perspectives, and opinions as relates to the field of gifted education.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05101141241131815060noreply@blogger.comBlogger28125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-171542694680631858.post-29932355276300458682015-01-15T05:01:00.001-08:002015-01-15T09:43:05.869-08:00Science Instruction for young gifted students in elementary school<div class="MsoNormal">
By Benjamin Hebebrand, <a href="http://www.questacademy.org/">Quest Academy</a></div>
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Science instruction at the elementary school level has
remained in many cases traditional. In the chapter on science instruction of
the National Association of Gifted Children publication entitled <u><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/critical-issues-and-practices-in-gifted-education-2e-jonathan-plucker-phd/1121010080?cm_mmc=google+product+search-_-q000000633-_-9781618210951pla-_-textbook_instock_under26_pt99-_-q000000633-_-9781618210951&ean=9781618210951&isbn=9781618210951&kpid=9781618210951&r=1">Critical Issues and Practices in Gifted Education</a></u>, the following issues are
identified as factors in contributing to the notion that elementary science
instruction is merely basic, unimaginative, and not conducive to personality
traits of youngsters showing tendencies of scientists.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://www.prufrock.com/cw_contributorinfo.aspx?ContribID=211&Name=Cheryll+M.+Adams%2C+Ph.D.">Cheryll M. Adams</a> and <a href="http://www.prufrock.com/cw_contributorinfo.aspx?ContribID=212&Name=Rebecca+L.+Pierce%2C+Ph.D.">Rebecca L. Pierce</a>, both affiliated with
the Center for Gifted Studies and Talent Development at Ball State University,
list the following factors:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Exclusive use of textbook-based science programs<o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Over-reliance on “lecture” as instructional
strategy<o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span>Lack of a “real-world” focus (i.e. how can a teacher relate the scientific concept to the everyday world of an elementary school student)</div>
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</span></span><!--[endif]-->Lack of supplies, equipment, and resources (most
elementary schools do not feature a science lab for the youngest students)<o:p></o:p></div>
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Additionally, recent U.S. educational policy, specifically
the No Child Left Behind Act, had elementary school teachers focusing the vast
majority of their instructional time on mathematics and reading skills that
were tested on statewide standardized tests. But recent advances in Common Core
Science standards and especially the <a href="http://www.nextgenscience.org/next-generation-science-standards">Next Generation Science Standards</a> offer
potential to improve science instruction at the elementary school
setting.<o:p></o:p></div>
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How do we recognize young students who show potential in
science? Adams, who researches giftedness in science, has identified the
following personality traits of scientists, few if any of which lend themselves
to traditional science instruction. These traits are a) risk-taker; b)
autonomous; c) unconventional; d) original; e) persistent; f) looks at unusual
details; g) independent; h) playful; i) rational; j) dislikes ambiguity; k)
interest in art/humanities; l) energetic; m) broad aptitude; n) curious; o)
intellectual courage; p) daring. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Gardner">Howard Gardner</a>, best known for his work on
multiple intelligences, refers to a <a href="http://712educators.about.com/od/multipleint/p/naturalist-Intelligence.htm">naturalist intelligence</a>, best described as
students being able to recognize, categorize and draw upon certain features of
the environment.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Adams and Pierce point to little research showing any
evidence about the effectiveness of science instruction geared at gifted or
high ability students (according to the authors, the last 25 years have merely
produced one book and 139 articles investigating science instruction for gifted
students at any K-12 school level with the majority of those articles focusing
on computer science). In the research uncovered as related to gifted students
aged 5 to 11, it is suggested that if teachers want to challenge young students
in science, “teachers do not necessarily need to look towards the amount of
work that is done, but rather to the cognitive demands that it makes upon the
children.” As such, teachers are wise to pursue scientific investigations,
open-ended questions, and problem-solving. One other recommendation found in
the research is that schools (un)cover scientific topics in depth rather than
“the mile-wide inch-deep approach currently in place.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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There has been some research on the effectiveness of
after-school or extra-curricular instruction in the area of science. “Results
indicate that students prefer inquiry-based science activities and would
welcome these activities in the classroom.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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Adams concludes the following items as essential in
elementary science programs that are geared toward nurturing science talent:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]-->1.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Children are exposed to science often throughout
the week.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]-->2.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Classrooms contain a rich collection of books,
manipulatives, and both natural and man-made science artifacts.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]-->3.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Children have opportunity to read books with a
science focus.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]-->4.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Science investigations are inquiry-based,
student-centered, and open-ended.</div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]-->5.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->The teacher has advanced knowledge of science
topics taught at the particular grade level.<o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05101141241131815060noreply@blogger.com145tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-171542694680631858.post-33369881489609239012014-10-14T15:46:00.000-07:002014-10-14T16:01:14.220-07:00Let’s Be Creative – How to Teach for Creative Growthby Benjamin Hebebrand, Head of School, <a href="http://www.questacademy.org/">Quest Academy</a><br />
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Whether or not one is
born with creativity or whether one has been taught to be creative is akin to
the debate of intelligence being fostered by nature or nurture. Indeed,
behavioral scientists have studied both intelligence and creativity in parallel
tracks, often combining the two via cognitive processes. Terms such as “creative genius” underscore the
correlation between creativity and intelligence. “In a surprisingly faithful
way, the history of behavioral scientists’ attempts to study creativity parallels
their attempts to investigate human intelligence,” according to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Gardner">Howard Gardner</a>,
most well-known for his models of multiple intelligences and the author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Creating-Minds-Creativity-Einstein-Stravinsky/dp/0465027741">Creating Minds.</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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Just as <u><a href="http://mindsetonline.com/">Mindset</a></u>
author <a href="http://mindsetonline.com/">Carol Dweck</a> and others have researched and proven that intelligence can
change over time by internalizing what she calls a growth mindset (the absolute
belief that one’s reasoning can always improve as a result of effortful
learning), there is ample evidence that creativity, too, can be heightened. “It
is true that everyone’s creative ability, creative productivity, and creative
living can be elevated,” according to <a href="http://www.greatpotentialpress.com/authors/gary-a-davis-ph-d">Gary A. Davis</a>, author of several books
and research studies on the topic of creativity and giftedness.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In a chapter on
creativity in <u><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/handbook-of-gifted-education-nicholas-colangelo/1100056984?cm_mmc=google+product+search-_-q000000633-_-9780205340637pla-_-textbook_instock_75up_pt106-_-q000000633-_-9780205340637&ean=9780205340637&isbn=9780205340637&kpid=9780205340637&r=1">The Handbook of Gifted Education</a></u>, Davis outlines a five-part
approach to <b>creativity training</b>.
They are as follows:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]-->1.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Fostering creativity consciousness and creative
attitudes<o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]-->2.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Improving students’ understanding of creativity
and creative people<o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]-->3.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Exercising creative abilities<o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]-->4.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Teaching creative thinking techniques<o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]-->5.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Involving
students in creative activities<o:p></o:p></div>
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<u>Creativity
Consciousness and Creative Attitudes:</u> Davis maintains that creativity
consciousness is the “easiest to teach.” Teachers should be encouraged to allow
for multiple opportunities for creative activities, best encouraged by a
teacher’s exclamation “Now, let’s be creative!” At our school, Quest Academy,
for example, we have opened a technology-rich Innovation/Tinkering Lab, in
which teachers are often overheard saying “We are looking for creativity!” Once
the creativity consciousness has been introduced in the classroom, creative
attitudes can be fostered. These attitudes will enable students to value
innovation. “Students will become receptive to the unusual, perhaps the
far-fetched ideas of others…play with ideas,” according to Davis. An important
aspect to consider is to teach students about the blocks to creative thinking such
as “mental sets, perceptual sets, rules, traditions, and especially conformity
pressures.” Students who understand that “innovation never stops” may exemplify
those who have developed creative attitudes. Davis advises teachers to increase
creativity consciousness and creative attitudes by a) recognizing and rewarding
each child’s creativity; b) encouraging fantasy and imagination; c) helping
students to resist peer pressure to conform; d) encouraging questions,
different responses, humor, and risk-taking; and e) being aware that a student’s
‘difficult’ behavior may be a manifestation of creativity. Brazilian creativity
scholar <span style="background: white; color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://www.prufrock.com/cw_contributorinfo.aspx?ContribID=11555&Name=Denise+De+Souza+Fleith">Denisede Souza Fleith</a></span> describes the opposite – a classroom that stifles
creativity in the following way: “Students cannot share ideas, ideas are
ignored, mistakes are not allowed, one right answer is required, competition is
extreme, fear may exist, and the class has a ‘controlling’ teacher.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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<u><span style="background: white; color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Improving
Students’ Understanding of Creativity and Creative People: </span></u><span style="background: white; color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">It is important to present information on
creativity to students in an age-appropriate manner. Davis suggests that
students should understand that creative ideas are often “modifications of
existing ideas” (black/white TV becomes Color TV becomes flat-panel TV becomes
3-D TV); “new combinations of ideas” (e.g. the TV and the PC become one
machine); or “analogical thinking” (the idea that T.S. Eliot’s poetry about
cats resulted in the musical CATS). Another critical component to increase
students’ understanding of creativity is to introduce students to creative
problem solving steps such as “fact finding, problem finding, idea finding,
solution finding (idea evaluation), and acceptance finding (idea
implementation). At our school, students who have been involved with creative
problem solving teams put together to compete in <a href="http://www.destinationimagination.org/">DestinationImagination</a> events
are most familiar with this process.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<u>Exercising Creative
Abilities: </u>Creative classrooms are likely to practice a) “idea fluency” by
asking students to “think of all the ideas you can;” b) “flexibility” by asking
“how else can we do this;” c) “originality by challenging students to “think of
a new approach” or “combine some ideas;” d) "elaboration" by asking students to “embellish
and extend initial ideas and solutions.” There are other classroom techniques
to foster “problem sensitivity” (What don’t I know about a specific topic e.g.
the Civil War); “analogical thinking” (How are you like a cat?) that is often
fostered in drama classes; or “predicting outcomes” (What will happen if we
combine these two elements?).<o:p></o:p></div>
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<u>Teaching Creative
Thinking Techniques: </u><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Faickney_Osborn">Alex Osborn</a>, author of <u><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Applied-Imagination-Alex-F-Osborn/dp/0023895209">Applied Imagination</a> , </u>(1953)
may very well have the most exhaustive list of idea spurring questions (about 100 such questions): <b>Put to other uses</b>: “New ways to use as is? Other uses if modified?”
<b>Adapt</b>: “What else is like this? What other ideas does this suggest? Does the past
offer a parallel? What could I copy? Whom could I emulate?” <b>Modify</b>: “New twist?
Change meaning, color, motion, sound, odor, form, shape.” <b>Magnify</b>: “What to
add? More time? Greater frequency? Stronger? Higher? Longer? Thicker? Extra
value? Plus ingredient? Duplicate? Multiply? Exaggerate?” <b>Rearrange</b>: “Interchange
components? Other pattern? Other layout? Other sequence? Transpose cause and
effect? Change pace? Change schedule?” <b>Reverse</b>: “Transpose positive and
negative? How about opposites? Turn it backward? Turn it upside down? Reverse
roles? Change shoes? Turn tables? Turn other cheek?"<o:p></o:p></div>
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<u>Involving Students in Creative Activities: </u>Schools should ask themselves if students have
creativity-stimulating activities such as music, drama, art, science, or
technology?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05101141241131815060noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-171542694680631858.post-13588720796835601272014-07-27T10:32:00.000-07:002014-08-06T10:21:55.313-07:00Digging beneath the surface of underachievementby Benjamin Hebebrand, Head of School, Quest Academy<br />
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As a follow-up from my <a href="http://ben-hebebrand.blogspot.com/2014/05/underachievement-in-gifted-students.html">previous post</a> on underachievement
among gifted students and in anticipation of noted psychologist, author, and
gifted education advocate <a href="http://www.sylviarimm.com/">Dr. Sylvia Rimm</a>’s visit to <a href="http://www.questacademy.org/">Quest Academy</a> on <a href="http://www.eventbrite.com/e/sylvia-rimm-phd-presentation-tickets-12433032535?aff=es2&rank=1">August 21,2014</a> (she will lead both teacher and parent sessions), we will outline several
defensive psychological defense patterns that gifted students exhibit. Dr. Rimm
has conducted and reviewed extensive research on this subject, also having
published and presented on this topic within the gifted education community.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Before looking at detailed patterns, we would be wise to
remind ourselves that causes for these psychological defense patterns can be
both external and internal, meaning that external environments such as home and
family or internal causes from within the child are the source of psychological
defensive patterns – patterns that often become so engrained that they are
difficult to reverse. Speaking of reversal, we would be equally wise to remind
ourselves that evaluation and therapeutic solutions require a team approach –
educators, counselors, psychologists, and parents are well-guided to work in
close collaboration.<o:p></o:p></div>
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According to Rimm, the most frequent characteristics of
underachievement one can observe on the surface include “disorganization,
uneven skills, lost, unfinished, or carelessly completed homework, missing
assignments, a barrage of excuses including forgetfulness, blame laid on
teachers, parents, or peers, and, most frequently, the description of school as
boring,” according to Rimm’s chapter on underachievement in the <u><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Giftedness-Children-Psychoeducational-Practices/dp/0387743995">Handbook of Giftedness in Children</a></u>.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In her book <u><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Why-Bright-Kids-Poor-Grades/dp/051770062X">Why Bright Kids Get Poor Grades and What YouCan Do About It</a></u>, Rimm asserts that defensive patterns can be classified as
dependent or dominant, or a combination of the two. When a child asks for more
help than she needs, she is seen as dependent, avoiding to work independently. Signs
of being overwhelmed such as frequent tears or complaining fit the
dependent category. On the other hand, dominant underachievers are more likely
to “argue with their teachers, blame them for their boredom, demand alternative
assignments, or claim that school is irrelevant or a waste of time." (Teachers
occasionally refer to these students as “lawyers”). In her book, Rimm lists
several manipulations by dependent and dominant underachievers:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<u>Dependent</u>: Help me; nag me; protect me; feel sorry
for me; love me; shelter me.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<u>Dominant</u>: Admire me, praise me, applaud me; do not
criticize me; disagree with me; give me; be mine; see my difference; how far
can I push?<o:p></o:p></div>
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At the root of underachievement most likely is a child’s
lack of an internal locus of control, meaning that an underachieving child
believes that success comes as a result of luck or the ease of a task but not
as the result of effort. “If the child sees no relationship between efforts and
outcome, he is unlikely to make effort,” according to Rimm (I often tell
parents that instead of proclaiming that we are proud of a child’s results on
tests and projects, the child may be better served by hearing how proud they
must be of themselves to have worked so hard to earn that result – also see my
<a href="http://ben-hebebrand.blogspot.com/2012/03/motivating-gifted-learner.html">previous post</a> on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_Dweck">Dr. Carol Dweck</a>’s research on the growth mindset). <o:p></o:p></div>
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As concerns other underlying problems contributing to
underachievement, scholars point to competition – especially relevant in an
environment of gifted children, many of whom are highly competitive. It is a
student’s self-efficacy – “the belief in one’s own capabilities to carry
through a designated performance” – that is partially shaped when performance is
compared to those of others. “Comparative success established self-efficacy,
while early comparative failures diminished self-efficacy.” Should positive comparative
(i.e. competitive) success be stressed and recognized too much, children will
run the risk of a fear of losing their “winner” status by having too high
expectations set for them. Children whose academic performance measures do not
consistently compare well to others may pursue popularity, sports, music and
drama as alternatives or even worse “state no preference, only that they are
alternative kids or simply give up and remind parents and teachers of their
boredom or complain that they are expected to be perfect like a younger sister
or older brother.” Because gifted students understand that jealousy is not
considered good character, they rarely recognize their feelings about
competition.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Rimm also believes that school
environments, specifically the curriculum, the teacher, peer pressure, excessive
or misguided parental advocacy can be contributors to underachievement. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<u>The Curriculum:</u> An absolutely
central component to offer a gifted student a proper curriculum lies in the
notion of student boredom – research has shown that gifted students frequently
already know half the curriculum at the beginning of each year. Repetitive
curriculum (i.e. “I already know this!”) leads to student boredom – gifted students
report the following five C’s to define their optimal learning: 1) control; 2)
choice; 3) challenge; 4) complexity; and 5) caring. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The curriculum ideally should
support each individual student’s self-efficacy (belief in one’s own
capabilities). The circumstance of a gifted student investing little – if any –
effort but yet accomplishing good grades and significant praise is common and
quite frankly dangerously unproductive if not unhealthy. These students “learn
to define intelligence as ‘fast and easy’ and do not experience the effort
required of students with lesser abilities,” says Rimm. This will eventually
change – either by middle school or high school or college for profoundly
gifted students – and while some gifted students will accordingly adjust their
effort in achieving, some will not. “Rather than admit that work has become
more difficult and they must work harder, they hide their sense of inadequacy
for fear that they will no longer be considered intelligent.” In essence, they
may have lost their “sense of efficacy and no longer believe that hard work can
deliver them to success.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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<u>The Teacher</u>: Obviously, the
teacher is the central gatekeeper to adjust the curriculum to the abilities of
a student. The underachieving student’s display of disinterest, inattention,
and lack of producing work are attributes that do not fit a teacher’s
preference to “teach those who want to learn.” Great teachers first take a look
at their delivery of curriculum and their relationship with an underachieving
student – “a truly talented, insightful teacher manages to build an alliance
with a student who may have lost his or her sense of efficacy in the classroom.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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<u>Peer Pressure</u>: Popularity appears
to be the highest priority by the time students reach the middle grades. Rimm reports on a 2005 survey of over 5,000
students in 3<sup>rd</sup> through 8<sup>th</sup> grade that popularity ranked
highest among their worries, tied only with terrorism. Rimm reports that by
third grade, 15 percent of the students reported that they “worried a lot about
being popular with the opposite sex, and surprisingly, slightly more boys
worried than girls.” Due to this peer pressure, gifted students may
deliberately not turn in homework or refuse to study due to their preference
for average grades. “A discerning adult can often prevent that from becoming a
pattern, but once initiated, underachieving to be ‘cool’ can take on a life of
its own,” according to Rimm.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<u>Parent Advocacy Gone Awry</u>:
There is no doubt that parents should be able to communicate (and be heard) on
the needs of their gifted students, for it is indeed most plausible that parents
may indeed know more about specific skills their kids demonstrate. “Nevertheless,
it is possible that parents’ legitimate advocacy can initiate an underachieving
pattern. If the advocacy is conducted in a manner that shows disrespect for the
teacher, it empowers the student to believe they can challenge the teacher and
be victorious when they are expected to complete a task that they view as
unpleasant. Thus, the power granted to the student initially to provide
challenge can be easily misused by both parents and students if the student can
make an argument for the irrelevance of the curriculum and material.” Teachers
may be familiar with students who fervently argue that there is no useful role
for tedious learning material such as grammar.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Rimm also points to factors of
underachievement originating in the family. Specifically in the case of gifted
students, parents assume that due to their child’s adult-sounding vocabulary
and sophisticated insights, their child is capable of making independent decisions
early in life – often confounded by the parental encouragement to think for
themselves (and, therefore, think “differently than their parents”). It is as
if gifted children may potentially be “set up” to argue; and “the arguing by
over-empowered children easily becomes argument for the sake of winning rather
than intellectual discussion.” Rimm further states that “once power is granted,
it is not easily taken away. If children are accustomed to making decisions,
they will not accomplish challenging or unpleasant tasks that are not of their
own choosing.” <o:p></o:p></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05101141241131815060noreply@blogger.com38tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-171542694680631858.post-79961912590352520312014-05-04T16:53:00.001-07:002014-05-11T05:49:21.880-07:00Underachievement in gifted studentsby Benjamin Hebebrand, Head of School, <a href="http://www.questacademy.org/">Quest Academy</a><br />
<br />
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Underachievement in our schools has been called a national
crisis; and there are some who claim that underachievement among gifted
students is even more prevalent. Research dating back as far as the 1980s show
that “between 10 and 20 percent of those who do not complete high school are
tested in the gifted range,” according to the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Gifted-Education-3rd-Edition/dp/0205340636">Handbook of Gifted Education</a>’s
chapter on “Underachievement: A National Epidemic” by <a href="http://www.sylviarimm.com/">Silvia Rimm</a>. The
statistics are worse when it comes to graduating from college, as evidenced by
1989 study that showed that “of the top 5% of this country’s high school
graduates, 40% do not complete college.”<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
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The most well-known report documenting underachievement,
entitled “<a href="http://www2.ed.gov/pubs/NatAtRisk/index.html">A Nation at Risk: The Imperative of Educational Reform</a>,” was
published in 1983 by the National Commission on Excellence in Education. This
report claimed that “half of gifted children do not work to their abilities in
school,” as reported in the “Underachievement” chapter of “<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Giftedness-Children-Psychoeducational-Practices/dp/0387743995">Handbook ofGiftedness in Children</a>,” also authored by Silvia Rimm. Generally, it is
difficult to calculate the exact number of gifted students who underachieve
because there is no real consistency on how to define and measure
underachievement.<o:p></o:p><br />
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If we were to define underachievement as a discrepancy
between IQ and achievement test scores, one has to research the root cause. Other
than psychological defensive patterns that impact student motivation, a root
cause can be found in a curriculum not challenging enough – a curriculum that “has
given children insufficient exposure to expected learning,” as Rimm notes. Thus,
it is, of course, essential to investigate discrepancies between IQ scores and
achievement tests with the clear understanding that IQ scores do not perfectly
match achievement scores. “We should expect gifted students to be above average
in terms of their achievement, but we should not necessarily expect their
achievement to be as exceptionally high as their ability,” says Rimm. Therefore,
determinations about a lacking curriculum need to be made with care and
research, but yet a change of school often provides the beginnings of a
turnaround. One of the recommendations made in “The Nation at Risk” report was
to increase gifted education services in the form of enrichment and
acceleration. It is no coincidence that at that time gifted education programs
were introduced in public schools and private gifted education schools such as
<a href="http://www.questacademy.org/">Quest Academy</a> in Illinois, or <a href="http://sycamoreschool.org/">Sycamore School</a> in Indiana were founded.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Gifted education scholars <a href="http://www.education.uconn.edu/directory/details.cfm?id=53">D. Betsy McCoach</a> and <a href="http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/general/faculty/reis/reis_home.html">Sally Reis</a>,
both of the University of Connecticut, define gifted underachievers as “students
who exhibit a severe discrepancy between <i>expected
achievement </i>(as measured by standardized achievement test scores or
cognitive or intellectual ability assessments) and <i>actual achievement</i> (as measured by class grades or teacher
evaluations).” Teacher assessments do not provide the reliability that
standardized tests do, but essentially they provide the “most valid indication
of a student’s current level of achievement within a classroom environment.”<br />
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According to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulric_Neisser">Ulric Neisser</a>, who led the effort to publish “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence:_Knowns_and_Unknowns">Intelligence:Known and Unknowns</a>” in 1996 in response to the 1994 publication of “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bell_Curve">The BellCurve</a>,” <span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">“children
with high scores on tests of intelligence tend to learn more of what is taught
in school than their lower-scoring peers. There may be styles of teaching and
methods of instruction that will decrease or increase this correlation, but
none that consistently eliminates it has yet been found."<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><o:p></o:p><br />
<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><br /></span></span></div>
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But yet, the validity of teacher assessments may be
compromised, especially at younger grades, “because high-ability students doing
easy schoolwork may earn high marks with little effort,” according to Rimm. Continuation
of investing little effort on the part of the student may continue for years
without being detected by parents because “teachers may ignore incomplete
assignments because test scores are high.”<o:p></o:p><br />
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Thus, it is imperative that both teachers and parents not exclusively
focus on results and scores, but rather investigate a child’s process of
learning. Thus, it is no surprise that checklists and questionnaires are common
tools to identify and possibly measure underachievement as well as learning
differences that may impede achievement. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
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In examining some of the research and reports on
psychological defensive patterns, it is wise to focus on pressures that gifted
children may experience at a higher rate. These pressures, according to Rimm,
include:<br />
<ul>
<li>1) the need to be extraordinarily intelligent, perfect, or ‘smartest;’ </li>
<li>2) the wish to be extremely creative and unique, which they may translate as
nonconformity; and</li>
<li>3) the concern with being admired by peers for appearance
and popularity.”</li>
</ul>
<o:p></o:p></div>
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Broadly speaking, the environmental factors that may
contribute to underachievement and its associated psychological defensive
patterns are:<br />
<ul>
<li>1) the school environment; </li>
<li>2) family dynamics; and </li>
<li>3) peer
influences.</li>
</ul>
<o:p></o:p></div>
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Generally speaking, there are some school circumstances that Rimm identifies as not promoting high achievement such as:<br />
<ul>
<li>1) anti-intellectual school atmospheres
in which priorities for athletics or social status overshadow academic and
intellectual programs; </li>
<li>2) attitudes that view gifted programming as elitist; </li>
<li>3)
overly rigid classrooms in which all students study at all times the identical
materials in identical time; </li>
<li>4) “teachers who rigidly fail to see the
quality of children’s work because of different values, personal power
struggles, or cultural or racial prejudice.” </li>
</ul>
</div>
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Equally general characteristics found in family dynamics
contributing to underachievement are:<br />
<ul>
<li>1) inconsistent parenting, sometimes
accentuated by one parent acting as disciplinarian and the other as protector
(unfortunately, these trends during a child’s life may become more pronounced
leading to even more authoritarian and increasingly protective distribution among
the two parent figures); </li>
<li>2) inconsistent and unpredictable structure and
organization in which children may manipulate one or both parents; and </li>
<li>3) poor
family relationships including those with siblings.</li>
</ul>
</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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As concerns peer influence among adolescents, there are three
thoughts to keep in mind:<br />
<ul>
<li>1) Studies by Sally Reis have shown that “high-achieving
peers had a positive influence on gifted students who began to underachieve in
high school and contributed to some students’ reversal of their
underachievement,” as reported in "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Critical-Issues-Practices-Gifted-Education/dp/1593632959">Critical Issues and Practices in Gifted Education</a>." </li>
<li>2) A 1995 study by D.R. and R.E. Clasen showed that “66 percent of high-ability
students named peer pressure or the attitude of the other kids, including
friends, as the primary force against getting good grades.” </li>
<li>3) Yet, there is no
clear evidence “whether the choice to associate with other non-achievers is a
cause or result of gifted students’ underachievement,” <o:p></o:p>according to McCoach and Siegle.</li>
</ul>
</div>
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In a subsequent blog, we will dig a little deeper into
students’ psychological defensive patterns, the symptoms of which may be easy
to spot but “beneath the surface of the apparent characteristics there are more
deep-seated concerns that students are protecting,” as Rimm notes.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05101141241131815060noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-171542694680631858.post-41709561224727672502014-03-19T19:34:00.001-07:002014-03-30T20:12:08.292-07:00Overexcitability...can just be giftednessBy Benjamin Hebebrand, Head of School, <a href="http://www.questacademy.org/">Quest Academy</a><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">By thinking
of giftedness as an “exceptional” condition, it follows that those labeled or
diagnosed as gifted are indeed exceptional individuals. They are the exception
from the norm – most frequently illustrated on the right-hand outer edges of a
traditional bell curve of intelligence measures.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">There is
some concern that the exceptionality of giftedness is occasionally misdiagnosed
or mistaken for other exceptionalities, “because </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">specific social
and emotional characteristics of gifted children are mistakenly assumed to be signs
of pathology,” according to </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> <a href="http://www.greatpotentialpress.com/misdiagnosis-and-dual-diagnoses-of-gifted-children-and-adults">James T. Webb</a>, psychologist and
noted gifted education advocate, who wrote </span><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Misdiagnosis and Dual Diagnoses of Gifted Children and Adults.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Among the most common misdiagnoses – or also a common
dual diagnosis along with giftedness – is the condition of Attention
Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. According to M. Layne Kalbfleisch’s and
Meredith Banasiak’s ADHD chapter in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Critical-Issues-Practices-Gifted-Education/dp/1593632959">“Critical Issues and Practices in GiftedEducation</a>,” the two conditions “can share many similar traits including rapid
speech, impulsive actions, overindulgence, extra sensitivity to environmental
stimuli, intense curiosity, melodrama, tendency to mix truth with fiction, use
of image and metaphor, behavior extremes, somatic complaints, and difficulty
adjusting to new environments.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Among the first to link giftedness to what he termed “overexcitabilities”
is Polish psychiatrist and psychologist <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_Disintegration">Kazimierz Dabrowski</a>. He identified five
areas of intensity:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0px;">
</div>
<ol>
<li><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; text-indent: -0.25in;"> Psychomotor</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; text-indent: -0.25in;">Sensual</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; text-indent: -0.25in;">Intellectual</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; text-indent: -0.25in;">Imaginational</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; text-indent: -0.25in;">Emotional</span></li>
</ol>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">According to Dabrowski, these overexcitabilities can
bring much joy – there are reasons to celebrate these excitabilities, while the
frustrations and negatives that excitabilities may bring about can “be
positively dealt with and used to help facilitate the child’s growth,”
according to a <a href="http://www.sengifted.org/">SENG</a> (Social/Emotional Needs of Gifted Children) newsletter.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Dr. Webb describes it in the following manner: “Gifted
children-and gifted adults often are extremely intense, whether in their
emotional response, intellectual pursuits, sibling rivalry, or power struggles
with authority figures. Impatience is also frequently present, both with
oneself and with others. The intensity also often manifests itself in
heightened motor activity and physical restlessness.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The misdiagnosis of ADHD in gifted children may be
attributed to the manner in which ADHD is often diagnosed by a collection of
behavior checklists, often filled out by parents and teachers. “The behaviors
of children with ADHD are generally thought to be caused by a neurological
abnormality in the prefrontal cortex of the brain and/or neurotransmitter
dysfunction. ADHD behaviors exhibited by gifted children likely have far
different explanations,” according to a <a href="http://www.positivedisintegration.com/Hartnett2004.pdf">Winter 2004 Roeper Review</a> article
entitled “Gifted or ADHD.” Kalbfleisch and Banasiak have one such possible
different explanation: the failure “to
assess how intellectually engaging a (gifted) child’s environment is.” Dr. Webb
puts it bluntly by pointing out the boredom gifted children may experience in a
classroom – he estimates that gifted students “may spend a quarter to half
their day waiting for kids to catch up.” That amount of boredom may indeed
cause a gifted student to display ADHD-like behaviors.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">So while there is the potential to misdiagnose ADHD
in gifted children, there certainly are also correct diagnoses of both giftedness
and ADHD. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diagnostic_and_Statistical_Manual_of_Mental_Disorders">The </a></span><span style="background: white; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diagnostic_and_Statistical_Manual_of_Mental_Disorders">Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders</a>(DSM), which outlines a list of behavioral criteria used to identify any of the
three ADHD subtypes, states that “individuals with ADHD may show intellectual
development in the above-average or gifted range.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Studies of gifted children with ADHD and gifted
children without ADHD show that children with the combined condition “tend to
exhibit inconsistency in academic performance, difficulties with handwriting,
and prefer group or participatory activities to working alone,” according to
Kalbfleisch and Banasiak. Furthermore, gifted students with ADHD will have
difficulty acquiring new information at the same speed that gifted students
without ADHD are able to demonstrate. “Thus, there is a gap between rapid
knowledge acquisition and what a gifted student with ADHD may be able to
demonstrate.” Gifted students with ADHD should be given the opportunity to show
their knowledge in verbal presentations rather than written recall scenarios.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Interestingly, Kalbfleisch and Banasiak also point out
potential benefits of the combined condition of giftedness and ADHD such as high
degrees of creativity, propelled by complete immersion to a task that can
actually lead to a state of “flow” or “hyperfocus.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">There certainly is the potential to mis- or
over-diagnose ADHD, particularly with gifted children. With that thought in
mind, it is naturally critical that only a licensed/qualified clinician make
such a diagnosis. According to the American Psychiatric Association, “symptoms
of hyperactivity must be present for at least six months to a point that it is
disruptive and inappropriate for developmental level.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05101141241131815060noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-171542694680631858.post-41362229725307230942014-01-25T16:10:00.000-08:002014-01-25T16:18:06.137-08:00Practical Intelligence as a Pillar of Successful Intelligence<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 17.25px; white-space: pre-wrap;">By Benjamin Hebebrand</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 17.25px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Head of School, <a href="http://www.questacademy.org/">Quest Academy</a></span></span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-499630a6-cbd5-dabe-0c59-37081109cf8e" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The desire to see our students develop social competencies underscores a growing trend to define giftedness beyond traditional intelligence and creativity measures. In studying giftedness and intelligence, we have seen various giftedness/intelligence models evolve to the extent that there now is an abundance of models that include social and emotional competencies or intelligences. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One such model is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triarchic_theory_of_intelligence">Robert Sternberg</a>’s triarchic theory that beyond the traditional analytical/cognitive and creative attributes includes a component Sternberg calls practical intelligence. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Practical intelligence involves individuals applying their abilities to the kinds of problems that confront them in daily life, such as on the job or in the home,” according to Sternberg’s article <a href="http://www.psicorip.org/Resumos/PerP/RIP/RIP036a0/RIP03921.pdf">“The Theory of Successful Intelligence,”</a> published in the 2005 Journal of Interamerican Psychology.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Without well developed practical intelligence, individuals with high analytical/cognitive or creative giftedness may not know how to publish their research, exhibit their artwork, or otherwise bring their creations to a public arena. In short, “they may fail in later transitions of giftedness because they are ineffective at promoting their own ideas,” according to </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><u>Critical Issues and Practices in Gifted Education</u></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, a <a href="http://www.nagc.org/">National Association of Gifted Children</a> (NAGC) publication of 2008. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Another way of looking at this paradox is to examine the fine interplay between the domain and field in which one works. According to the renowned cognitive research scientist <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mihaly_Csikszentmihalyi">Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi</a>, a </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">domain</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> refers to “the kind of work one does (biological research, musical composition, etc.), whereas </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">field</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> refers to the social organization of the domain -- the entire network of people who both create and judge the products of creators.” </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Practical intelligence is divided into three specific applications of adaptation, shaping, and selection, according to Sternberg:</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">1) Adaptation occurs when the individual changes oneself to fit the environment or the specific field of one’s domain. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2) Shaping is the reverse process of adaptation in that one changes the environment to suit oneself. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">3) Selection may occur when neither adaptation nor shaping deliver results. and therefore one “seeks out another environment that is a better match to one’s needs, abilities, and desires.” </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">According to Sternberg, “people differ in their balance of adaptation, shaping, and selection, and in the competence with which they balance among the three possible courses of action.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sternberg relates practical intelligence to the notion of tacit knowledge -- not necessarily “street smarts,” but certainly akin to that idea. Tacit knowledge may best be understood as “what one needs to know in order to work effectively in an environment that one is not explicitly taught and that often is not even verbalized.” </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While our schools greatly emphasize and offer social opportunities, we rarely invest deliberate efforts to teach for practical intelligence. It is as if we assume that practical intelligence is fostered by osmosis -- exposure to social activities will somehow teach assimilation. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I believe that practical intelligence can be deliberately fostered (i.e. taught), preferably integrated into the analytical and creative learning offered in a classroom. Teaching practical intelligence should not just be the domain of school psychologists or counselors, but rather it should be included -- or better yet -- integrated into the curriculum.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Literature and social studies offer wonderful opportunities. At our school, <a href="http://www.questacademy.org/">Quest Academy</a>, a school committed to meet the needs of gifted students, specific learning simulations take place to help students better understand historical events such as “Immigrants Arriving at Ellis Island,” or “Pilgrims Crossing the Ocean on the Mayflower.” These simulations are not limited to a few class periods but rather extensive periods, during which students often journal from the perspective of their historical character. Certainly, we can see how Sternberg’s idea of “adaptation” is being presented to students (how do I as an Irish immigrant adapt to life in the United States?). Certain “Explorer” units, specifically future scenarios such as settling the moon may require students to think in Sternberg’s “shaping” mode i.e. how can I change the environment to suit my needs. Within the study of literature, it may prove helpful to engage kids to identify characters that remind students of oneself or others -- again with the goal of helping students achieve practical intelligence. The beauty, of course, is that these learning activities are also fostering analytical and creative intelligences. In combination, they amount to "teaching for successful intelligence," as the NAGC publication "Critical Issues and Practices in Gifted Education" states.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05101141241131815060noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-171542694680631858.post-45194977421616480452013-11-17T17:18:00.002-08:002013-11-18T08:50:16.367-08:00Sixteen Habits that Facilitate a Growth Mindsetby <a href="http://www.questacademy.org/about-quest/notes-from-the-head-of-school/index.aspx">Benjamin Hebebrand</a>, Head of School, <a href="http://www.questacademy.org/">Quest Academy</a><br />
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I distinctly remember a parent at our school (<a href="http://www.questacademy.org/">Quest Academy</a>,
a school dedicated to meet the needs of gifted students) proclaiming that “my
child may not necessarily be gifted, but rather the school is helping my child
in becoming gifted.” Such a statement naturally reflects the notion that
giftedness or intelligence is not necessarily a fixed trait. Clearly, the work
of <a href="https://www.stanford.edu/dept/psychology/cgi-bin/drupalm/cdweck">Carol Dweck</a>, summarized in her book <u><a href="http://mindsetonline.com/">Mindset</a></u>, has helped us
understand that developing a healthy growth mindset may be the single most
important attribute required to develop one’s talents – this growth mindset implies
that one internalizes the belief that one can continuously improve one’s
learning and understanding or that one can “grow” and “exercise” one’s own
intelligence.<o:p></o:p></div>
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While a healthy growth mindset may indeed be the supreme
habit of mind, there are several habits of mind that may not be attributable to
being intelligent but instead major contributors to becoming intelligent (or
behaving intelligently). In the chapter “In the Habit of Skillful Thinking”
included in the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Gifted-Education-3rd-Edition/dp/0205340636">Handbook of Gifted Education</a> (edited by Nicholas Colangelo and
Gary Davis), habits of mind are defined as dispositions that must be applied
when thinking strategically and effectively in a context of problem-solving,
decision making, or knowledge generation. <o:p></o:p></div>
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We would be wise to list five characteristics that define a
habit of mind, as outlined by <a href="http://www.corwin.com/authors/526763">Arthur L. Costa</a> in the <u>Handbook</u>: <o:p></o:p></div>
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<ul>
<li>Valuing – “choosing to employ a pattern of intellectual
behaviors rather than other, less productive patterns.”</li>
<li>Having the inclination – “feeling the tendency toward
employing a pattern of intellectual behaviors.”</li>
<li>Being alert – “perceiving opportunities for, and
appropriateness of employing a pattern of intellectual behaviors.</li>
<li>Being capable – “possessing the basic thinking skills and
capacities to carry through with the behaviors.</li>
<li>Making a commitment – “reflecting on and constantly striving
to improve performance of the pattern of intellectual behavior.”</li>
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Keeping those five characteristics in mind, let us review a
list of 16 specific habits of mind, all of which transcend any one single
academic domain and also are, according to Costa, “ageless developmental
qualities.”</div>
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<ol>
<li>“Persisting when the solution to a problem is not readily
available.” This requires a repertoire of alternative strategies for problem
solving. This habit of mind is similar to gifted education theorist <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Renzulli">JosephRenzulli</a>’s attribute of task commitment, which along with high ability and
creativity comprise his <a href="http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/sem/semart13.html">three-ring conception</a> of giftedness.</li>
<li>“Managing impulsivity.” Students who blurt the first answer
out may at times be well served to reflect on several options. This habit may
help one avoid a potentially frustrating trial-and-error approach.</li>
<li>“Listening to others with understanding and empathy.” This
habit of mind is described by <a href="https://www.stephencovey.com/">Stephen Covey</a> in the widely popular <u>The Seven
Habits of Highly Effective People</u>. Costa recommends that “paraphrasing
another person’s ideas” or “detecting indicators of another person’s feelings
or emotional states.” He believes that the habit of listening is the “least
taught skill in school.” Research shows that “we spend 55 percent of our lives
listening.”</li>
<li>“Thinking flexibly.” This habit requires a tolerance for
confusion and ambiguity in addition to one’s willingness to change one’s mind
when presented with additional data.</li>
<li>“Thinking about our own thinking: Metacognition.” In a
nutshell, this habit presupposes that one knows one’s own limits – what do we
know and what do we not know. Fostering metacognition would include the act of
rehearsing mentally prior to a specific performance and monitoring during the
performance.</li>
<li>“Striving for accuracy and precision.” This habit most
certainly involves double-checking one’s work. I recall that as a teacher I never
accepted a student’s test or in-class essay without challenging my students to double
and triple check. I spent time instructing students how to double-check their
work.</li>
<li>“Asking questions and posing problems.” This habit is a
follow-up to the habit of metacognition as one needs to learn to ask the
questions to learn and understand that what one does not know.</li>
<li>“Applying past knowledge to new situations.” This habit
requires students to relate and apply previously learned material to new
challenges.</li>
<li>“Thinking and communicating with clarity.” Underlying this
habit is that “fuzzy language is a reflection of fuzzy thinking.”</li>
<li>“Gathering data through all senses.” This habit requires
full attention to one’s environment and processing information coming to the brain
via gustatory, olfactory, tactile, kinesthetic, auditory, and visual sensory
pathways. Students with wide open sensory pathways will absorb more information
than students who are “oblivious to sensory stimuli.”</li>
<li>“Creating, imagining, innovating.” Students are well served
in problem solving when they “examine alternative possibilities from many
angles.” Students who exemplify this habit are unlikely to accept the status
quo, instead seeking greater novelty.</li>
<li>“Responding with wonderment and awe.” Joyful and energetic curiosity
is a trait that defines this habit. This habit transcends the “Yes, I can”
attitude, better characterized as “Yes, I enjoy.” I recently observed one of
our math students assigning a problem that “will make your head hurt.” The
advanced math students related to this challenge just as the math teacher intuitively
had predicted – they were looking forward to the “brain teaser” problems.</li>
<li>“Taking responsible risks.” Students who “accept confusion,
uncertainty, and the higher risks of failure” are likely to exemplify this
habit.</li>
<li>“Finding humor.” This habit may best be exemplified by those
students who “thrive on finding incongruity and perceiving absurdities,
ironies, and satire.”</li>
<li>“Thinking interdependently.” There is a reason why all good
classrooms include group projects, as in our technological age “no one person
has access to all the data needed to make critical decisions; no one person can
consider as many alternatives as several people can.” Habits such as listening,
seeking consensus and foregoing one’s own ideas and work and instead accepting someone
else’s are part of working and thinking interdependently.</li>
<li>“Remaining open to continuous learning.” This habit may best
be described as keeping an open mind, “inviting the unknown, the creative, and the
inspirational.”</li>
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<o:p>In summary, teachers, parents, mentors, and coaches are wise
to spend significant time in helping students develop these habits, in turn teaching
them to “behave intelligently.” I would propose that a successful internalization
of these 16 habits are all ingredients that facilitate a healthy growth mindset. </o:p></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05101141241131815060noreply@blogger.com33tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-171542694680631858.post-15982680520122183762013-10-05T11:41:00.000-07:002013-10-06T14:45:39.163-07:00System 2 Thinking: Is Critical Thinking Valued in Gifted Education?<br />
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When we use the terminology “critical thinking” in everyday
language, we often associate this type of thinking with the notion of skepticism.
The inquiry “Is this really true?” may be construed as a challenge, but
actually I would prefer this most basic question be viewed as taking the time
out to judge or evaluate any given statement, idea, solution or belief. Indeed,
the term “critical” finds its roots in the Greek verb “krinein,” meaning to
judge or evaluate. If we complement the term “critical” with “thinking,” we are
now “adding the use of reason as the means of evaluation,” as Brenda Linn and
Bruce M. Shore assert in their chapter of “Critical Thinking” in the aptly named
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Critical-Issues-Practices-Gifted-Education/dp/1593632959">“Critical Issues and Practices in Gifted Education,”</a> published by the <a href="http://www.nagc.org/">NationalAssociation of Gifted Children</a>.</div>
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The process of thinking by itself may be close to
spontaneous or instinctive as may be the behavior or act of making critical
statements. Grouping these two terms together, however, it is easy to recognize
that critical thinking is a rich process of thinking about validity or truth.
The 2011 book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0374275637/?tag=googhydr-20&hvadid=24416951155&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=1234567890&hvpone=20.49&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_5fte0v7h8c_b"><u>Thinking, Fast and Slow</u> </a><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">by<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Memorial_Prize_in_Economics" title="Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics"><span style="background: white; color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Nobel Memorial Prize winner in Economics</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Kahneman" title="Daniel Kahneman"><span style="background: white; color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Daniel Kahneman</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> indeed summarizes years of his and
other research that there are two fundamental systems of thinking (and the book
also hints at the notion that we generally place too much trust in human
judgment).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">These two systems of thinking are generally categorized
as <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=of-two-minds-when-making">System 1 and System 2</a> thinking models. Critical thinking falls into System
2. Educational psychologist <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Stanovich">Keith E. Stanovich</a> views “critical thinking as
rule-based, conscious, relatively slow, serial, resource-intensive, controlled,
decontextualized, and acquired by cultural transmission and formal learning.”
He contrasts that with System 1 Thinking (or The Autonomous Set of Systems (TASS)) that “is relatively undemanding of cognitive capacity, relatively fast, and is
acquired from biology, exposure, and personal experience.” Linn and Shore offer
the further contrast of Systems 1 and 2 based on their research of other
scientists who characterize System 1 as “an automatic, heuristic-based, tacit,
gist, fuzzy trace, or holistic processing system,” and System 2 as “a systematic,
rational, explicit, or analytical processing system.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Linn and Shore state that popular culture views System
1 as the “intuitive, holistic, spontaneous, even reflexive – the locus of
intelligence….capable of reacting in deeply unintelligent ways,” while System 2
is that thinking that enables us “to override the built-in biases of the older,
more automatic System 1.” (Kahneman describes how System 1 Thinking lulls us
into a sense of being tricked. He cites a simple algebraic problem – a baseball
and a bat cost $1.10 combined, and the difference in price between the bat and
the ball is one dollar. The overriding majority of quick responses as to the price for each item is $1 for
the bat and ten cents for the ball, which obviously does not account for the
condition that the bat is $1 higher in price than the ball).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">There is little evidence of research as relates
especially to the two-system model, which has focused on the field of gifted
education, but yet Linn and Shore assert that “basic critical thinking research
has direct implications for the teaching of gifted students.” The first such
implication is best summarized by psychologist Robert Sternberg’s question of “why
do intelligent people believe and do such foolish things,” and Stanovich’s reply
of “what can be done about that?” Furthermore, Linn and Shore suggest that
critical thinking skills are “not being taught in most school curricula,
including those intended for highly able students.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://www.criticalthinking.net/">R. H. Ennis</a>, originator of the Cornell Critical
Thinking Test, asserts that often critical thinking is confused with
problem-solving or higher order thinking. He identified what he called critical thinking dispositions -- "asking a question, asking for clarification, and acquiring relevant background information." He credits his colleague Lowell
Hedges for putting forth specific abilities that should be fostered to become a
critical thinker. They are:</span></span> </div>
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1. The ability to identify
and formulate problems, as well as the ability to solve them.<o:p></o:p></div>
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2. The ability to
recognize and use inductive reasoning, as well as the ability to solve them.<o:p></o:p></div>
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3. The ability to draw
reasonable conclusions from information found in various sources, whether
written, spoken, tabular, or graphic, and to defend one’s conclusions
rationally.<o:p></o:p></div>
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4. The ability to
comprehend, develop, and use concepts and generalizations.<o:p></o:p></div>
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5. The ability to
distinguish between fact and opinion.</div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Linn’s and Shore’s chapter in the Gifted Education
Handbook conclude that “gifted students enjoy learning about tricky tasks,
deceptive arguments, and misleading kinds of arguments more than students who
are less able to think abstractly and meta-cognitively. Less enjoyable for
gifted students may be the process of critically analyzing their own thinking
dispositions.” Interestingly enough, the authors believe that this lesser
enthusiasm is the result of our methods by which we identify gifted students. “The
ability to arrive at the expected answer, rather than to wrestle with problems
and formulate objective and defensible solutions, may have dominated the
process by which their giftedness was identified.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05101141241131815060noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-171542694680631858.post-34033447206344704012013-09-01T09:01:00.000-07:002013-10-05T11:45:57.520-07:00Broadening the View on Intelligence: Multiple Intelligencesby Benjamin Hebebrand, Head of School, <a href="http://www.questacademy.org/">Quest Academ</a>y<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
The method by which we initially began to measure
intelligence has led to what some scholars call a “narrow view of intelligence”
– a view that is tied closely to the skills that we value the most in school: ‘linguistic
and logical-mathematical skill,” according to 2003 edition of <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Gifted-Education-Nicholas-Colangelo/dp/0205340636">The Handbook of Gifted Education</a></i>, compiled
by Nicholas Colangelo and Gary A Davis. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
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This school-based view of intelligence can be traced back
all the way to the beginning of the 20<sup>th</sup> century when Alfred Binet
initially began devising measurements “that could assist in identifying
students who were likely to fail in elementary school.” Binet’s work was the basis
to Lewis Terman’s development of the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale in 1916.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
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In the Handbook of Gifted Education, several authors,
including <a href="http://howardgardner.com/biography/">Howard Gardner</a>, who in 1983 broadened the traditional school-based
view of intelligence by putting forth his <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_multiple_intelligences">Multiple Intelligences (MI) </a>theory,
insist that “a high IQ score remains the most common standard for admission to
specialized programs for the gifted and talented.”<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
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But it clearly is Gardner’s work that has broadened our view
of intelligence, even if it has not yet led to a shift in admission practices
to gifted education programs. By incorporating a MI approach to conceiving and
measuring giftedness, gifted education may not only reach “students who are
gifted in the traditional sense of the word,” but also “students who are gifted
in one or more culturally valued areas.” Additionally, proponents of MI would argue
that a “MI perspective can enhance (gifted students’) understanding through
application of multiple <i>entry points.</i>”
Conversely, a traditionalist point of view toward intelligence may espouse the
notion that looking beyond linguistic and logical-mathematical dilutes the
academic experience in a gifted education classroom.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
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Essentially, Gardner’s work “threw into question the idea
that an individual’s intellectual capacities can be captured in a single
measure of intelligence.” Instead, Gardner defines intelligence as a “biopsychological
potential to process information in certain ways: Each intelligence can be
activated in an appropriate cultural setting.” While Gardner’s MI theory puts
intelligence in a more universal context, it also opens the door to the idea
that there may be culturally different interpretations of intelligence –
possibly an idea that relates to cultural relativism. By employing a MI point
of view, we “permit an individual to solve problems and fashion products that
are of value within a cultural context,” according to Gardner, <a href="http://www.uwec.edu/Psyc/faculty/vonkarolyi.htm">Catya vonKarolyi</a>, and Valerie Ramos-Ford, as cited in their entry entitled “Multiple
Intelligences: A Perspective on Giftedness,” included in the <i>Handbook of Gifted Education.</i><o:p></o:p><br />
<i><br /></i></div>
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Initially, Gardner put forth seven intelligences in his
publication entitled <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Frames-Mind-Theory-Multiple-Intelligences/dp/0465024335">Frames of Mind</a></i>,
which have recently been updated to include nine different intelligences. They
are summarized in the <i>Handbook </i>by “core
operations” as follows:<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Linguistic: “Comprehension and expression of
written and oral language, syntax, semantics, pragmatics.” William Shakespeare
is cited as an example.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Logical-Mathematical: “Computation, deductive
reasoning, inductive reasoning.” Example: Isaac Newton<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Musical: “Pitch, melody, rhythm, texture,
timbre, musical, themes, harmony. Example: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Spatial: “Design, color, form, perspective,
balance, contrast, match.” Example: Frank Lloyd Wright<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Bodily-Kinesthetic: “Control and coordination,
stamina, balance, locating self or objects in space.” Example: Tiger Woods<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Interpersonal: “Ability to inspire, instruct, or
lead others and respond to their actions, emotions, motivations, opinions, and
situations.” Example: Dalai Lama<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Intrapersonal: “Knowledge and understanding of
one’s strengths and weaknesses, styles, emotions, motivations,
self-orientation. Example: Oprah Winfrey<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Naturalist (added later): Noting the differences
that are key to discriminating among several categories or species of objects
in the natural world. Example: Charles Darwin<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Existential (unconfirmed ninth intelligence):
Capacity to raise big questions about one’s place in the cosmos. Example: Soren
Kierkegaard<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
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While MI theory states that “each intelligence is a
relatively autonomous intellectual potential capable of functioning
independently of the other,” it also puts forth the idea that the different “intelligences
work in concert with each other.” While MI certainly defines intelligences in a
more universal manner, it cautions also to suggest that there are individuals
who are universally intelligent, i.e. possessing high degrees of ability or
talent in each of the nine intelligences. Gardner references a “jagged profile
of abilities.”<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
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“It cannot be assumed that an individual who demonstrates
exceptional linguistic and logical-mathematical skills – abilities tapped by IQ
tests – will also display exceptional ability (or even interest) in activities
relying on interpersonal or kinesthetic intelligence, for example. Neither can
it be assumed that a child who performs poorly on an IQ test or standardized achievement
test will fail to excel in activities relying on one or more of the other
intelligences,” according to the <i>Handbook.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05101141241131815060noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-171542694680631858.post-70455424339004951162013-07-28T17:11:00.002-07:002013-08-05T06:52:56.811-07:00Talent Search programs offer gifted students additional norm reference points<div class="MsoNormal">
by Benjamin Hebebrand, Head of School, <a href="http://www.questacademy.org/">Quest Academy</a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When young children consistently score at the 95<sup>th</sup>
%ile or higher level on in-grade standardized tests (tests that measure at the
grade level in which the test taker is enrolled), they and their parents may
well be served to test beyond the grade-level standardized testing that is
offered at schools. Adaptive tests (technology-based exams by which the level
of complexity adjusts according to the answers keyed in by the students) such as
<i><a href="http://www.nwea.org/node/98">Measures of Academic Progress</a> </i>(MAP)
practically remove the ceilings of in-grade or at-grade-level standardized
tests. Thus, students and parents can generally determine the grade-level at
which the child is achieving – and maybe more importantly, teachers can
differentiate their instruction.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But parents attempting to glean a better picture of how
their child is faring vis-a-vis other students who also excel at in-grade
testing have turned to annual university-based Talent Search competitions. More
than 300,000 students participate annually in Talent Search competitions such
as the <a href="http://www.ctd.northwestern.edu/numats/">Midwest Academic Talent Search</a> offered by Northwestern University’s
Center for Talent Development.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Talent Search research shows that “when students in the
upper tail of the typical normal curve take a test designed for older students,
a new bell curve results,” according to the <a href="http://www.textbooks.com/BooksDescription.php?BKN=905423&SBC=EAQ&mcid=XCS-Shopzilla-9780536893925-N&utm_medium=shoppingengine&utm_term=9780536893925N&utm_source=shopzilla">Handbook of Gifted Education</a>
compiled by Nicholas Colangelo and Gary A. Davis. “Administering an above-level
test to students at the upper end of a bell curve helps discriminate able students
from exceptionally able students, and it provides a more precise assessment of
aptitude and readiness for additional academic challenges.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Most assessments used by the various Talent Searches (other
than Northwestern University, there are numerous other such programs affiliated
with universities such as Johns Hopkins University, Duke University,
Carnegie-Mellon University, University of Denver to name a few) employ tests
that were developed for “students two to four years older than the students’
present grade placement.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The test most commonly used test in the Talent Search movement
is the SAT, typically administered to students at the 7<sup>th</sup> and 8<sup>th</sup>
grade levels. The SAT, of course, is in addition to the ACT this country’s
major college entrance examination typically administered to high school
juniors and seniors. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Stanley">Julian Stanley</a>, credited with initiating the Talent Search
movement in the 1970s with his well-known Study of Mathematically Precocious
Youth (SMPY) found in his research that the math section of the SAT exam “must
function far more at an analytic reasoning level for Talent Search participants
than it does for high school juniors and seniors.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Talent Search SAT results allow test takers to receive
normative data on two different levels – a) compared to the nationwide results
achieved by high school juniors and seniors; and b) compared to all Talent
Search participants. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As concerns the comparison to SAT nationwide results
achieved at 11<sup>th</sup> and 12<sup>th</sup> grade levels, SAT verbal testing
data obtained by John Hopkins University in 2001 for its Talent Search
participants, for example, show that 22 percent of 7<sup>th</sup> grade males
and 45 percent of 8<sup>th</sup> grade males did as well or better than the 507
score recorded at the 50<sup>th</sup> percentile level for high school juniors
and seniors. The numbers for female participants are 24 percent at the 7<sup>th</sup>
grade level and 47 percent at the 8<sup>th</sup> grade level. That same year,
the study showed on the mathematics section that 59 percent of 8<sup>th</sup>
grade female participants surpassed the mean score for female high school juniors
and seniors.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As concerns the comparison of Talent Search participants,
Northwestern University’s Center for Talent Development Director <a href="http://www.sesp.northwestern.edu/profile/?p=247">PaulaOlszewski-Kubilius</a> offers this scenario: “<span style="background: white;">Take,
for example, two seventh grade students who both score at the 97th percentile
on the mathematics composite of their in-grade achievement test. When they take
the SAT-Math, however, one student scores a 550 and the other a 350. These students
look very similar to one another on the basis of the in-grade achievement test
and would be treated similarly educationally by schools and teachers. In
reality, they are quite different and need different educational placements and
programs.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white;">Talent Search programs also
test students younger than the 7<sup>th</sup> and 8<sup>th</sup> grade students
typically offered the SAT or also the ACT. Students as early as third grade are
offered above-grade level testing. Northwestern University’s Midwest Academic Talent
Search (NUMATS) offers students at that age the EXPLORE testing, developed by
ACT to test 8<sup>th</sup> grade students.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white;">Our school, Quest Academy,
offers 6<sup>th</sup> through 8<sup>th</sup> grade students the EXPLORE testing
in addition to conducting MAP testing at 1<sup>st</sup> through 8<sup>th</sup>
grade levels. In addition, the school encourages its gifted students to participate
in NUMATS. Interestingly enough, the <a href="https://www.imsa.edu/">Illinois Math and Science Academy</a> (IMSA),
the state-funded boarding school for gifted students throughout Illinois, requires
applicants to submit SAT testing data. Analysis of accepted IMSA students in
the year of 2010 (including Quest Academy students) show that 8<sup>th</sup>
grade students achieved a SAT math score of 732 and a Critical Reading Score of
671.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05101141241131815060noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-171542694680631858.post-64333787029883158332013-06-05T09:06:00.002-07:002013-08-03T07:04:01.878-07:00Social Development of Gifted Children<span style="font-family: inherit;">by Benjamin Hebebrand, Head of School, </span><a href="http://www.questacademy.org/"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Quest Academy</span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It is mostly due to common stereotypes that gifted children
are occasionally (and I would add unfortunately) portrayed as “geeky,”
“quirky,” or somehow inept at forging and maintaining meaningful friendships or
other types of relationships. The research actually tells a different story.
According to </span><a href="http://www.sourcebooks.com/index.php?amp;Itemid=151&amp;option=com_egdauthors&amp;aid=A1866&amp;view=author"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Nancy M. Robinson</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">, professor emerita at the University of
Washington and author of <u><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Social and Emotional
Development of Gifted Children</span></u><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #000066; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> </span></b>“gifted
youngsters, as a group, are probably more robust than an unselected group of
their agemates” when investigating social vulnerabilities. “But neither are
they (gifted youngsters) immune to the social-emotional issues and disorders
that other people endure.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Because gifted students possess unique intellectual
characteristics, it is rather likely that these characteristics have a direct
impact on personality traits that gifted students develop. In essence, one’s
thinking influences one’s way of presenting oneself or being perceived in social
situations. </span><a href="http://www.gifteddevelopment.com/About_GDC/gdcstaff.htm"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Linda K. Silverman</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">, director <span style="background: white; color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">of the Institute for the Study of Advanced
Development, as well as the Gifted Development Center in Denver, Colorado,
presents how some gifted intellectual traits may translate into personality
traits. These traits, in my opinion, can lead to both positive and negative
consequences in social contexts:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1)<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;">Exceptional reasoning ability may lead to
insightfulness: this may indicate that gifted youngsters develop a grasp on
social dynamics.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2)<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;">Intellectual curiosity may lead to gifted child’s
need to understand: this may indicate that a gifted child asks many questions
about social contexts.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3)<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;">Rapid learning rate may lead to a gifted child’s
need for mental stimulation: this may lead to behaviors in social contexts
where a child is perceived to be tuning out or to advance a social interaction
with meaningful comments or observations.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4)<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;">A vivid imagination may result in an excellent
sense of humor: this may lead to a gifted child’s tendency to find and bring
about humorous associations in social contexts. Sometimes, the humor is too
imagination-rich for others to follow.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">5)<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->A passion for learning may lead to intensity:
this may cause a gifted child to dwell on certain moments or statements
occurring in social situations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">A 2002 task force commissioned by the </span><a href="http://www.nagc.org/"><span style="font-family: inherit;">National Association for Gifted Children</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> confirmed Robinson’s findings by concluding that “high
ability students are typically at least as well adjusted as any other group of
youngsters.” Interestingly enough, the task force also determined that gifted
children face situations that may present challenges and risks to their
social-emotional development. The following were identified:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1)<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Gifted students’ intellectual and social
advancement as compared to age peers may result in “social environments poorly
calibrated to their interests, language, and personal maturity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2)<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->School settings that do not match “the level and
pace of their learning and understanding.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3)<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Gifted students may be prone to asynchronies or
uneven internal developments (i.e in a rather general sense a child’s cognitive
development may be far more advanced than one’s social-emotional development).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4)<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Gifted students may experience higher “tensions”
due to their “creativity, energy, intensity, and high aspirations, often far
greater than those expected at their age.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">5)<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Gifted children may also wish to be “like
everyone else” and thus are tempted to “deny their abilities in the service of
finding friends.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt 0.5in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">6)<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Sadly, gifted students may encounter milieus
that do not value intellectual traits (anti-intellectual). Such environments
may be unfriendly and negative toward the gifted child.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Research has uncovered various coping skills that gifted
pre-adolescents and early teenagers (ages 11-15) report in terms of dealing
with challenges and risks posed by their intellectual giftedness and associated
personality traits. </span><a href="http://www.sengifted.org/archives/articles/gifted-kids-at-risk-whos-listening"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Thom Buescher</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">, who works with gifted adolescents, has
recorded several behaviors and mindsets that gifted adolescents have reported
to him – these coping skills are listed in order of preferred choices. This
implies that some coping skills are better than others – the ones listed toward
the bottom of this list are not recommended, while the ones on top are indeed
good choices:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1)<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->“Become comfortable with your abilities and use
them to help peers.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2)<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->“Seek friends among other students who have
exceptional abilities.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3)<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->“Select programs and classes that are designed
for gifted students.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4)<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->“Seek adults to relate to.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">5)<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->“Focus on achieving at school in nonacademic
ways.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">6)<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->“Develop talents outside of school.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">7)<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->“Engage in community activities where age is
unimportant.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">8)<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->“Avoid programs designed for gifted students.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">9)<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->“Change language and behavior to mask your true
abilities.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">10)<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->“Acting like a ‘brain’ so friends leave you
alone.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt 0.5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">11)<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->“Pretending to know less than you do.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">At a gifted education school such as </span><a href="http://www.questacademy.org/"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Quest Academy</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">, where I
serve as Head of School, we have chosen to meet the academic needs of children
in a nurturing environment. As a result, we have adopted a school-wide
character education system that not only facilitates appropriate behaviors in
social contexts, but also performance character, whereby gifted students can
properly reflect on their intellectual gifts in developing a sense of modesty,
industry, patience, and self-discipline.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
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</div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
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</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05101141241131815060noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-171542694680631858.post-58061428291584191502013-04-24T06:31:00.001-07:002013-08-05T06:52:56.801-07:00THINKING: Cogito Ergo SumBy Benjamin Hebebrand, Head of School, <a href="http://www.questacademy.org/">Quest Academy</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Most – if not all of us – have encountered classrooms with
posters encouraging us to THINK or we may also have encountered teachers who
would use expressions such as “THINK before you answer.” I was lucky to have a
teacher who encouraged me to think meta-cognitively by proclaiming “THINK about
how you THINK.”<br />
<o:p></o:p> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“In teaching for thinking, the concern is not how many
answers students know, but what they do when they do not know; the goal is not
merely to reproduce knowledge, but to create knowledge and grow in cognitive
abilities,” according to <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Best-Practices-Gifted-Education-Evidence-Based/dp/159363210X">“Best Practices in Gifted Education”</a> a 2007
publication released by the <a href="http://www.nagc.org/">National Association for Gifted Children</a>.<br />
<o:p></o:p> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Improving our students’ thinking most certainly is a goal in
general education, but the field of gifted education has specifically researched
thinking styles attributed to gifted children and how best to foster or teach
thinking skills to gifted children.<br />
<o:p></o:p> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
B. M. Shore and L.S. Kanevsky in a 1993 article identified
seven possible differences or attributes as relates to cognition by gifted
children. They are:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Gifted children may be able to draw upon more
existing knowledge and use this knowledge more effectively<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Gifted children more often and more efficiently engage
in metacognitive processes<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Gifted children give the cognitively complex
parts of problem solving a greater commitment of time, allowing them to solve
and report problems<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Gifted children show greater understanding of
problems especially in terms of commonalities and transfer (Personally, I will
add here that as a bilingual person, I find my thinking has greatly benefitted
by analyzing the similarities and differences between my native language of
German and my second language of English) <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Gifted children utilize assumptions that they
will investigate systematically<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Gifted children show greater flexibility in
choosing strategies and points of view<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Gifted children are intrigued joyfully and
creatively when presented with complexity and challenge in their tasks<br />
<o:p></o:p> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Over the years, the identification of gifted children has
given cognition greater emphasis. In 1993, R. J. Sternberg and E.L. Grigorenki
contributed to this process by dividing thinking into three general areas, best
illustrated by what they termed “mental self-government.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Legislative function: This type of thinking
involves the idea of creating, imagining, and planning<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Executive function: This type of thinking
facilitates implementation<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Judicial function: This type of thinking
incorporates all thinking related to the process of evaluating<br />
<o:p></o:p> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As far as fostering or nurturing a child’s thinking
processes, teachers may well be served that thinking can indeed be taught and
practiced. Particularly in the field of gifted education, but also in general
education, we have come to employ the idea of “higher order (or level)
thinking.” As teachers, we want our students to spend less time and work at the
knowledge and comprehension levels but rather in the higher order thinking
modes that<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom's_Taxonomy"> Bloom’s taxonomy</a> identifies with levels such as “application (of
knowledge), analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.”<br />
<o:p></o:p> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
More specifically, The NAGC Handbook of “Best Practices” outlines
several broad categories to be included in daily instruction to help foster a
child’s thinking: They are a) critical thinking; b) creative thinking; c)
problem finding; d) metacognition; e) domain-specific (i.e. mathematics) patterns
and forward thinking; f) correlational thinking; g) reflective inquiry; h)
questioning created for memory, divergence, convergence, aesthetics, and
ethics; i) inquiry and investigation; j) dialectical thinking skills; and k)
Socratic discussion.<br />
<o:p></o:p> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In their 2005 publication entitled “Being gifted in school: An
introduction to development, guidance, and teaching.” L.J. Coleman and T.L.
Cross conclude that an “overwhelming majority of teaching methods reported in
the literature on gifted education are variations on creativity,
problem-solving themes. Their major characteristics involve suspension of
judgment, practice in generating responses, and opportunities for children to
consider how they think.”<br />
<o:p></o:p> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At our gifted education school, <a href="http://www.questacademy.org/">Quest Academy</a> in Palatine,
Illinois, we have for more than a decade designed our curriculum not primarily around
knowledge and comprehension, but rather conceptual understandings to which we refer
as Enduring Understandings. It is within those higher-level understandings that
we then also spend instructional time on specific academic knowledge and
comprehension. <o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05101141241131815060noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-171542694680631858.post-80576002978277548032013-03-20T21:48:00.000-07:002013-08-05T06:52:56.820-07:00Defining Mathematical Giftedness in Elementary School Settingsby Ben Hebebrand, Head of School, <a href="http://www.questacademy.org/">Quest Academy</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
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The field of elementary school mathematics tends to be viewed
as a sequential advancement of specific mathematical skills, occasionally
resulting in a mindset that young students can accelerate their mathematical
learning by “racing” or “flying” through checklists of specific mathematical
skills. Indeed, I occasionally hear gifted education colleagues describing
elementary mathematics as an “arms race” mentality, in which the checking off
of specific sequential math skills such as single-digit or double-digit
addition become the sole focus of math learning.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mathematics is indeed an undertaking far more than a simple
progression of mathematic skills and operations. The definition of mathematical
giftedness may indeed help us pinpoint what we believe to be essential in
developing mathematical talent.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Surprisingly, there has been “little research conducted on
what constitutes mathematical giftedness,” according to M. Katherine Gavin and
Jill L. Adelson, authors of a chapter entitled “Mathematics, Elementary,”
published in the comprehensive gifted education handbook “Critical Issues and
Practices in Gifted Education.” Most of the research focuses on the traits that
mathematically gifted children display.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the late 1960s and most of the 70s, Russian psychologist
V. A. Kruteskii in a Piaget-like manner observed students, aged between 6 and
16, whom he labeled “not capable,” “capable,” and “very capable.” His research
has been divided into the four major giftedness categories of “flexibility,
curtailment, logical thought, and formalization:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<ul>
<li>Flexibility: Students switch strategies in solving a problem
with ease and numerous times to help them make sense of the problem.</li>
<li>Curtailment: Students skip several steps in the logical
thought process because they see the solution as one whole thought as opposed
to linearly connected logical steps. This phenomenon may help us understand why
some gifted math students cannot explain their reasoning in finding a solution
as they just cannot retrace any step-by-step process that are required for less
capable math students.</li>
<li>Logical Thought: These are students who think in
mathematical symbols such as “less/greater than” or “plus/minus” when filtering
data that is being presented to them. These thinkers “look at the world from a
logical perspective.”</li>
<li>Formalization: Based on just very few examples, students can
see the overall structure of a problem and thus make generalizations very
quickly.</li>
</ul>
<o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p><br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p><br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p><br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Agreeing on a universal definition of mathematical
giftedness is further compounded by the sub-sets of algebra and geometry.
Kruteskii spoke of students with an “algebraic cast of mind,” characterized by
very abstract thinking, while “geometric” minds tend to visualize problems pictorially.
Kruteskii actually observed that especially elementary-age students who
displayed both minds, culminating in what he termed a “harmonic” mind, are
highly capable mathematicians. One final important observation that Kruteskii
contributed toward the idea of defining giftedness roots in attributes that
actually are not “obligatory.” Specifically, he singled out “swiftness,
computational ability, and memory for formulas and other details” as
characteristics that do not necessarily contribute to mathematical giftedness.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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J.E. Davidson and R.J. Sternberg in a 1984 edition of Gifted
Child Quarterly article entitled “The Role of Insight in Intellectual
Giftedness, reported on work with fourth through sixth grade students that
mathematically gifted students use three progressive “insight” processes:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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</div>
<ul>
<li>Selective encoding: These students can “sift out” relevant
information from a problem situation.</li>
<li>Selective combination: These students synthesize the
relevant information.</li>
<li>Selective comparison: Students compared the information that
had been synthesized together to other relevant information.</li>
</ul>
<o:p></o:p><br />
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<o:p></o:p><br /></div>
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<o:p></o:p><br /></div>
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While speed is highly valued in mathematical competitions
such as the “Final Round” in a MATHCOUNTS contest, it is important to note that
Davidson and Sternberg pointed out that ”speed in doing mathematics is
important but is secondary to insight.” The remaining research in identifying
characteristics of gifted math students points toward math students’ “focus on
conceptual understandings,” “ability to abstract and generalize,” and
“persistence and ability to make decisions in problem-solving situations.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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In making the leap from defining mathematical giftedness to
identifying mathematical giftedness, the practitioners of gifted education
frequently – if not solely – rely on norm-referenced standardized intelligence,
aptitude, and achievement tests. It is particularly the use of standardized
achievement tests that is questionable, as those tests tend to focus on
“low-level tasks that require students not to think and reason in ways that
Kruteskii observed as defining attributes of mathematical giftedness,” as
research by L.J. Sheffield of the National Research Center on Gifted and
Talented points out. According to this research, the vast majority (up to 62 to
82% of the items) of questions dealt with the topic of number and operations,
of which the clear majority focused on computation. The most common method in
identifying mathematical giftedness is the practice of using out-of-level tests
such as SSAT-L, PLUS, or EXPLORE (the test that both Quest Academy and the
Center for Talent Development at Northwestern University employ). There is
research that suggests these tests eliminate the ceiling effect (students
reaching the highest level of their mathematical ability) for 98 percent of the
students.<o:p></o:p></div>
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</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05101141241131815060noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-171542694680631858.post-77359655061545550832013-02-11T20:36:00.000-08:002013-08-05T06:52:56.815-07:00 STEM is Gifted Education<br />
by Benjamin Hebebrand, Head of School, <a href="http://www.questacademy.org/">Quest Academy</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Education in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, nowadays
referred to as STEM, has risen to the forefront as a result of poor performance
by U.S. students on international testing in addition to an ever-increasing
need to innovate to remain competitive in a global economy that is migrating
toward ever-increasing levels of automation. A closer look at best practices in gifted science education shows that our field has for a long time embraced the idea of exploratory STEM education.<br />
<o:p></o:p> </div>
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Exemplary instruction in these subjects, particularly
science, centers on a hands-on approach. The National Research Council in 1996
simply stated that “learning science is something that students do, not something
that is done to them.”<br />
<o:p></o:p> </div>
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The hands-on approach is absolutely congruent with research
that identifies personality traits of scientists. This research cites qualities
such as “risk-taking, autonomous, unconventional, original, persistent,
attentive toward unusual details, independent, playful, disliking ambiguity,
interested in art/humanities, curious, intellectually courageous, and daring.” <br />
<o:p></o:p> </div>
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Such qualities do not lend themselves well to traditional
science instruction that first places emphasis on “knowledge of facts, laws,
theories, and applications.” This emphasis has been so heavily imprinted that
the actual playful part of science – the laboratory exercises or activities – has served
the purpose of verification.<br />
<o:p></o:p> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Simply completing labs as a means to verify book-learned
concepts and facts is not conducive to shaping scientists to whom we
essentially entrust the notion of problem-solving. Nor does the idea of
verification conjure up images of innovation. <br />
<o:p></o:p> </div>
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The field of gifted education long ago has identified
problem-solving as a necessary component of high quality science instruction
particularly aimed at gifted students. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Sternberg">Robert Sternberg</a> already in 1982 wrote
in a Roeper Review article entitled “Teaching Scientific Thinking to Gifted
Students” that gifted science education should emulate what scientists do and
therefore should focus on “a) problem-finding; b) problem-solving; c) problem
re-evaluation, and d) reporting.” The idea to allow students to identify a
scientific problem rather than being assigned such a problem is nowadays a
central idea in STEM education – quite frankly an idea that has always been
part of science project learning (i.e. high quality science fairs) that is
commonly found in gifted education. Sternberg views problem-solving as “problem
identification, selection of the process for solving, solution monitoring,
responding to feedback, and implementing an action plan,” whereby re-evaluation
“requires analyzing the outcomes that may be expected or unintended.” Clearly,
Sternberg views science instruction as a process that is capped by reporting –
the action that “clarifies thinking and is an integral part of the scientific
process.”<br />
<o:p></o:p> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
STEM education seeks to employ a design process to enhance
the problem-solving component. By incorporating technology and engineering,
students will design and engineer practical solutions to scientific problems.
The <a href="http://www.tiesteach.org/">Teaching Institute for Excellence in STEM</a> outlines similar process skills
as Sternberg’s. The components are 1) Identify the Need or Problem; 2) Research
the Need or Problem; 3) Develop Possible Solutions; 4) Select the Best Possible
Solutions; 5) Construct a Prototype; 6) Test and Evaluate the Solution(s); 7)
Communicate the Solution(s); and 8) Re-design. <br />
<o:p></o:p> </div>
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The added design element in STEM education clearly invokes
the idea of creativity. Design not only is about function, but also form. As
such, STEM nowadays has added the A for Art to form STEAM. The
interdisciplinary nature of STEAM also is a long-held practice in gifted
education – enhancing the learning experience in multi-faceted domains.<o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05101141241131815060noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-171542694680631858.post-46826759397709388052013-01-14T14:00:00.001-08:002013-08-05T06:52:56.794-07:00Parenting Gifted Children<br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">By Benjamin Hebebrand, <a href="http://www.questacademy.org/">QuestAcademy</a></span><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The transformation of a
child’s giftedness into talents or abilities is impacted by a multitude of factors
and persons. Fully or optimally developing potential is among the most
researched and discussed topics in both the soft and hard sciences. Theories abound
across cultures and across disciplines such as psychology, neuroscience, or
biology. Central in all developmental theories is the role of parenting – and
while parenting is not a science, it is a topic that is much debated and critiqued
and researched and tracked – and within that research is limited thought given
to the idea of parenting gifted children. </span><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The most important
realization – particularly for first-time parents – is to recognize and accept that
there is no “magic” or “scientifically prescribed” approach to parenting gifted
children. “The only conclusion to be drawn from studies to date is that there
is not one superior type of parenting, nor one set of identifiable set of
family dynamics that leads to the fulfillment of a child’s potential,”
according to <a href="http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/nviews/schadern.html">Robin Schader</a>, research professor at the Neag Center for Gifted
Education and Talent Development at the University of Connecticut. This
obviously underscores the beauty and mystery of individual differences among
gifted children and their parents. As such, it is best to value both the
child’s and parent’s individuality. In recent years, we have been bombarded
with literature about parenting with an eye toward talent development. In my
mind, two central themes have crystallized themselves in recent years – maybe these
are the new “folk wisdoms” in parenting gifted children – 1) that excessive praising
or rewarding a child’s achievements may actually result in thwarting a child’s
potential; and 2) that actual hard work and practice is required to transform
giftedness into talents and that engaging in and completing such work is most
rewarding to the child (it is the “intrinsic” reward).</span><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">But yet of course it is
only natural or human for parents, particularly first-time parents, to seek
information about parenting, particularly when parenting involves a child who
displays giftedness traits that may not be observable in other children – and thus,
makes one’s child different from other children. Such differences manifested by
giftedness are not what make kids superior or inferior but rather have the
potential to influence a child’s life in terms of his or her learning both on
cognitive and social-emotional levels. At this point, it may be evident that a
gifted child may thus have needs that are different from those of many
children.</span><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">As parents, we all want
to do the best in meeting those needs. A review of thousands of parental
inquiries received at the <a href="http://www.nagc.org/">National Association for Gifted Children </a>reveals that
a little more than a third of questions revolved around the theme of how to
recognize giftedness and how to enrich a gifted child. “My child is different
than others her age. How can I find out if she’s gifted,” or “How can I help my
child develop his exceptional abilities and assure they don’t go to waste,” is
how Schader summarizes these questions. A little more than a quarter of
inquiries seek information on programs or specific schools for gifted children.
Thus, we can conclude that among the earliest parental decisions to be made in
a young gifted child’s life is to 1) have the child assessed and confirm
giftedness (please see a <a href="http://ben-hebebrand.blogspot.com/2012/06/early-identification-of-giftedness.html">previous blog</a> entry entitled “Early Identification of
Giftedness”); and 2) to offer the child an educational experience that is
different than what can be found in most schools.</span><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It is my experience that
if parents have successfully undertaken these first two steps of identifying
the level of giftedness and selecting an appropriate school that a child’s achievement
record becomes less of an issue. Conversely, if a child’s giftedness has gone
undetected and no specific gifted education programming options have been
offered, a gifted child may experience learning issues such as boredom or underachievement.
</span><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Of course, when we
discuss parenting and its influence on developing potential, we often wonder
about the parental home’s environment. “Within the literature, one can find
both discussions of a supportive, cohesive family as an important component, as
well as conclusions that a tense, challenging home is a contributor to high
levels of achievement,” according to Schader. “Although parent variables such
as educational attainment, economic status, parenting style, and energy devoted
to talent development appear to explain achievement in some children, the
results are not consistent, even within families.”</span><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Schader as well as other
gifted education scholars believe that the topic of “parenting gifted children”
is worthy of further review and research. As a parent, I personally subscribe
to an approach whereby nurture, structure, and latitude are given at
consistently high levels. It is the fine interplay between structure and
latitude that I find particularly interesting in working with gifted children. As
parents, we are surely able to have influence on a child’s learning, and, according to Schader,
there is research that suggests that “parents of gifted children discuss and
explain rather than direct.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05101141241131815060noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-171542694680631858.post-40202557516759394002012-11-30T13:46:00.001-08:002013-08-05T06:52:56.792-07:00Giftedness: Is it based on who you are or what you do?<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">by <a href="http://www.questacademy.org/about-quest/notes-from-the-head-of-school/index.aspx"><span style="color: blue;">Ben Hebebrand</span></a>, Head of School, </span><a href="http://www.questacademy.org/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Quest Academy</span></a><br />
<br />
<h4>
<a href="https://www.piecesoflearning.com/index.php?route=cms/article&path=3_14&article_id=9"><span style="color: blue;">JimDeLisle</span></a>, author of books such as <u>When Gifted Kids Don’t Have All the
Answers: How to Meet Their Social and Emotional Needs</u>, believes that a sole
focus in defining giftedness through the lens of talent development is “shortsighted”
and “rude.” Specifically, Jim DeLisle has pushed hard against a new definition of
giftedness being put forward by the <a href="http://www.nagc.org/"><span style="color: blue;">National Association of Gifted Children</span></a>. The
new definition is rooted in the idea of “<a href="http://www.nagc.org/WhatisGiftedness.aspx"><span style="color: blue;">gifted individuals demonstrating outstanding levels of aptitude or competence.</span></a>” </h4>
<br />
<h4 align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: left;">
In
a monograph entitled <span style="color: blue;">“Rethinking Giftedness and Gifted Education”</span> by NAGC President <a href="http://www.nagc.org/index.aspx?id=6716"><span style="color: blue;">PaulaOlszewski-Kubilius</span></a>, <a href="http://www.apa.org/ed/schools/gifted/about/index.aspx"><span style="color: blue;">Rena Subotnik</span></a>, and <a href="http://gse.berkeley.edu/faculty/FCWorrell/FCWorrell.html"><span style="color: blue;">Frank Worrell</span></a>, the authors suggest that
“we consider making talent development, rather than giftedness, the major
unifying concept of our field and, most importantly, the basis of our
practice.” Jim DeLisle states -- based on the new definition -- “that giftedness is not a set of personal, innate traits but rather,
the expression of particular talents in music, math or any other “structured
area of activity.” He concludes that the new definition of giftedness
emphasizes doing, producing, or creating at the expense of just being. The new
definition, Jim De Lisle writes, leads us to believe that “giftedness lies in something
you do as opposed to being someone
you are.”</h4>
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</div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">It is a
fascinating debate – but also a debate that could go on and on and on…. I
suppose in a results-oriented and outcome-focused culture, we do expect that
giftedness leads to (measurable) results. Indeed, in advocating for gifted
children and funding their educations, a common refrain is how wasted or
undeveloped potential may weaken our nation and its economy. To some degree, we
expect that gifts bestowed upon individuals will eventually result in gifts
being contributed to and shared with the greater community.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: left;">
<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Although I
cannot speak for either Jim DeLisle or Paula Olszewski-Kubilius and her
colleagues, I am pretty sure that both sides absolutely understand that you
cannot separate the two ideas. It is impossible to view giftedness through an
exclusive lens of either what someone does or who someone is. It is in Jim
DeLisle’s book that child psychologist and gifted education authority<span style="color: blue;"> </span></span><a href="http://maureenneihart.blogspot.com/p/about-me.html"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Maureen Neihart</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> perfectly sums up the debate: “Giftedness is a way of responding to
what goes on around you and within you. There are affective as well as
cognitive components. Some people say that giftedness is what you do. I say
okay, but isn’t who you are a big part of what you’re capable of doing? I am
not sure you can separate the two. There seem to be common personality
characteristics among people who achieve at very high levels, but you can have
those personality characteristics and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not
</i>achieve at very high levels, too.”</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">In the
broader education world, we speak of educating the “whole child.” Educating the
whole gifted child is indeed, in my opinion, the proper focus. Frankly, I
believe that the recent publication entitled “Rethinking Giftedness and Gifted
Education” also supports the development of the whole child. This is evident in
the authors’ statement that “p</span><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 9.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">sychosocial
variables play an essential role in the manifestation of giftedness at every
developmental stage. Both cognitive and psychosocial variables are malleable
and need to be deliberately cultivated.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">” As a
matter of fact, the authors are quite clear that talent development is indeed a
“stage” in a gifted child’s life that is preceded by a “stage,” during which
the nurture of a child’s potential is the basis to eventual talent development
and subsequent eminence development. “G</span><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 9.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">iftedness
can be viewed as developmental in that in the beginning stages, potential is
the key variable; in later stages, achievement is the measure of giftedness;
and in fully developed talents, eminence is the basis on which this label is
granted.”</span><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 9.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 9.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In
my opinion, there is a need for the gifted education community to reach
consensus on putting forth a developmental path that indeed stages the
development of a gifted child into periods of nurturing potential, developing
talent, and specializing in a domain of eminence. There are numerous
developmental models such as </span><a href="http://www3.bc.sympatico.ca/giftedcanada/page4.html"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Francoys Gagne’s Differentiated Model of Giftedand Talented</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. </span></span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 9.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With
an abundance and a century of literature and research on motivation and
perseverance including the recent work of </span><a href="http://mindsetonline.com/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Carol Dweck</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;">’s</span> <u>Mindset</u> or </span></span><a href="http://www.paultough.com/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">PaulTough</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">’s <u>How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of
Character</u>, it is evident that schools can and should pay close attention to
“nurturing,” while there appears to be less clarity as to when schools should
focus on the development of talent. It may very well be that due to the
enormity of research, opinions, and actual practices that reaching consensus is
impossible and potentially unnecessary. It may indeed be best for practitioners
and gifted education programs to adopt their own philosophy – indeed, the
thought of standardizing gifted education is counter-intuitive. But in the
interest of advocating for gifted children and their educations, it may be
prudent for organizations such as NAGC to lead the way in illuminating the path
of transforming gifts into talents and eventually areas of eminence – and I
believe the recent publication of “Rethinking Giftedness” is an excellent start
– the monograph actually alludes to the possibility of different trajectories
depending on the domain being studied and pursued. <o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While developmental stages
typically are meant as guidelines with full respect given to individual
differences, I propose that the gifted education field indeed agree on an
acceptable path by which nurture, talent development, and attainment of
eminence are delineated. The degree to how psychosocial variables at each stage
are balanced in relationship to purposeful instruction of skills and knowledge
will yet again differ from individual to individual, but I can’t help but think
that general guidelines would be most helpful in this area as well. Frankly, at
times I wonder whether the terms of “giftedness” and “gifted education” would
serve as distinctive paths to separate the psychosocial and academic learning
domains. As such, there may indeed be validity in focusing on “talent
development,” while remaining grounded in “giftedness.” </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05101141241131815060noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-171542694680631858.post-63526854601372451262012-11-04T15:55:00.003-08:002013-08-04T17:12:37.880-07:00The Necessity and Beauty of Unleashing Creativity<br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">By Benjamin Hebebrand</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Head of School, <a href="http://www.questacademy.org/"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Quest Academy</span></a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Creativity, innovation,
and imagination have become buzzwords in the 21<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">st</span></sup> century. <a href="http://sirkenrobinson.com/skr/">Sir KenRobinson</a>, author of <u><a href="http://ebookbrowse.com/b002s7ybda-out-of-our-minds-learning-to-be-creative-pdf-d316732967"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Out of Minds: Learning to be Creative</span></a></u>, says that
“creativity is not <span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">some exotic, optional extra. It’s a strategic issue.” In my opinion,
creativity has indeed risen to a national – if not global -- priority status as
a result of a confluence of both proactive and reactive forces. </span></span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The reactive forces can
be found in both our economy and education. Still mired in a recession, today’s
economy not only requires innovation to launch new products and services but
also to foster new systems of management and leadership, allowing industry to
capitalize on the power of collaboration and ideas at all organizational layers.
In education, we are reacting to a hard-core standards movement that has put so
much emphasis on academic skills that we dropped and discounted the student’s
curiosity in learning for the sake of merely “covering” learning content to
check off a standard and prepare for the next standardized test. And, yes, we also
dropped and discounted the fine and performing arts. I, for one, am sensing
that our educational system is moving in a new direction of “uncovering” and “discovering”
the learning content.</span></span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The proactive force can
be found in technology – the kind of technology that allows us to interact
without limits and the kind of technology that allows for the transformation of
both our systems of education and economy. Technology has to be used properly
and not misused by engaging with technology in a passive, consumer-oriented,
numbing manner. Instead, technology should spur collaboration, strategic
thinking, and productive outcomes, all of which can nowadays be encountered in
well-designed gaming environments or well-guided virtual classrooms.</span></span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The field of gifted
education has always included the idea of creativity as an essential component.
Dona J. Matthews and Joanne F. Foster, authors of <u><a href="http://www.beingsmart.ca/"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Being Smart about GiftedEducation</span></a></u> make the point that giftedness and creativity are not two
separate or disconnected notions but rather they are symbiotically intertwined.
“Creativity is an important component of actualizing giftedness in every
domain, and domain-specific mastery is a prerequisite for high-level creative
work.” In a way, creativity advances knowledge and knowledge advances
creativity. We would be wise to remember this in educating students,
particularly those students who are just entering the formalized educational
system.</span></span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Consider how Sir Ken
Robinson explains creativity within the context of education: “</span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">I remember when I was running the national
commission on creativity, education and the economy in the U.K., the Secretary
of State there said, ‘We're very committed to creativity in education but we've
got to get literacy and numeracy right first.’ And I said, this is just a basic
misunderstanding. It's like saying we're going to bake a cake and if it works
out, then we'll put the eggs in. That's not how it works. If you want people to
be literate, you have to get them passionate about reading and that's a
creative job. To think of it as an afterthought or in conflict of the core
purposes, is a misconception of what creativity is.”</span></span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Schools should indeed be among the primary
incubators of creativity. Classrooms must be supportive and encouraging to
allow creativity to emerge and flourish. Thus, schools and the teachers within
the schools have a choice to make – to be creative and thus liberate students
to be the same.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></span> </div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Indeed <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Sternberg"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Robert Sternberg</span></a>, a noted gifted education
theorist and creator of the Triarchic Model of Intelligence (comprised of
analytical intelligence, creative or synthetic intelligence, and practical
intelligence), believes that being creative is a decision we make (or not). He
proposes a list of ten mindsets by which we decide for creativity – a list that
teachers would be well served to employ in their classrooms:</span></span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Redefine
problems: This approach may prevent us from getting stuck.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div align="left" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: left; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Analyze
one’s own ideas: I would refer to this mode of thinking as fine-tuning and
re-tuning one’s own thoughts.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div align="left" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: left; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Sell
one’s own ideas: Demonstrating the value of one’s thinking is bound to result
in greater creativity.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div align="left" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: left; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Knowledge
is a double-edged sword: So-called expertise may limit flexibility.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div align="left" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: left; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Surmount
obstacles: I would define this as one’s willingness to entertain contrary
points of view in an effort of redefining one’s own ideas.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Take
sensible risks: Creativity or divergent thinking mandates one move beyond one’s
comfort zone.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Willingness
to grow: One’s viewpoint of being correct can hinder the examination of different
solutions. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div align="left" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: left; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Believe
in oneself: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would think that anyone
who believes they can be creatively productive will indeed be creatively
productive.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div align="left" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: left; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Tolerate
ambiguity: Embrace the uncertainties of the creative process – accept that the
end point can be redefined during the process.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div align="left" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: left; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Find
what you love to do and do it: Follow your passions and interests.</span></span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In conclusion, we would be wise to think of
creativity as a means to stretch our ideas. Stretching one’s body increases
flexibility; stretching one’s mind (and not limiting it to a multiple choice
answer) increases creativity.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05101141241131815060noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-171542694680631858.post-88000549044220016912012-09-24T15:09:00.001-07:002013-08-05T06:52:56.828-07:00Dr. Renzulli's 21st Century Giftedness Model<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In advance of gifted education theorist and innovator<strong><u> </u></strong><a href="http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/"><span style="color: #a64d79;"><strong>Dr.Joseph Renzulli’s</strong></span></a> community presentation at <a href="http://www.questacademy.org/"><strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">Quest Academy</span></strong></a> (co-sponsored by <a href="http://www.averycoonley.org/"><strong><span style="color: #a64d79;">Avery Coonley School</span></strong></a> and <span style="color: #a64d79;"><strong><u>Da </u></strong></span><a href="http://www.dvacademy.org/"><span style="color: #a64d79;"><strong>Vinci Academy</strong></span></a>) on Sept. 27 (for details and ticket information, please link <a href="http://www.eventbrite.com/event/4131932722"><span style="color: #a64d79;"><strong>here</strong></span></a>), I
thought it wise to review Dr. Renzulli’s most recent article on approaches to
gifted education within the context of our contemporary 21<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">st</span></sup> Century
world. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Published by the <span style="color: #a64d79;"><strong><u>National Association for Gifted Children</u></strong></span> in
its flagship journal <a href="http://www.nagc.org/index.aspx?id=979"><span style="color: #a64d79;"><strong>Gifted Child Quarterly</strong></span></a> (Volume 56, Number 3, Summer
2012), Dr. Renzulli sets out to answer the question “why and how should a
society devote special resources to the development of giftedness in young
people for the 21<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">st</span></sup> century.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This summary of Dr. Renzulli’s concerns itself with the “how” with the
“why” question simply answered as “increasing society’s reservoir of creative
problem solvers and producers of knowledge.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Fundamental to Dr. Renzulli’s conception of giftedness is a
fine difference between what he terms “lesson learners” or “schoolhouse
giftedness” (those who consume existing information) versus “creative
producers” (those who go on to make important contributions to knowledge). Given
the technology-enhanced abundance of existing information in this second decade
of the 21<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">st</span></sup> Century, Renzulli argues that “in this day and age of
exponential knowledge expansion, it would seem wise to consider a model that
focuses on how our most able students access and make use of information rather
than merely how they accumulate, store, and retrieve it.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">And maybe most important to Renzulli’s theories is the idea
that the label “gifted” not necessarily be assigned to any one student but
rather to the type of educational experiences<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>offered, those being the “services <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>necessary to develop high potential.” Another
way to understand this is to ask oneself the question what type of educational
services “cause some people to use their intellectual, motivational, and
creative assets that lead to outstanding manifestations of achievement and
creative productivity.” In his summary, Dr. Renzulli emphatically points out
that “the most salient point to make when discussing and generalizing about
theories for the study of giftedness in the 21<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">st</span></sup> century is that
there is an overlap and an interaction among cognitive, affective, and motivational
characteristics.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In determining the best possible gifted education
programming in our 21<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">st</span></sup> Century, Dr. Renzulli has over the years
developed a four-part theory that in sum has its goal to help students become
“fully-functioning and self-actualized individuals.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The four sub-theories include “The Three Ring Conception of
Giftedness,” “The Enrichment Triad Model,” “Operation Houndstooth – Gifted
Education and Social Capital,” and “Executive Functions – Leadership for a
Changing World.” Below, please find a brief description of each theory:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<u><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Three-Ring Conception of Giftedness:<o:p></o:p></span></u></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The three rings are comprised of a) above average ability;
b) task commitment; and c) creativity. Dr. Renzulli believes that it is the
“interaction among these clusters of traits brought to bear on a particular
problem situation that creates the conditions for the creative productive
process to commence.” Furthermore, Dr. Renzulli’s above average ability is
viewed in broader terms than other ability/giftedness criteria (e.g. the top
5%), because he cites research that “highlights minimal criterion validity
between academic aptitude and professional accomplishments.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<u><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Enrichment Triad Model:<o:p></o:p></span></u></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Within this model, Renzulli outlines three Enrichment types
of instruction that move beyond the traditional “deductive, didactic, and
prescriptive approaches” to the other end of “inductive, investigative, and
constructivist-based approaches.” Type I Enrichment exposes students to
possibilities of learning, “catalyzing curiosity and internal motivation.” Type
II Enrichment is designed to teach students how to move from inspiration found
in Type I enrichment to action. Type III “experiences are the the culmination
of natural learning, representing synthesis and an application of content,
process, , and personal involvement through self-motivated work.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<u><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Operation Houndstooth – Gifted Education and Social
Capital:<o:p></o:p></span></u></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This model promoters the idea that “highly able young people
have a responsibility to society at large.” The idea of having been gifted with
an extraordinary education requires one to give back – “using one’s talents to
improve human conditions, whether that improvement is targeted toward one
person or larger audiences or conditions.” Dr. Renzulli identifies the traits
that need to be fostered as “optimism, courage, romance with a topic or
discipline, physical and mental energy, vision, and a sense of power to change
things.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<u><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Executive Functions – Leadership for a Changing World<o:p></o:p></span></u></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Dr. Renzulli refers to this model as the “yeast” that helps
the three other models to rise. Put bluntly, Dr. Renzulli also refers to this
model as “getting your act together.” Dr. Renzulli believes that the most
advanced thoughts and creations may not come to fruition unless “leadership
skills such as organization, sequencing, and sound judgment are brought to bear
on problem situations. Dr. Renzulli identifies five general categories of
executive functions: a) Action Orientation; b) Social Interactions; c)
Altruistic Leadership (empathy and dependability); d) Realistic
Self-Assessment; and e) Awareness of Needs of Others.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Dr. Renzulli essentially has challenged the gifted education
community to “extend our traditional investment in the production of intellectual
and creative capital to include an equal investment in social capital and the
development of executive function skills.” Critical to this challenge is the
incorporation of experiential learning as opposed to what he terms the
“teaching-and-preaching” experiences.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">For those interested in transforming Dr. Renzulli’s
contributions into actual teaching practices, I would recommend <a href="http://www.renzullilearning.com/"><span style="color: #a64d79;"><strong>RenzulliLearning’s website</strong></span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05101141241131815060noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-171542694680631858.post-85817961607799903752012-06-27T16:10:00.004-07:002014-08-06T05:16:22.035-07:00Early Identification of Giftedness<span style="font-family: Calibri;">There are different opinions as to when giftedness is best identified. Should one identify giftedness prior to Kindergarten or should one wait to see how a student is performing the first few years in school and then identify gifted students? “Not gifted at age 6, but gifted at age 8,” is the short and somewhat cynical version. It is indeed common to start gifted education programs and offerings in 2<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">nd</span></sup> or 3<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">rd</span></sup> grade -- possibly due to the fact that at that age the first standardized, school-administered test results become available, which are often factored into an identification matrix.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Methods to identify qualified students for gifted education programs also vary greatly, resulting in different criteria depending on the school district in which one resides. Occasionally, one hears parents proclaiming that a child is not identified as gifted in one’s home district, but is identified as gifted in a neighboring district. “Not gifted here, but gifted 5 miles away from here,” is the short and somewhat cynical version in this instance. This may be partially due to the fact that there are only a limited number of gifted program openings in any given school.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The truth of the matter is that the issues of when and how to test for identification for gifted education programs are closely related to each other. I believe giftedness can (and should) be identified in early childhood but possibly with different methods as compared to identifying giftedness in children at the 2<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">nd</span></sup> or 3<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">rd</span></sup> grade level.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">“Parents should become familiar with the signs of giftedness even before their child starts school,” writes <a href="http://www.psychologytoday.com/experts/david-palmer-phd"><span style="color: red;">David Palmer</span></a>, author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Parents-Guide-Testing-Gifted-Education/dp/0977109852"><span style="color: red;">Parents’Guide to IQ Testing and Gifted Education</span></a>. “Early testing and identification can be a controversial subject, but many advocates of gifted children believe that they should be identified as soon as possible so that their unique needs and talents can be acknowledged and nurtured right from the start.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">At our school,<a href="http://www.questacademy.org/"> <span style="color: red;">Quest Academy</span></a>, we rely both on parent identification and a formal scheduled observation (following the <a href="http://www.pearsonassessments.com/HAIWEB/Cultures/en-us/Productdetail.htm?Pid=PAa3500&Mode=summary"><span style="color: red;">EarlyScreening Profiles</span></a> method) of the pre-school child. For entry into Kindergarten, we rely on parent identification, observation during actual “shadow” or “visit” days at our school in addition to an assessment tool known as the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wechsler_Preschool_and_Primary_Scale_of_Intelligence"><span style="color: red;">Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence</span></a>. For students older than Kindergarten age, we transition to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wechsler_Intelligence_Scale_for_Children"><span style="color: red;">Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children</span></a> (WISC). This approach is consistent with the Quest Academy Belief Statement that “giftedness is best identified and cultivated by means of thorough and multifaceted assessment.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">To help parents of two- to four-year olds determine if their child is gifted, my biggest piece of advice would be not to short-sell parental judgment and observations of one’s own child. Parents, particularly first-time parents, are reluctant to trust their instincts. Having said that, it is common practice to identify young children by means of parent rating scales, among which the “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gifted_Rating_Scales"><span style="color: red;">Gifted Rating Scales</span></a>” is well researched and proven to have high reliability (up to a 0.97 test-retest reliability coefficient). The Gifted Rating Scales includes a special Preschool/Kindergarten form (GRS-P), which includes five scales with 12 items each. According to <a href="http://www.coe.fsu.edu/Academic-Programs/Departments/Educational-Psychology-and-Learning-Systems-EPLS/EPLS-Faculty-Profiles-Click-on-faculty-name-for-more-info/Dr.-Steven-Pfeiffer"><span style="color: red;">Steven I. Pfeiffer</span></a>, one of the developers of the GRS-P, the scale is based on a multidimensional model of giftedness (see my previous blog entry entitled "An Evolutionary Perspective on Giftedness"), looking at intellectual, academic, creative, artistic, and motivational domains. The Gifted Rating Scale for children above the age of 6 also has shown great predictive accuracy when compared with results achieved on the latest edition of the WISC IQ test.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">There is surprisingly little research that sheds any light on the early childhoods of eminent or highly gifted adults, thus providing little – if any – conclusions as to what might be similarities or commonalities of childhood experiences of those who became eminent in adult life. In <u><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Critical-Issues-Practices-Gifted-Education/dp/1593632959"><span style="color: red;">Critical Issues and Practices in Gifted Education</span></a></u> (ed. By Jonathan A. Plucker & Carolyn M. Callahan), Nancy Robinson cites research that concludes that “the eminent persons studied had exhibited precocity during their early years, some of them to astonishing degrees, and many had received strong encouragement from their families.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Many of us have heard that Albert Einstein hardly spoke at age three, thus possibly not identified by parents as gifted. Indeed, Einstein’s parents were concerned about his lack of speech, but yet there was evidence of giftedness such as Einstein’s early childhood fascination to build tall houses or his keen interest as to why a compass needle always pointed north. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">To help parents determine if they want to pursue identification of giftedness in their pre-school-age child, David Palmer recommends taking a closer look at “language skills, learning abilities, and emotional and behavioral traits.” Fully quoting from his book, <u>Parents’ Guide to IQ Testing and Gifted Education</u>, please take note of more specific information.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<u><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Language Skills:<o:p></o:p></span></u></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Highly developed vocabulary/ability to learn new words easily<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Tendency to speak quickly<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Long and complex sentences with appropriate grammar<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Early reading, but only if given some instruction and opportunity<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Frequent questioning, particularly as relates to what the child hears and sees<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Understanding and carrying out multi-step directions<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Understanding and participating in adult conversation<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Using different language for different audiences i.e. speaking with adults and speaking with peers<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<u><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Learning Abilities:<o:p></o:p></span></u></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Picking up ideas quickly/picking up skills effortlessly<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Occasionally becoming focused on a special interest such as bugs, space, or animals and independently seeking out more information on those topics<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Asking insightful questions<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Excellent memory/easy recall<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Reading often<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Requiring little direction or instruction when learning a new game<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Early development of motor skills<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Creative thinking – coming up with their own solutions<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Concentrating on a topic for a prolonged period of time (if the activity is unchallenging, the opposite will occur)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Taking joy in discovering new interests<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<u><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Emotional and Behavioral Traits<o:p></o:p></span></u></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Endless source of energy/high activity level<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Talking and thinking fast (child is asked to “slow down”)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Taking charge <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Enjoying time alone<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Relating to older kids and adults<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Appreciating natural beauty and art<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05101141241131815060noreply@blogger.com63tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-171542694680631858.post-70379746564526962342012-04-24T17:35:00.008-07:002012-04-27T07:45:46.899-07:00An evolutionary perspective on giftedness<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">By Benjamin Hebebrand, Head of School, <a href="http://www.questacademy.org/"><span style="color: purple;">Quest Academy</span></a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">A historical study on the subject of giftedness clearly underscores the notion that our understanding of giftedness is continuously evolving. This evolution is congruent with the very idea that we teach our students in school – continued study and research lead to better and more comprehensive understandings. <o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In examining this evolution of our understanding of giftedness, it is evident that a broad analysis of the past 100 years of the study of giftedness has offered several periods or movements of understandings of giftedness. It is only logical that these movements also have shaped our ideas about best practices in identifying and teaching gifted students. <o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">It is my view that the evolution of these movements has resulted in a broader, more multi-faceted view of giftedness – appropriate, in my opinion, given the fact that I believe that a) giftedness to some degree can be nurtured; and b) that gifted learners deserve to be assessed and taught in multiple dimensions. In my opinion, this historical evolution of the conception of giftedness has made the field of gifted education enriched by a diversity of opinions. There may also be those who believe that the ideas of giftedness have become diluted and thus have lost focus as a result of ever-broadening conceptions of giftedness.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In the <u><a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/45650131/Handbook-of-Giftedness-in-Children"><span style="color: purple;">Handbook of Gifted Education</span></a></u>, edited by Steven I. Pfeiffer, cognitive scientists <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Barry_Kaufman"><span style="color: purple;">Scott Barry Kaufman</span></a> and <a href="http://www.indiana.edu/~intell/sternberg.shtml"><span style="color: purple;">Robert J. Sternberg</span></a> have identified four “waves” of conceptions of giftedness. The following is a brief summary of these four waves:<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Calibri;">1) Domain-General Models<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This wave essentially conforms to the idea that it is one’s general intelligence that is indicative of giftedness. Giftedness is viewed as “a single entity.” Most often, this view espouses the idea that giftedness can be measured in a single test such as an IQ test. This particular wave of thought may best be represented by English psychologist <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Spearman"><span style="color: purple;">Charles Spearman</span></a>, who in 1904 termed pervasive ability as general intelligence (the “g” factor), while he termed a specific ability as “s.” He recognized and determined that a “wide variety of cognitive tests tend to positively correlate with each other.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Calibri;">2) Domain-Specific Models<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This wave – as its name implies – holds to the notion that abilities may be domain-specific. In 1938, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Leon_Thurstone"><span style="color: purple;">Louis Thurstone</span></a> identified “seven different mental abilities that he claimed were statistically independent of each other.” These seven abilities related to both verbal comprehension and fluency, number computation, perception speed, inductive reasoning, spatial visualization, and also memory – some of these components are now included in the most recent editions of intelligence tests. This wave also includes Howard Gardner’s <a href="http://www.infed.org/thinkers/gardner.htm"><span style="color: purple;">multiple intelligences theory</span></a> that divides into linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalist. Another major contributor to this wave of thought is the work of <a href="http://www.indiana.edu/~intell/carroll.shtml"><span style="color: purple;">J.B. Carroll</span></a>, who in 1993 outlined three strata of intelligence of a) “highly specialized skills;” b) “somewhat specialized abilities” such as fluid intelligence (depends on the functioning of the central nervous system); crystallized intelligence (based on prior experiences and cultural context); general memory and learning; broad visual and auditory perceptions; broad retrieval ability; broad cognitive speediness; and processing speed; and c) one ability such as the “g” factor which “underlies all aspects of intellectual activity.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Calibri;">3) System Models<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">As the name implies, this wave espouses the view that giftedness is an interrelated system “which is dependent on a confluence of psychological processes operating together." A widely- -applied model that fits this idea of an interconnected system is <a href="http://www.indiana.edu/~intell/renzulli.shtml"><span style="color: purple;">Joseph Renzulli’s “three-ring definition</span>,”</a> first introduced in 1978. His three characteristics are a) well-above-average ability; b) creativity; and c) task commitment. Renzulli’s system brings to light the idea that giftedness is defined in more "active" terms – as he states, giftedness should be thought of in terms of “the creative and productive people of the world, the producers rather than consumers of knowledge.” Broadly stated, it's not just what you know, but what you produce and create. Renzulli’s model opens the door to the idea that intelligence alone is not sufficient in defining giftedness; <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>non-intellective factors need to be considered as well.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Calibri;">4) Developmental Models<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">External or environmental factors such as family, school, or peers are introduced to the idea of intelligence in the sense that these “external factors might interact with the internal factors of the individual to produce gifted behavior.” <a href="http://www.gigers.com/matthias/gifted/gagne_dmgt.html"><span style="color: purple;">Francoys Gagne</span></a> introduced in 2005 the Differentiated Model of Gifted and Talented, which proposes that gifts are transformed into talents. This transformation includes a) environmental impacts such as the home, school, parents, mentors, coaches, activities, encounters, and specific life experiences such as academic competitions; and b) non-intellective factors such as a child’s motivation, temperament, resilience, persistence, and endurance (training).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In my opinion, this wave most closely aligns itself with the idea of teaching to the “whole child.” <a href="http://www.gigers.com/matthias/gifted/munich_model.html"><span style="color: purple;">Kurt Heller’s recent Munich Model of Giftedness</span></a> views talent factors as predictors that are to be transformed into performance areas (i.e. achievement criteria). During this transformation, moderators come into play in the form of a) non-cognitive personality characteristics (i.e. coping with stress, test anxiety, or achievement motivation); or b) environmental conditions (quality instruction, classroom climate, or critical life events).<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In providing this overview of these four waves, it is my aim that gifted education practitioners understand that a child’s giftedness is far more than general test scores – in fact giftedness may be domain-specific or may include one’s creativity and productivity, and may also be greatly influenced by a child’s personality and environment. Please post your thoughts, informing us of your conception of giftedness.</span></div><br />
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</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05101141241131815060noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-171542694680631858.post-56865349842042122532012-03-08T15:04:00.002-08:002013-08-05T06:52:56.798-07:00Motivating the Gifted Learner<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I admire the work of Stanford psychologist <a href="http://www.brainology.us/default.aspx?gclid=CMu8nb602K4CFSwDQAodX3ZPeQ"><span style="color: red;">Carol Dweck</span></a> on the subject of motivation. It has been about a year since Dr. Dweck spoke at <a href="http://www.questacademy.org/"><span style="color: red;">Quest Academy</span></a>. There has not been a day since that talk that I have not thought about how best to motivate gifted students. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><u>Fixed Mindset versus Growth Mindset<o:p></o:p></u></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">At the very core of Dr. Dweck’s work is the idea that intelligence is not a fixed trait. She quotes Alfred Binet, the inventor of IQ testing: “A few modern philosophers…assert that an individual’s intelligence is a fixed quantity, a quantity which cannot be increased. We must protest and react against this brutal pessimism…With practice, training, and above all, method, we manage to increase our attention, our memory, our judgment and literally become more intelligent than we were before.” Indeed, with years of her research, Dr. Dweck has expanded on Dr. Binet’s assertion by referring to two different mindsets. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The fixed mindset -- rooted in the belief that one’s qualities are carved in stone – leads to behavior and actions that are risk-averse in that kids experience the first sign of failure as an indicator of their abilities or rather lack of abilities. The growth mindset, on the other hand, is attributable to an approach that one’s qualities and abilities can always improve or grow as a result of one’s efforts. In essence, Dr. Dweck advocates that the development of a growth mindset is key in fostering a child’s motivation. One such way to instill a growth mindset is to focus less on the results but rather the processes of learning, primarily among them the effort a child invests on any given task. Praising a child’s final grade or cumulative score on a standardized test may reinforce the fixed mindset, while praising a child’s effort, innovative and creative thinking, or passion invested in the task is more likely to signal to the child that the process of working (well) is highly valued. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have always maintained that as a function of good and hard work, the results will be just fine.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><u>“Do I want to do this?” and “Can I do this?”<o:p></o:p></u></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">At the very core of a student’s sense of motivation, we are most likely to encounter two fundamental questions: “Do I want to do it?” and “Can I do it?” The first question points to the need to assign students tasks that are meaningful, valuable, and relevant, while the second question points to creating tasks that correspond to a child’s ability. At our school, we root each learning-specific topic in a conceptual context (see previous blog on this <a href="http://ben-hebebrand.blogspot.com/2011/08/engaging-gifted-learner.html"><span style="color: red;">topic</span></a>). Similarly, at our school we invest time to determine what students already know or what they do not yet know in advance of a new learning unit. This way, teachers can differentiate for student ability, preferably at a level that is just above their demonstrated level. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><u>Practical Strategies to Motivate Gifted Students</u>:<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Deliberate attempts to engage students, including elementary school-aged children in the higher cognitive thinking levels of analysis, synthesis, and evaluation are sure ways to motivate gifted students. I offer a few practical strategies to motivate gifted students:<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Inquiry leads to curiosity: Taking time out during the day and simply meeting with students to contemplate intriguing questions is a good practice. Using natural or authentic moments is an added bonus. On the season’s first snowfall, have students generate questions about snow. Investigate together.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Compare, Contrast, Contradict, and Create Controversy: Imagine the teacher walking into a third grade classroom, asserting that “learning other languages leads to a poorer command of one’s own native language.” Soon, students will be working in teams investigating this controversial statement.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Encouraging students to make hypotheses: This should not only happen in the science classroom, but in every classroom. Encouraging student guesses is good practice as long as timely feedback is provided.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><u>Other Ways to Encourage Students</u>:<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The sense of accomplishment: Students benefit by the experience of authentic accomplishment. One initial accomplishment sets the stage for further accomplishment. Students need to be able to recognize their own competence by experiencing the feeling of accomplishing a task or solving a problem. An ideal outcome is a sense of meta-cognition, whereby students can think about their own thinking.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The teacher’s confidence in students: Students perform better when they know that their teacher wishes them conspicuous daily success.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The teacher’s passion: Enthusiasm is infectious.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Variety of Instructional Strategies: A classroom that always features rows of student desks is a recipe for…boredom. The classroom must be fluid.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The teacher’s genuine care for students: This is self-explanatory. When we feel that someone cares to get to know us, we do better.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Student Autonomy in the Classroom: Differentiating to student ability is great -- as is differentiating to student interest. Giving students choices is a sure recipe to increase their ownership in the learning. </span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Please take some time and share with me and others who read this blog your thoughts and strategies to motivate gifted students.</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><br />
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</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05101141241131815060noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-171542694680631858.post-79634411722396170222012-01-31T11:37:00.000-08:002013-08-05T06:52:56.818-07:00IQ Testing and Admission to a Gifted Education Program<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">Admission to a gifted education program at a school such as </span><a href="http://www.questacademy.org/"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">Quest Academy</span></a><span style="font-size: large;"> most frequently requires an assessment of the applicant. As such, one may be tempted to conclude that educational institutions are being selective and primarily concerned about screening students out. I would much prefer to look at the assessment as an opportunity to screen students “into the program,” or in other words determining if there is a good fit between the program and applicant designed to set the applicant up for success. The word “admission” really conveys the idea of “working toward the mission,” implying that the work of admitting students into a program is all about alignment with the mission or cause of the program.</span></span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">Therefore, applicant testing to gifted education programs is appropriate and mutually beneficial to the applicant and the mission of the gifted education program. Missions of such programs vary – an orientation toward “academic achievement” or “intellectual development” or a “challenging curriculum” or an “emphasis on creativity” may point to different objectives within various gifted education programs. Thus, gifted education programs turn to an admission process that fits their mission – testing may be designed to assess an applicant’s cognitive ability as opposed to an applicant’s achievement level.</span></span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">The work of assessing a student’s fit with a particular gifted education mission is important. It should, therefore, be transparent. “IQ testing and selection for programs is thought by some to be a mysterious and secretive domain understood only by the chosen few. It shouldn’t be,” according <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Parents-Guide-Testing-Gifted-Education/dp/0977109852"><span style="color: blue;">David Palmer, Ph.D., author of <u>Parents’ Guide to IQ Testing and Gifted Education</u></span></a><span style="color: blue;">.</span> Selection into any program such as a high school varsity sport or a regional or state Science Fair frankly involves some subjectivity on the part of the assessors – selection to a gifted education program should include objective testing. “The administration of an individually administered comprehensive IQ test offers a more valid and reliable picture of a child's learning needs,” according to Palmer. Many but not all gifted education programs require submission of an individually administered IQ test as a final criterion, possibly in conjunction with teacher recommendations or previous academic records. </span></span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">While typically the majority of applicant parents understand the normative bell curve scoring between 90 and 110 to indicate the median range of scores, we find that not as many understand what is actually being tested on an IQ test. There are numerous publishers and therefore numerous versions, all of which are updated both in terms of content and re-calibration of raw scores into scaled scores (so that the median scores always fall into the 90-110 score range). In his book Palmer outlines a few general areas that most IQ testing instruments share in common:</span></span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Verbal skills: Palmer defines this as “the ability to understand and use words, to understand verbally presented information and answer comprehension questions, and the capacity to analyze and solve puzzles or problems in which verbal skills are involved.” This area of testing includes more open-ended questions.</span></span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Visual (or Nonverbal or Perceptual) Problem Solving: This component, according to Palmer, will test for “the ability to solve visually presented problems and puzzles, recognize visual patterns, and identify visual details.” This testing component includes more performance-oriented tasks that usually have one correct answer.</span></span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Memory Index: This testing component measures “the ability to hold words, numbers, patterns, and symbols in the mind long enough to solve a problem or produce a response,” according to Palmer.</span></span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Problem-Solving Speed: IQ testing determines one’s “ability to think and act quickly and to use available information to swiftly solve a problem,” according to Palmer.</span></span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">As you read between the lines of these testing descriptions, you may be able to recognize that while various testing components do not measure specific academic skills (i.e. skills that are taught in school), it is generally agreed that all IQ tests serve as a good indicator for student success in school. In a previous blog, I wrote about a new definition of giftedness that speaks of a trajectory of potential in elementary school years to one of achievement in teenage years to a stage of eminence in adult life. I view IQ testing as a measure of one’s potential. There is evidence of students being “prepped” for these tests, as Dr. Kirk Erickson, a northwest Chicago suburban psychologist and IQ testing practitioner, points out. “You can practice online performance area tests such as certain designs and puzzles – and that may add a few points, but it won’t help the student. Attempts to prepare the student are a disservice to the student because the few extra points earned would not really be points that reflect her true score, potentially placing a student in the wrong program.”</span></span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">It is important that testing results be reviewed and explained by a psychologist. Typically, IQ testing results are accompanied by narrative reports, but a face-to-face meeting with the psychologist to interpret the scores is important. Dr. Erickson believes that the spread in scores among the various testing components is worthy of deeper analysis. Should scores be vastly different from each other (a score differential of about 15 points or more would qualify as such), Dr. Erickson would point toward asynchronicity. While a Verbal Skills score may indicate a score of 145, a Problem-Solving Speed score may be at 125, which in isolation is a score well above average. Such a range in scores, according to Dr. Erickson, may be explained by “brain development in that <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">one area of the brain is not as developed</span></span> as others or it may point toward a learning disability.” Dr. Erickson would be the first to recommend “additional testing to determine a learning disability.”</span></span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">Anytime assessments are performed to qualify students for entry into any given program, we should take great care in making that selection process live up to a high standard of consistency. In my opinion, IQ testing adds a consistent measure in determining the suitability of applicants to a gifted education program. As such, we should remove any mystery from such testing.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
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</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05101141241131815060noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-171542694680631858.post-23609422857415333982011-12-06T18:48:00.000-08:002013-08-05T06:52:56.789-07:00The nurture of potential<h1><span style="font-size: small;">All over the country and I dare say the entire world, parents, psychologists, teachers, scientists, policy makers and professionals across all disciplines are re-examining and re-defining the ideas of giftedness and gifted education. In a relatively young nation such as the United States, real and occasionally romanticized portraits of gifted individuals abound -- the lives of politicians such as the framers of our Constitution, entrepreneurs such as railroad and automobile magnates or technology gurus such as the recently departed Steve Jobs are scrutinized in an effort to learn more about giftedness. I suppose the thinking is that if we understand their lives by tracing their childhoods and their educations, investigating their support systems such as family and relationships with others, or studying their character traits, we may be able to stumble across a few commonalities that somehow can lay the basis to unlocking the gates to giftedness and thus lay the foundation to a model of...gifted education.</span></h1><br />
<h1><span style="font-size: small;">Three prominent gifted education scholars recently published a lengthy report entitiled "Rehinking Giftedness and Gifted Education-- A Proposed Direction Forward Based on Psychological Science." The authors, </span><a href="http://www.apa.org/ed/schools/gifted/about/index.aspx"><span style="font-size: small;">Rena F. Subotnik</span></a><span style="font-size: small;">, </span><a href="http://www.sesp.northwestern.edu/profile/?p=247"><span style="font-size: small;">Paula Olszewski-Kubilius</span></a><span style="font-size: small;">, and </span><a href="http://gse.berkeley.edu/faculty/FCWorrell/FCWorrell.html"><span style="font-size: small;">Frank C. Worrell</span></a><span style="font-size: small;"> and their comprehensive <a href="http://psi.sagepub.com/content/12/1/3.full">report</a> do not disappoint, and for a pre-school - 8th grade school such as </span><a href="http://www.questacademy.org/"><span style="font-size: small;">Quest Academy</span></a><span style="font-size: small;">, a portion of their proposed definition of giftedness holds particular promise in that it gives a school such as ours significant food for thought but also (re-)affirmation of how the faculty and staff of </span><a href="http://www.questacademy.org/"><span style="font-size: small;">Quest Academy</span></a><span style="font-size: small;"> carry out their work in educating young gifted children. </span></h1><h1><span style="font-size: small;">The authors state that "...giftedness can be viewed as developmental in that in the beginning stages, potential is the key variable; in later stages, achievement is the measure of giftedness; and in fully developed talents, eminence is the basis on which this label is granted." </span></h1><h1><span style="font-size: small;">As with most developmental processes, we seek an outcome. Although eminence is fluid in that eminence demands ever increasing degrees of innovation (e.g. eminence begets eminence), the authors in a way view eminence as the ultimate destination in giftedness or the ultimate pursuit of gifted education. Somewhere along this climb to the mountaintop, the authors suggest that achievement is the component by which eminence may be achieved. Achievements are validated by results in a variety of assessments such as performances or products. Implied is the notion that achievments are to be judged, presumably by those who are considered eminent or at least those who have "passed" or preferably "surpassed" the agreed-upon measures of achievement.</span></h1><br />
And thus, the authors steer us toward a starting point -- a point at which potential is to be developed, nurtured, and nudged toward achievement and ultimately toward eminence. Potential is the ground level. In examining potential in a scientific context, specifically in the scientific domain of physics, we view potential as "energy that is stored in a body or a system due to its position in a force field or due to its configuration." (<span class="citation book">Mahesh C. Jain - author of <u>Textbook of Engineering Physics</u>). The position within a force field speaks to environmetal factors (i.e. nurture), while the configuration rests in nature. In my opinion, the nature versus nurture debate is especially relevant when we speak about the development of potential.</span><br />
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<span class="citation book">Our work with young gifted minds is indeed about optimizing potential to prepare them for a culture and system of achievement. The fundamentally most important discovery here is that an initial and sole focus on achievement may be misguided -- learning at a younger age is much more than performing or producing. I recently asked one of the authors, Dr. Paula Olszewski-Kubilius (whom many Quest Academy teachers know as the main professor in the Northwestern University graduate-level gifted education certificate program), at what point we might switch our teaching perspective from a potential to achievement focus. She responded that each domain or field (e.g. the arts, philosophy, literature, gymnastics, mathematics, engineering) have varying switch points. I suspect that it is also different for each individual student.</span><br />
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<span class="citation book">Interestingly enough, Dr. Olszewski-Kubilius suggested as a general rule of thumb, it may be advantageous to develop a child's familiarity and comfort level with achievement by the time they enter high school. Thus, our work at Quest Academy was re-affirmed in that our faculty beginning at pre-school and through 8th grade start out with a focus on potential and each and every year offer carefully orchestrated and increasing degrees of achievement, never losing sight of the fundamental task of fostering and nurturing potential.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05101141241131815060noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-171542694680631858.post-66872889649050499052011-11-11T15:15:00.000-08:002013-08-05T06:52:56.807-07:0021st Century Literacies fit gifted students<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">Twenty-first century education is becoming…less fuzzy. Twenty-first century education is evolving. We are in the midst of a shift – we are “jumping the next curve,” as author </span><a href="http://www.guykawasaki.com/"><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">Guy Kawasaki</span></a><span style="font-size: large;"> would tell us. To reach our 21<sup>st</sup> century destination in education, we must not only embrace but more importantly guide the change that is occurring in the way our students are now learning and living. </span></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">One such way to guide our students is to lay out new literacy standards – and indeed, the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) has laid out </span><a href="http://www.ncte.org/governance/literacies"><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">21<sup>st</sup> century literacy standards</span></a><span style="font-size: large;">. It is exactly work such as this that helps us wrap our arms around 21<sup>st</sup> century learning. The jump to the next curve in this instance is to look at literacy standards in a new way – in a 21<sup>st</sup> century way. </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">“Literacy has always been a collection of cultural and communicative practices shared among members of particular groups. As society and technology change, so does literacy. Because technology has increased the intensity and complexity of literate environments, the twenty-first century demands that a literate person possess a wide range of abilities and competencies, many literacies. These literacies—from reading online newspapers to participating in virtual classrooms—are multiple, dynamic, and malleable,” according to NCTE. </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">At a gifted education school such as </span><a href="http://www.questacademy.org/"><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">Quest Academy</span></a><span style="font-size: large;">, students show great interest in becoming technology-literate because these literacies require higher-order thinking skills beyond reading comprehension. Furthermore, these literacies enrich learning – they offer far greater possibility to advance one’s reading and writing on any one given topic.</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">NCTE has laid out six 21<sup>st</sup> century skills, some of which I will attempt to expand on in the context of higher order thinking. According to NCTE, 21<sup>st</sup> century readers and writers need to:</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">1.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“Develop proficiency with the tools of technology” </span></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">2.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“Build relationships with others to pose and solve problems collaboratively and cross-culturally” </span></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">3.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes”</span></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">4.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“Manage, analyze and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information” </span></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">5.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multi-media texts”</span></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">6.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments”</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">Just looking at Standard 3, it is becoming clear that one’s writing needs to become more focused than ever before on one’s audience. Technology enables our writing to be “consumed” throughout the world and to be “filtered” for special audiences. Gifted students will relish the opportunity to compare and contrast communication styles across the globe or determine if a text needs to be designed and formatted differently for older and younger generations.</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">Standard 4, for example, is already pre-loaded with classic higher-order thinking skills such as analysis or synthesis. Let’s suppose for a minute that 2<sup>nd</sup> graders have been assigned to research Martin Luther King’s life – a simple “google search” will steer them to a myriad of excellent…and – quite frankly – horrible web sites. Among the top five Google searches for Martin Luther King is a site entitled martinlutherking.org that includes racist statements. The site is camouflaged to “trick” kids. Kids need to learn to judge web sites in addition to knowing how to find out who publishes web sites.</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">Standard 6 speaks of ethical responsibilities – the topic of ethics itself is rich material for gifted students. The Internet can serve as a platform for gifted students to change the world to a better place. Creating web sites or games that promote ethical and service-learning related ideas are terrific opportunities for gifted students to put their creativity and intellect to practical use.</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">The gifted education community, in my opinion, would be wise to endorse these 21<sup>st</sup> century literacies. They represent rich and value-added opportunities for gifted students.</span></span></span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05101141241131815060noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-171542694680631858.post-81082366831948784452011-10-21T14:47:00.000-07:002013-08-05T06:52:56.822-07:00Social and Emotional Needs of Gifted Students<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">In anticipation of the November 16 community evening at Quest Academy featuring a presentation by renowned gifted education scholar and psychologist Dr. James T. Webb on the subject of “the social and emotional needs of gifted students,” </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">I thought it wise to reflect on this topic. For ticket information, please click <a href="http://www.eventbrite.com/event/1414515855">here</a>.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">“Students must be able to develop a healthy perspective about their own talents and limitations, and those of others; a positive self-image; a positive regard for the processes of learning and inquiry; and a commitment to a guiding set of moral and ethical values,” according to Drs. Dona J. Matthews and Joanne F. Foster, authors of <u>Being Smart about Gifted Education</u>.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Often we read of the hyphenated version of social-emotional needs. Clearly those two needs are interconnected in myriad complex ways, while sometimes it may behoove us to look at each issue as a separate need.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Having now worked as Head of School for almost five years at Quest Academy (</span><a href="http://www.questacademy.org/"><span style="color: purple; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">www.questacademy.org</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">), a school specializing in meeting the needs of gifted students, it is clearer than ever before that educating the “whole child” is, in my opinion, paramount in a school, where children have been identified and taught as gifted students. Dr. Webb would tell us that “cultivating courage, caring, and creativity are as important as academics and developing intellectual abilities.” Similarly, Dr. Kirk Erickson, who conducts testing for Quest Academy applicants, states: </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Having advanced intellectual and academic achievement skills are wonderful qualities, but they are not the only things that may predict success. Things like personal motivation, creativity, and work habits are but a few of the skills that are also important. One area that is just as vital, but often overlooked is social and emotional intelligence. The way we relate and interact with the world around us, and how we mange our internal sense of self is often the greatest measure of our potential as human beings."</span><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">So what is the “whole child?” Simply put, it is about addressing all the needs a child has – according to the <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Association for Supervision and</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Curriculum Development (ASCD), this encompasses:</span></span></span></span></div><ul><li><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></span>a need for a healthy environment and learning about healthy lifestyle choices</span></span></div></li>
<li><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">a physically and emotionally safe environment</span></div></li>
<li><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">engagement in learning and connection to school and the larger community</span></div></li>
<li><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">access to personalized learning</span></div></li>
<li><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">a challenging environment shaped by a well-balanced curriculum </span></div></li>
</ul><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Maybe more to the point is the question what defines the “whole gifted child.” This is where it gets difficult as gifted students are not following generally agreed upon developmental milestones, particularly in their intellectual development. Gifted children just do not follow a predictable or “even” developmental pattern – they often follow an asynchronous pattern. In other words, a gifted child at age ten may have intellectual needs equivalent to a 15-year-old, social and emotional needs of a 13-year-old, and physical needs of a ten-year-old. Gifted children, in short, may find themselves at varying developmental levels and may experience polar emotional reactions such as excitement and anxiety or pride and self-doubt in almost one and the same moment. As a result of such asynchronous development, gifted children may be misdiagnosed – and indeed Dr. Webb frequently talks about gifted students being misdiagnosed in an environment, where the needs of gifted children are not recognized or validated. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Gifted children, in my opinion, deserve a different kind of education. This education must be shaped by teachers and parents who understand asynchronous patterns. It is in that spirit that I invite you to the November 16 evening (7 p.m.) with Dr. Webb here at Quest Academy. Dr. Webb will present to our faculty in the afternoon – in the evening, he will address parenting issues such as:</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">· </span></span><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">motivation and underachievement</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">· </span></span><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">discipline, power struggles, and self-management</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">· </span></span><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">intensity, stress and perfectionism</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">· </span></span><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">acquaintances, friends, and peers</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">· </span></span><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">complexities of modern parenting</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">· </span></span><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">misdiagnosis<span style="color: black;"> </span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">· </span></span><span style="color: black; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">finding a good educational fit.</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="color: black; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"></span><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">We hope to see you there!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05101141241131815060noreply@blogger.com0