Meeting the Needs of More Able Pupils Gifted and Talented

Definition of Gifted and Talented Gifted and talented is used in schools to describe children who ‘have the potential to develop significantly beyond what is expected for their age’. 'Gifted' refers to academic subjects, such as English or maths. 'Talented' refers to a practical area such as music, sport or art. Mathematically more able pupils would be referred to as ‘gifted’ but may also be ‘talented’. (BBC, 2015)

Difficulties these Children have with Mathematical Learning These children may also have special needs, such as dyslexia (Reis, 2015). The child may have a different way of thinking than their peers which can lead to conflict. Boredom if they are not challenged enough. Disruption as a result of boredom. Low attention span due to the pace of the lesson. Pretending they are not more able to avoid bullying. (The Good Schools Guide, 2015)

Difficulties of Teaching to this Group of Children Key problems The teacher having a lack of subject knowledge, this makes the teacher feel less confident teaching complex concepts to gifted children. Teachers often find it difficult to motivate gifted children in mathematics especially as they often grasp concepts more quickly than their peers causing boredom and frustration. Gifted children may struggle and become demotivated when they are set a task they cant complete straight away without support. Occasionally gifted children find working in mix ability groups frustrating as the other children may work differently and may not be at the same intellectual level as them. Teachers sometimes find in mathematics that it is particularly difficult to locate material that is appropriate for the age of the gifted children but also challenges them. Teachers also find it hard to decide how much acceleration is acceptable for certain gifted children. Solutions Teachers should aim to expand their own subject knowledge through the support of the subject leader in order to feel more confident. It is important that teachers ensure that the children see the value of what they are learning as ‘A sense of ownership in our learning is hugely motivating (Bruner, 1996) and a quite simple way to ensure challenge’. Encouraging structured group work on a regular basis and giving each child role to that all children feel like they are participating the same. Teachers should look at alternative methods of ensuring the gifted children progress, such as ensuring that the children gain a deepened understanding of topics covered instead of simply covering more topics. (Carroll and McCulloch, 2014) (Grigg, 2010) (Pollard et al., 2008)

Strategies to Deliver Mathematical Learning

Continued

Activity – Problem Solving (Department for Education and Employment, 2000)

Activity – Palindromic Numbers Palindromic numbers are a good activity for Gifted and Talented Pupils because it enables them to learn independently. Researching the meaning of Palindrome will allow them to learn independently and to consolidate their learning. This activity can also be cross-curricular because they would be able to identify that words such as madam, or names, for example Hannah are palindromic. This would be aimed at Gifted and Talented pupils as in order to understand palindromic numbers they would need to have a good subject knowledge of the basics of maths. For example, in order to find a palindromic number such as 55, they would need to identify the sum needed to result in a palindromic number. (Department for Education and Employment, 2000)

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