1. The Landscape: Gifted Learners in BC Today
A Presentation for SD 43, Coquitlam PAC
On behalf of the Gifted Children's Association of BC
By Maureen McDermid, Quest Consulting

2. Getting on the same page
What Do we mean when say ‘Gifted’?

3. Who is a gifted learner? According to the BC Ministry of Education:
“A student is considered gifted when she/he possesses demonstrated or potential abilities that give evidence of exceptionally high capability with respect to intellect, creativity or the skills associated with specific disciplines.”

4. First, A focus on the LEarner

5. How can we ‘see’ giftedness/high potential?
Unusually large vocabularies for their age
Ability to read earlier than most children
Greater comprehension of the subtleties of language
Longer attention span, persistence and intense concentration
Wide range of interests
How can we ‘see’ giftedness/high potential?

6. Indicators of High Potential, cont’d
Interest in experimenting and doing thing differently
Tendency to put ideas or things together in ways that are unusual or not obvious
Highly developed curiousity and limitless supply of questions
Ability to retain a great deal of information
Unusual sense of humour
Indicators of High Potential, cont’d

7. Selected characteristics of creativity
Adaptable and adventurous
Greater tolerance for ambiguity and discomfort
Preference for complexity, asymmetry, open-endedness
High in divergent thinking ability
Sensitive to environment
High aesthetic values, good aesthetic judgment

8. Characteristics cont’d
Ability to toy with elements and concepts
Ability to defer closure and judgment
Openness to experience new ideas
An internal locus of evaluation
Ability to resist group pressure, a strategy developed early in life

9. Social Emotional needs of high potential learners
More than responding to intellectual growth, we need to understand and respond to the emotional needs of these learners. At times, this is the more important factor.
Kazimierz Dabrowski suggested that gifted individuals exhibited areas of "uncommon intensity" - particularly intellectual, emotional, and imaginational – and that they play a part in a gifted person's desire for advanced personal development. He called these ‘overexcitabilities’.

10. The Overexcitabilities
Depth and intensity of emotional feelings and relational attachments
wide range of complex emotions
strong memory for feelings
high concern for others
heightened sense of right, wrong, injustice and hypocrisy
empathy, responsibility, and self-examination
Tendency toward feelings of guilt, anxiety, loneliness, depression
somatic expression of emotions.

11. Time for some conversation!
In your table group, consider how these characteristics are expressed by your child/children.
What does this look like in ‘real life’?

12. Bright child, gifted child
Knows the answers
Asks the questions
Is interested
Is highly curious
Is attentive
Is mentally and physically involved
Has good ideas
Has wild, silly ideas
Works hard
Plays around, tests well
Answers the questions
Discusses in detail, elaborates
Top group
Beyond the group
Listens with interest
Shows strong feelings and opinions
Learns with ease
Already knows
6-8 repetitions for mastery
1-2 repetitions for mastery
Understands ideas
Construction abstractions
Bright child, gifted child

13. Bright child, gifted child cont’d
Enjoys peers
Prefers adults
Grasps the meaning
Draws inferences
Completes assignments
Initiates projects
Is receptive
Is intense
Copies accurately
Creates new designs
Enjoys school
Enjoys learning
Absorb information
Manipulates information
Technician
Inventor
Good memorizer
Good guesser
Enjoys straightforward sequential presentation
Thrives on complexity
Is alert
Is keenly observant
Is pleased with own learning
Is highly self-critical

14. Recognizing giftedness in negative behaviours
1. excessive restlessness or diagnosed hyperactivity
2. Mischief making, especially if it is associated with a sharp sense of humour
3. Poor achievement, even though other behaviour contradicts this evidence
Recognizing giftedness in negative behaviours

15. 4. Leadership as recognized by peers, for example, leading a gang
5. Withdrawal, indifference, inattention, daydreaming in class
7. Unwillingness to do homework
8. Persistence in pursuing a discussion or topic beyond the teacher’s express cutoff point.
Negative behaviours…

16. Possible causes of negative behaviour
Many of these so-called negative traits are sometimes reflections on the nature of instruction and content. They may actually indicate…

17. The learning situation is not challenging enough.
The pace of instruction is too slow
There are too few opportunities for in-depth discussion
The assigned activities are repetitious
The assigned activities or homework is not challenging enough to sustain interest
The subject matter does not capture or sustain interest, may be trivial, may fail to meet the child’s maturity level or be limited in intellectual scope

18. Moving to the Bigger Picture
Support for Special needs learners in BC today

19. Ministry of Education Special Education Policy Manual under review
Categories of identified Special Needs in review
Criteria for a designation in review Services and support delivered in the enrolling classroom (inclusionary philosophy)
Education Funding Model Review by an
Independent Review Panel
High Incidence/Low incidence – 12 categories
Currently Gifted is high incidence* (large numbers identified)
*between 2001and 2016, reporting of gifted learners declined 69%
Ministry of Education

20. School Districts Services for gifted students vary across districts
A variety of methods of identification
A variety of ages when services begin
Challenge and MACC classes
‘pull-in’ enrichment opportunities from across the district
School-based support
Provincial Transitions Program

21. Independent schools
Madrona School West 10th Avenue, Vancouver BC, V6J 2B3 Choice School for the Gifted – Westminster Hwy. N. Richmond BC V6V 1B3 (designated Special Education School)

22. Overall considerations for gifted programming
What to adapt:
Content – what they learn
Process – how the learning is done
Product – how they demonstrate their learning
Learning environment – the atmosphere in which they work and learn

23. Individual education Plans – the plan must address:
differences in pace, scope, and complexity, in keeping with the nature and extent of the exceptionality;
provide for opportunities for students to interact socially and academically with both age peers and peers of similar abilities;
address both the cognitive and affective domains;
incorporate adaptations and/or extensions to content, process, product, pacing and learning environment; and
go beyond the walls of a school and into the larger community.
Individual education Plans – the plan must address:

24. Many of the features of appropriate and supportive curriculum for gifted learners are now present in the new BC curriculum
Emphasis on big ideas (concepts) rather than discrete and siloed facts
Focus on understanding rather than recall and regurgitation
Core competencies – critical and creative thinking, personal and social, communication

25. Resources Special Education Policy Manual
ion/kindergarten-to-grade- 12/inclusive/special_ed_policy_manual.pdf
BC’s New Curriculum
gifted Children’s Association of BC