2.  What is giftedness?  What is talented?  Are these two terms synonymous?

3.  Terman in 1930 defined gifted as learners who scored in the top one per cent of the population.  Renzulli’s in 1978 gave a three ring definition.

5.  Successful ( Bright, pleasers, steady helpers, learn holistically, user of front end analysis)  Challengers ( Bored, angry, independent learners, tactless, resentful)  Underground gifted ( Value peer acceptance, deliberate underperformer, prefer front end analysis)  Dropouts ( resentful, angry, depressed, secondary school students and passions outside the school, find revision tedious)  Double labeled ( physically disabled, emotionally disabled, learning disabilities, confused, often repeat)  Autonomous ( self directed, strong locus of control, natural learning style)

6. SUBJECTIVE  Teacher nomination  Nomination by parent/caregiver  Peer nomination  Self-nomination OBJECTIVE  Standardised tests  Individual IQ and other culturally appropriate measures of ability  Group IQ School assessment –  Product/performance Rating scales  Creative tests  Competitions

7.  the teacher identification process is part of a school-wide identification program  multiple criteria are used  a mix of subjective and objective strategies are employed  IQ tests are used in the context of other indicators and measures  the expectation is avoided that all students will perform equally well on all measures  students in the following categories should not be overlooked: the underachieving, the exceptionally gifted, students with disabilities and those with learning difficulties or from culturally diverse populations.

9. o Issues with identifying children as gifted and/or talented Should we identify (and label) children as such? Who should? Where do we go to from here? What are the options? o Gifted children with disabilities o Funding o Social intelligence Impacts of various methods. Age cohort versus those with similar level of ability. Consequences of separating children based on level of ability. Achieving balance in other areas of life.

10. What can teachers do to cater for the needs of gifted children? Differentiation: understanding individual differences and devising institutional strategies to cater for students’ needs. For differentiation to thrive, appropriate strategies must be systematically implemented at both the school and classroom levels (Robinson, 2002).

11. Each school has its focus and priorities  Differentiation for the gifted and talented student is more likely to happen where:  The school leadership emphasises giftedness as part of educational provision.  A detailed knowledge of educational opportunities is available for gifted students, high expectations for student achievement are displayed and recognition is given for teachers’ efforts in curriculum differentiation.

12. Important components of teachers’ craft knowledge in gifted education include: 1. the recognition of students who require a more challenging curriculum, 2. the development of appropriate programs for them and 3. the use of effective teaching strategies (Croft, 2003).

13. Curriculum and instructional strategies form the cornerstone of programs for gifted and talented students

14. Curriculum differentiation : range from slight to major modifications of the curriculum through adjustments to content, processes and skills. It provides a planned, documented and challenging curriculum that matches the ability of gifted students to :  learn at faster rates  find, solve and act on problems more readily  manipulate abstract ideas and make connections to an advanced degree

15. Instructional strategies 1. management (how the students will be organised) 2. delivery (the forms of the instruction) 3. process modifications (how the teacher will teach and the students will learn). Examples  Individualisation: Individualisation is one form of instructional management to consider to determine how either an individual or a group or class can proceed through the curriculum.  Grouping by ability or achievement (Students of high ability or high achievement levels are put into a separate group for differentiating their instruction. Can be full or part-time, permanent or flexible sorting). Department of Education and Training (2004)

16.  Familiarize yourself with the characteristics of the Gifted.  Offer the opportunity for students to grow from where they are, not from where the course says they should be.  Conduct informal assessment.  Re-familiarize yourself with Piaget and Bloom. Gifted children in Piaget’s “formal operations” stage when their peers are still in his “pre- operational” or “concrete operations Students in the “formal operations” need learning experiences at the upper end of Bloom’s Taxonomy.  Involve parents as resource locators.