Busting Myths of Gifted Education: Gifted Awareness Week 2019

Here goes my yearly contribution to this blog! Every year I hope that I will find the time to regularly post here, but every year the Gifted Awareness Week blog tour comes around and I find that I haven't managed to blog during the year. The life of a teacher!

This year's theme is Myths of Gifted Education and I've chosen my favourite:
Gifted learners don't need extra help, they'll be fine on their own.

I've chosen this one because, as a teacher in mainstream education, this is often a line I hear and I completely understand where it comes from. There are so many competing pressures on our time and to a teacher without a fundamental understanding of theories of giftedness, it would appear that generally gifted students seem to do ok. 

For me though, this raises the question of the purpose of schooling and education. Is the aim for every child to do 'ok'? Or is the aim for every child to be challenged, extended, and able to develop at the pace and level they are ready for?

I think a lot of the issue here stems from the label 'gifted'. I recently read a much better definition that I think would help dispel a lot of the myths surrounding gifted learners and gifted education in general. The article asserted that giftedness could be labelled asynchronous development instead and that students need to be met where they are in the different domains. The very definition of differentiation!

The other side of this argument, and one I have made before, is what are we missing out on if we don't extend, challenge, support these students to achieve to the levels they are capable of?

So how do we do that? 

There are a few key things that I recommend teachers can do to extend, challenge and support their gifted students.

• Find out what your learners know and can do, take a strengths-based approach. Gifted students aren't usually gifted in all domains, sometimes teachers think they need to focus on the areas they aren't gifted in and ignore the area of giftedness as they're already doing ok in that area. I find this is often detrimental to the student's well being and they make much more progress in all areas when a strengths based approach is taken. 
• Talk with and listen to the students' whānau - gifted students' parents may be able to shed light on what works for their child. They are a valuable resource to work with.
• Differentiate, provide choices - using the principles of differentiation is a great way to cater to gifted students needs. But this doesn't mean leaving them on their own to complete their own work, they still need support to be able to continue to learn and develop. Remember every child should be making one years progress in a year.
• Engage with out-of-school opportunities - don't try and be everything to everyone, there are specialist teachers out there who have experience with supporting gifted students. Use their expertise to support you and your learners.

The re-developed Gifted Learners TKI site has a wealth of information and support on it if you want to increase your understanding and dispel more myths about gifted learners. 

Check out the other great blogs in the blog tour as well!

The new Digital Technologies Curriculum: A Catalyst of Success?

I'm excited to be joining in on the New Zealand Gifted Awareness Blog Tour again this year. This year the theme is 'Celebrate Gifted: Catalysts of Success'. 

While I was thinking about what to write for this blog, I re-read the blogs I have written during GAW in the past. My 2016 blog, Getting education right for gifted and talented students - Imperative for the survival of humanity sparked an idea because thankfully, due to a change in government in New Zealand, some of the suggestions I made in that blog have come to fruition since then! 

In that blog, I bemoaned the negative influence National Standards and GERM theory was having on gifted students' ability to succeed but now, in 2018, the New Zealand education system is moving out from under their shadow and forging a new future with the scrapping of National Standards and an Education Conversation initiated by the government, as they review and rejuvenate our education system so it meets the needs of our students now and in the future.

To me, the new Digital Technologies curriculum, released at the beginning of this year indicates the direction that education is going. Not just because digital technologies are an integral part of our students' lives, but the way it is designed and the assumptions it makes about learning. One of the strands of the curriculum centers around a way of thinking. This takes the emphasis away from learning content related to a subject and supports students in developing a way of thinking that increases their understanding about the "principles that underlie all digital technologies, and learning how to develop instructions, such as programming, to control these technologies.” (TKI)

I have been using this new curriculum with my students from Years 7 - 11 and it has definitely proved to be a catalyst of success for several of my gifted students. Two students in particular who, through this curriculum have been successful in ways they may not have experienced otherwise. 

Getting rid of the silos in Secondary Education

After being inspired to write my last blog and then enjoying the summer holidays, I forgot about my idea until recently the topic popped up again.  Our Year 9 & 10 students are undertaking a 'cross-curricular' project this week, spearheaded by the Head of the English Department.  The students have been put in groups of 4-5 and will have the week to plan and create a 3-4 minute film about 'The Future'. The groups have all been assigned a mentor teacher and the will go to that teacher in period 1 to plan what they are going to achieve for the day and where they are going to be.  All the teachers of Year 9 & 10 will be involved so the students can choose to work either with teachers that they have good relationships with or that have the expertise that they need at that particular stage in their film creating.

Goal

Students to work collaboratively to produce a final product within a shared context using concepts and resources from all curriculum areas.

Resources could include: classrooms to work in, subject specific equipment, tech equipment, shooting locations, computer access.  The biggest resource will be teacher support and expertise.

Context

The Future: “What do we want our world to be like?”

This allows students to learn about, reflect upon, challenge and address the most important issues to them.

Why are we doing this?

•  Because it will be fun.
• To understand that learning doesn’t exist in a subject vacuum – the concepts studied in Science have relevance in Social Studies and the strategies developed in Maths have applications across all subject areas.
• To develop student engagement and learning partnerships in a new and innovative way.

It will be very exciting to see how this plays out this week.  I think it will be great, the teachers involved are enthusiastic about it and embracing the fact that it will be uncomfortable sometimes as they let go of the reins and let go of the traditional silo model of learning.

I've been thinking about how this could play out in the future too. It would be great to see the teachers who teach Year 9 and 10 working more collaboratively together.  Rather than having subject departments they could work in year level departments like the Year 7&8.  Planning learning experiences and projects together rather than in the traditional silos. Hmmm more food for thought!

Project-based learning - Reimagining the timetable to make it work

It's the summer holidays here at the moment and for some reason I always find myself getting inspiration for change when the last thing I should be thinking about is school!

@VisibleLearning's Tweet got me started this evening with their question, "Where do students learn best in your school?" https://twitter.com/VisibleLearning/status/814322049971695616?s=09

My immediate thought was they learn best in subjects they are interested in and feel are real and relevant to their futures.

I started thinking about the way our school (and most secondary schools in NZ) timetable is arranged and how in this day and age it seems odd that English and Maths have the most periods per week and 'subjects' such as the technology areas, the arts, Science etc have the least...particularly when these other subjects are the ones students tend to enjoy more and achieve more highly in.

This led to an idea - and I think they do this in Year 12 and 13 but wouldn't it make sense to change the way our Year 7-10 timetable is arranged and credits are gained by allowing students to gain numeracy and literacy credits through subject areas that they actually enjoy and/or see being applicable for their future. 

Currently the learning areas of the curriculum dictate the required subject areas - English, Maths, Social Studies, the Arts, Science, PE and Health, Languages (at our school te reo Māori is compulsory for junior students). My idea is instead of students spending 9 hours per week doing 'English' and 'Maths' in a silo, these hours would be added on to the hours available for the specialist subjects meaning that there would be more time within these subjects for students to work on improving their literacy and numeracy skills in authentic ways. For example, learning to work out the circumference of a circle in Hard Materials Technology or learning about ratios in Food Technology. How about improving their creative writing skills while writing a script for a play or short film in Drama. Through this model, the number of hours able to be spent on meaningful, authentic, project-based learning would be increased and literacy and numeracy would be explicitly taught and assessed within these areas. This would need to be co-ordinated and moderated across the school to ensure that the curriculum achievement objectives relevant for the students in each year were covered but the benefits would be immense!

Since teaching Year 9 English a few years ago and feeling like I was banging my head against a brick wall I've wondered about how we could do it differently.

Doing it this way would mean that students can spend more time doing things they enjoy while still learning and developing their fundamental skills and competencies needed to be successful.

Now to find some research to back up this idea! I know there is plenty around about the motivating benefits of project-based learning and I guess that's the real impetus behind my idea. Students learn best and are more successful when they can learn what they need to in a meaningful, authentic way - doing something real and relevant to them and their future.

Getting education right for gifted and talented students - Imperative for the survival of humanity!

Welcome to my annual blog - every year I hope to blog more regularly but then all of a sudden Gifted Awareness Week is here again and I haven't written!  This year the topic for the Blog Tour is Belonging.  This got me thinking where do gifted students belong once they leave school? As usual I went off on a tangent and that tangent led to the topic for this blog.  Without gifted students being allowed and encouraged in school to develop their gifts into talents, there will be nowhere to belong!

The title of this blog sounds a bit serious doesn't it? A bit dramatic? But, I argue, sadly true.  Our society is at a crossroads, there are some serious issues facing the next generation: unsustainable use of resources; increasing poverty; increasing obesity; disparate education outcomes; homelessness - to name but a few.  All these issues will have a huge impact on society as we know it if nothing changes drastically in the next 50 years.  Earth and humanity can't continue to sustain the way we've been living for the last 200-odd years since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and it is up to the generation of students in our schools currently to do something drastic about this or experience serious breakdown in the way Western society functions.

BP's 2014 annual report states that, as of the end of 2013, Earth has nearly 1.688 trillion barrels of crude, which will last 53.3 years at current rates of extraction.  It is no longer a far off issue that a generation far removed from ours will have to deal with, it is a reality and even the oil companies know this is a big deal.

Let me paint you a picture.  My son is 1 year old.  If BP's predictions are correct, he will be 54 when there is no more oil left on Earth.  Every minute of the day, in one way or another, we are consuming and encountering products that are made using oil.  So in 53.3 years if there is no oil, what is my son going to shave with, what is he going to hang his clothes on, how is he going to clean his dishes and get to work if there is no oil left? First world problems? No. Unless the whole population of Earth stops consuming oil at the current rate and finds alternatives to these simple everyday plastic items (and makes using them the norm), first world problems will be a thing of the past because there will be no world as we know it today.  

This is just one of the massive issues facing the next generation.

What has this got to do with gifted education you ask?

In order to find viable solutions to the issues facing us, we need creative innovators to develop solutions and lead systematic societal change.  We need affordable alternatives to the current plastic and oil-based products and in order to make using these alternatives the norm, we need strong, confident leaders who are willing and able to stand up and fight for change.  The current Western economic environment is based on oil consumption and neo-liberal economics.  Bryan Bruce, award-winning New Zealand documentary maker, likens neo-liberal economics to a virus that has infected every aspect of our lives.  For this environment to change inside the next 50 years, students graduating from our schools need to be creative, innovative thinkers who can think outside the box and who question the 'me, me, me' societal values.  Gifted students by their nature, think outside the box and moral sensitivity is seen by many theorists as a central feature of giftedness (Silverman, 2016), the development of which is essential to the welfare of our entire society.   Without the opportunities to develop and extend these innate abilities, their creativity, innovation and sensitivity can be left unrealised.  Gifted and talented students need a qualitatively differentiated education where their unique strengths, interests, abilities and qualities are acknowledged, catered for and developed.

To just say that gifted students will 'do well' regardless of the education they receive has been proven again and again not to be true. Just like a gifted sportsperson still needs guidance from a specialised coach, gifted students need guidance from well-trained teachers who can challenge and support them in order to fully develop their abilities (National Association for Gifted Students, 2016).  Gagné's Differentiated Model of Giftedness and Talent (Gagné, 2008) describes the importance of environmental and interpersonal factors in ensuring that giftedness (outstanding potentialities) can be transformed into talent (outstanding achievements).  Without the opportunity for appropriate environmental catalysts such as getting enough sleep, support and encouragement from family, opportunities for the student to practice and develop their skill, giftedness can remain untapped and underutilised.  Interpersonal catalysts are just as important. These are under the partial influence of genetic inheritance and can be divided into physical and psychological factors. Physical characteristics can influence the chances that a person may attain high performance levels in a specific field for example height, slenderness or leg length may impact the performance of a dancer.  Psychological factors that influence the development of gifts into talents, can be catergorised into four areas: motivation, volition (i.e. desire, determination), self-management, and personality.  These factors or traits can be developed through practice and encouragement and are vital for gifts to develop into talented performance.  For example, successful scientists have strong observational skills, and highly developed questioning skills, logic, creativity, skepticism, and objectivity.  In order for potential high-performing scientists to be able to develop and sustain these psychological traits they need to be supported and encouraged to utilise and extend them in their educational experiences.

The rising prevalence for test-heavy curriculum since the introduction of National Standards in 2010 as well as other symptoms of the GERM (Global Education Reform Movement) infecting our previously world class education system do not lend themselves to developing the gifts of creative, innovate, morally sensitive students. Authoritarian, content-driven teaching leads to compliant thinkers, which is the opposite of what we need in order to develop a creative economy.  Other symptoms of the business model of the GERM invading the New Zealand education environment are charter schools, Investing in Educational Success (IES), league tables, and proposals for performance funding for schools and performance pay for teachers.  Educationalist, Professor Yong Zhao (2015) believes that the changes many Western democratic and developed nations (America, Australia, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and others) have made to their education systems are simply trying to do the wrong thing more right and changes such as the narrowing and homogenising of education through policies such as National Standards, are putting the world at risk.  To prepare our children for the new economy, we must begin the shift away from GERM to a different educational paradigm.

Zhao believes GERM ideology is destroying the traditional virtues of education in Western developed countries, which tend to tolerate exceptionality, respect individual differences, and condone unconventional behaviours (the basis of recognising giftedness and talent).  He describes the rigorous but blind pursuit of test scores as the only outcome of education has the expense of killing creativity and other non-cognitive skills which are equally, if not more valuable than academic test scores for success in life.  The imposition of uniform curriculum standards on all children in all classrooms narrows educational experiences and reduces the professional autonomy of educators.

The old paradigm aims at strengthening schools to prepare citizens for a by-gone era, resulting in the global phenomenon of talent mismatch: the co-existence of massive youth unemployment and widespread talent shortage. As a consequence, the world is more at risk than before the reforms. 

Yong Zhao, 2015

For today's students to succeed in this ever-changing world, they need to be able to think like entrepreneurs: to be resourceful, flexible, creative and global.  This cannot just be expected to happen once they reach the workplace, this must be encouraged and modelled throughout their education experience. Students need opportunities at school to develop and practice these skills.  Education for gifted and talented students needs to enable them to discover and follow their passions, to take risks and learn from their mistakes, to experience 'hard' and build resilience, not just show teachers what they already know and can do.

So what might the new education paradigm look like?

Thankfully many schools in Aotearoa New Zealand have realised that education must change with the times and move away from the GERM paradigm and we are lucky that the New Zealand Curriculum acknowledges the particular needs of gifted and talented learners and is designed to allow for flexibility of application so that the needs of diverse learners can be appropriately responded to.

Zhao makes recommendations that are relevant to improving the educational experience for gifted and talented students in Aotearoa New Zealand, that I believe will lead to a brighter future for us as a nation.  Some of them would be simple to implement, some will take more systematic change.

• Stop prescribing a narrow set of content through curriculum standards and testing.
• Personalise education to support the development of unique, creative and entrepreneurial talents.
• Empower students by liberating their potentials, capitalising on their passion and supporting their pursuits.  Give the ownership of learning to the children.
• Stop constraining students to learning opportunities present in their immediate physical environments by assigning them to year-levelled classes and solitary teachers.
• Start engaging them in real life learning opportunities that exist in the global community, beyond their class and school walls.
• Stop forcing students to learn what adults think they may need and testing them to what degree they have 'learnt' that content.
• Allow students to opportunity to engage in creating real life, authentic products and learn what they are interested in.
• Stop comparing achievement of educational programmes to outdated measures of the past, such as international test scores.
• Start inventing the excellence of the future.  

Schools such as Ao Tawhiti in Christchurch exemplify this shifting paradigm and all their students, from new entrants to Year 13 are able to plan their learning around their personal interests, needs and passions.  This diverse and flexible approach allows their students to explore all aspects of the curriculum in a safe and supportive environment and encourages them to be creative, innovative and take risks with their learning.  Students at Ao Tawhiti do not have to follow prescribed assessment routes and are able to work at whichever level of the curriculum best serves their current needs.  They recognise that every student has different strengths and weaknesses and use that information to make a unique programme for each student.  There are other schools in New Zealand running in similar ways.  This demonstrates that a paradigm shift away from the GERM theories to a education model more conducive to providing gifted students with an education that better meets their needs as well as the needs of society as a whole is possible.  All it requires is strong, confident leaders who are willing and able to stand up and fight for change that is supported by evidence and well thought out. 

The students themselves have an important part to play in this change too.  According to a 2015 MTV report, 91% of Generation Z-ers (born after 2001) are optimistic that their generation can help build a better world.  Generation Z believe they are responsible for building a new social order. Jane Gould, senior vice-president of MTV Insights said "Not only do these kids have a clear identity, they have a stunningly intuitive sense of the changing times they've been born into and the huge opportunity that lies ahead to make new history," As Abraham Lincoln is quoted as saying "The best way to predict the future is to build it."  This is a maker generation, a pragmatic and practical generation who must architect and build the future we are all trying to imagine living in. 

Providing educational opportunities for gifted students to shine will have a positive impact for all humanity.  Getting it wrong, likewise...I know which future I prefer!!

References:
Gagné, F. (2008). Building gifts into talents: Brief overview of the DMGT 2.0. Retrieved 7 June 2016 from http://gagnefrancoys.wix.com/dmgt-mddt#!dmgtenglish/cabg

Silverman, L.K. (2016). The moral sensitivity of gifted children and the evolution of society. Retrieved 16 June 2016 from http://sengifted.org/archives/articles/the-moral-sensitivity-of-gifted-children-and-the-evolution-of-society

Zhao, Y. (April, 2015). A world at risk: An imperative for a paradigm shift to cultivate 21st century learners. Retrieved 16 June 2016 from http://zhaolearning.com/2015/04/06/a-world-at-risk-an-imperative-for-a-paradigm-shift-to-cultivate-21st-century-learners1/

Theory into Practice - Identifying Gifted and Talented Māori Students

As this week is Gifted Awareness Week and excitingly I have had an article about my research published in the Apex journal I thought it would be timely to write an update about how I'm putting my research into practice.  Just like identifying gifted students is only the beginning of the journey, undertaking my thesis was just the beginning of my journey.  I specifically chose a topic that I felt I could take what I found out and actually put it into practice in my school.

My research was into how Māori students who are gifted and talented are identified in mainstream schools and the barriers and challenges that teachers face when trying to do this.  The findings did not surprise anyone.  I found that although there were a few schools who had culturally appropriate procedures in place, the numbers of Māori students being identified was low, if not non-existent.  The majority of schools who took part in the study did not have a clear definition of what Māori giftedness would look like and therefore their identification processes did not take Māori giftedness into account.  The main barrier to this was teacher knowledge and expertise within the schools.  All the teachers surveyed were keen to learn more about this aspect of giftedness but time and pressures of other factors meant that unfortunately this was not a priority.  

I strongly believe however, that it needs to be made a priority.  It is well known throughout Aotearoa New Zealand that there is a disproportionate number of young Māori not achieving in our school system and I believe that by creating robust identification and provision for Māori gifted and talented students we would be able to begin to combat these statistics.  I discovered through my research that when identifying Māori students who are gifted and talented, the provision of a culturally responsive environment is crucial.  It is important that teachers realise that they don't have to be of the same culture as their students in order to be effective, but it is imperative that they are able to connect with their students' cultures and understand what it means to be gifted and talented in that culture.  If students are not given opportunities to let their gifts and talents shine then how can we ever hope to identify them and in a school system that generally reflects the majority culture.  


In 2012 I was fortunate to be selected for a year long study award to complete my thesis and following this, in 2013, I returned to school as the Gifted Co-ordinator/Teacher to develop a Gifted and Talented Withdrawal Programme for 8 hours per week (6 hours teaching, 2 hours planning).  Prior to 2013 our school definition of giftedness and talent was very generic and was pretty much copied from the MoE 2000 handbook.  The only mention of cultural giftedness was a bullet point buried at the bottom of the list of areas that a student may demonstrate giftedness and talent.  Through my research I found this was common among the schools surveyed and although the bullet point was there, teachers did not know what this would look like past being good at kapa haka or being able to speak te reo.

My first task therefore was to update our definition this was done in consultation with staff and community and our updated definition is as follows:

The next step was to provide our teachers with PD on what this meant and how we could make this more than words.  Cultural competency was a major driver behind our PD programme for the year so this fitted well and by the end of the year I believe we have come a long way to recognising and catering for a wider range of gifts and talents.  We still have a way to go as making this kind of shift in practice takes time but we are definitely on the right track.

The other major component of this change was developing identification processes and a withdrawal programme that aligned with our revamped definition. Using a variety of resources and research I developed a new identification checklist for teachers which we implemented in 2014.  I also made it very clear that parents and students needed to be a part of this process also.  The list of names gained from the identification process proved very interesting.  In 2011 only 17 % of the identified gifted and talented students were Māori.  In 2014, with our new definition and identification procedure this increased to 35%.  With a roll that is 40% Māori, this is much closer to what it should be.  

Now that we'd identified these students what were we going to do to ensure that we were catering to their needs?  Ka Hikitia and it's principles provided a great starting point and ensuring that we were working towards meeting these was a good place to start as gifted students spend the majority of their time at school in mixed ability classes. The other part of the process was creating a programme that recognised the variety of gifts and talents that we had included in our definition.  With only six hours per week, this has been the hardest part!  As a school we provide lots of opportunities for education outside the classroom as well as leadership opportunities so my first step was to categorise these under the areas of giftedness and talent we had identified to ensure that students had lots of opportunities to shine in the various areas.  The second step was to look at which areas there weren't a lot of opportunities and create some.  We decided that Kaitiakitanga, Mātauranga and Rangatiratanga would be our focus for the year and I have created a programme around these three areas.  There's not enough time to go into this in detail here but if you'd like more information about our programme please email me.

It has been really exciting this year seeing the change taking place around what giftedness and talent looks like in our school and really thinking about and recognising all the ways that students demonstrate it and can be extended.  We are by no means at the end of this journey and there are lots of things that we are still learning, reflecting on, refining and improving but when I look back to what gifted and talented education looked like at our school in 2011 compared to what it looks like now I feel we have the essence of something great that can only grow in greatness and positive outcomes for all our tamariki.

This is the power of strong, culturally responsive gifted and talented education.  One where students feel that their culture is valued throughout every aspect of the school.  One where they feel that teachers understand and value what it means to be gifted and talented in their culture and are not trying to assimilate them to what it means to be gifted and talented in the majority culture.  One where their gifts and talents are recognised and encouraged to shine in the classroom, in the playground and in the wider community.  

 Ko tōu reo, ko tōku reo, 

 te tuakiri tangata. 

 Tīhei uriuri, tīhei nakonako. 

 Your voice and my voice are expressions of identity.

 May our descendants live on and our hopes be fulfilled. 

    

Published Article - A bit exciting!!

A little excited today.

Had my first article published in Apex - The New Zealand Journal of Gifted Education.

Click here to see it...