Chapter 19: Instructional Strategies in Programs for the Gifted

EQ: What strategies do you use in your classroom?

General Notes• The role of instructional strategies in making a

sound curriculum work effectively cannot be overestimated.

• Strategy use in the gifted will not improve until sufficiently challenging learning task demands nudge them in that direction out of necessity.

• Higher-level strategies used by the teacher produce corresponding higher-level behaviors in students as a result when judged in a classroom context.

General Notes Cont.• Recent literature has continued to stress

the use of complex thinking strategies, such as problem-based learning, critical thinking, and creative problem solving as key approaches to use in gifted programs, such programs require complex responses by learners, using many different intellectual skills, and are commonly employed in dealing with problems and issues in the real world.

General Notes Cont.

• Claims have been made for the long-term academic and social-emotional benefits of working on independent projects, especially as a spur to creative productivity.

What are some strategies you use to reach your gifted

students?

Model for Applying Strategies• One dimension would focus on the

foundational skills and concepts necessary for learning a given content domain.

• An emphasis on emotional skills that contribute to both motivation and thinking.

• The tool skills of creative thinking and critical thinking

• Complex methods of problem solving, decision making, and policy development

The Socratic Method

• Spontaneous or Unplanned Discussion• Discussion for Diagnostic Assessment• Focused Discussion

Teachers Role in Socratic Method• Focusing—facilitate learning through

discussion• Reframing—Aid discussion through

students’ responses• Recapping—recap key ideas at different

stages•Modeling—model your own curiosity• Probing—probe student responses• Relating—ask students to relate ideas

Question Types•Memory/Cognition—factual, one right

answer• Convergence—multiple right answers• Divergence—hypothetical, multiple

answers that may be wide-ranging• Evaluative—judgmental, answers

derived from interpreting criteria or selecting best perspective based on options

Productive Complex Strategies• Use paradoxes• Use analogies• Sense deficiencies or unknowns• Ask what if? In what other ways?• Provocative questioning• List attributes of thinking or qualities• Explore the mystery of things• Encourage original answers• Learning to expect and accept the necessity for

change

Productive Complex Strategies Cont.• Teach about rigidities, fixation, and habits• Teach the skills of search• Build self-directed learning situations• Provide for use of intuition, or hunches, as educated

guesses• Teach processes of invention and innovation• Serendipity• Study lives of creative individuals• Encourage new thinking based on stored knowledge• Teach for cause and effect in different combinations

Productive Complex Strategies Cont.• Alertness to unexpected responses, ideas, or

solutions• Develop skills of reading creatively• Develop skills for perceiving through all the senses• Teach students to ask questions

Skill Set for Project Work

• Locating resources• Grouping students• Setting project parameters• Facilitating project work

Other Strategies• Reading strategies across the

curriculum• Homework as a deliberate strategy• Computer-Based Learning–Research–Mentoring–Field trips–Real-world problems

Reflection: Discussion QuestionWhat strategies do you use that

your students like?

Chapter 21: Assessment of Gifted Student Learning

EQ: What types of assessments do you use in your classroom?

General Notes• Assessment is a part of the overall

curriculum development cycle that flows naturally out of planning and implementing in the classroom.• Moreover, it is a prelude to action

planning that becomes the basis for a new cycle of curriculum implementation.

Problems in Assessing Gifted Learners

• Absence of appropriate standardized assessments for students who are already very advanced in a subject area• Nature of the assessment itself• They do well on short-term content-

based assessments, while demonstrating few important gains in higher-level skills

Developing an Assessment Plan

• Use multiple measures and varied types of measures—targeted performance-based assessments, portfolios, and product evaluation• Attempt to establish triangulation of

perceived benefits—should be assessed on written, oral, and thinking measures that attest to learning

Developing an Assessment Plan Cont.• Incorporate long-term and short-term

measures—short-term projects combined with one long-term project reveals more of what is learned than the use of only short-term or one long-term

• Incorporate multiple modes—pre-post, time-series, and product assessment

• Be a basis for making evaluative judgments about the effectiveness of the curriculum design.

What are some types of student assessments?

On-Level Standardized Assessment• Observe student performance over time• EVAAS levels the playing field by excluding factors

such as race or socioeconomic status, provides effective means to detect patterns in data, such as teacher effect, and recognizes the fact that all students need to grow beyond their entry point.

• Higher-achieving students do not make it on their own, and the negative correlation or decline in gifted student test scores were highly correlated with the effectiveness of the teacher to modify the curriculum.

• What factors do you believe play a role in student achievement?

Portfolios• Showcase—best work while emphasizing

self-assessment, reflection, and ownership• Evaluation—representative work to be

evaluated on the basis of showing movement toward a specific academic goal• Process—work produced over time• Documentation—academic

accomplishment for presentation

Performance Assessment• Requires students to construct a

response, create a product, or perform a demonstration.• Evaluations are based on judgments

guided by criteria• Individuals who design must be creative,

making decisions about content and scope, processes to be employed, and overall effect--coherence

Performance Assessment Cont.• Need to contextualize the tasks so that the

situations are authentic to the field being studied and ensure that the tasks represent tests of knowledge in use, not drills made up of many unrelated items.• Use of performance-based have yielded

strong evidence of learning gains in specific areas within curriculum domains, including scientific research skills, literary analysis and interpretation, and persuasive writing.

Curriculum Evaluation• A review of existing curriculum documents,

including texts, units of study, and other supplementary materials that frame the substance of content delivery.

• Analysis of classroom instructional practices that reveal patterns of use of higher-order instructional strategies such as critical thinking, problem solving, creative thinking, and research.

• Trend analysis of gifted student outcome data on the types of instrumentation discussed earlier in the chapter—standardized on- and off-level tests, performance-based, and portfolio.

Reflection: Discussion QuestionHow do you choose assessments?

Preview

• Final Exam Due on or before May 2 by 7 PM