WORK WITH GIFTED CHILDREN

THE LAW ON PRIMARY SCHOOLS AND GIFTED/TALENTED PUPILS

The Law on Primary Schools (School legislation of the 9-year primary schools) contains certain provisions on the rights and on the work with gifted pupils.

Article 2 among the objectives of primary school education provides also two objectives in reference to gifted pupils:

to give opportunities for personal development to pupils in accordance with their abilities and development rules and

to develop talent and provide training for experience works of arts and artistic expression.

• Article 11 provides determination of pupils with special needs among which we also find gifted pupils. It also provides that all pupils with special needs should be ensured adequate conditions for their education. In addition they should be given the right to have individualised programmes in education. The task of primary schools is to provide for pupils with special needs professional experts to prepare, implement and evaluate individualised programmes.

• Article 12 speaks of pupils with special needs education. It provides that education of specially gifted pupils takes place in accordance with this law in the way that schools adjust methods and forms of work with them and includes them in additional classes and other forms of individual and group assistance.

• Article 18 provides for pupils with special needs the opportunities for adjustment of compulsory and elective subjects.

• Article 20 provides extended programme including additional classes and free interest activities.

• Additional classes are provided for pupils who in certain subjects exceed the envisaged knowledge standards. This is provided in article 23.

• Article 79 states that schools are obliged

to provide opportunity to pupils who achieve above average results to finish their primary schooling in less than in nine years. Decision on that is taken by a special committee in agreement with parents.

• Articles form 88 to 92 give provisions on education opportunities at home which is a novelty in our legislation. It certainly is one of the opportunities for gifted pupils and for those who according to their parents need individualised approach.

• Article 95 provides that schools are required to keep records on pupils who need help and counselling where also gifted pupils belong to.

We can see that the care for gifted and work with them is one of the obligatory contents of each primary schools’ work.

• The Law on Primary Schools

also provides and envisages work with gifted pupils since everyone has the right to adequate and to receive proper education.

• Taking care for gifted is a part of each school’s programme, which has to ensure adequate forms and methods of work, proper staff conditions and continuous monitoring of their development. Only this way all the required conditions will be ensured for their education.

PROGRAMME OF WORK WITH GIFTED PUPILS

A practical example from a Slovenian primary school:

(attachment: document in Slovenian language)

Programme of work with gifted pupils

- Produced by advisory service of primary school and presented to other professional experts at school (headmaster, teachers..)

The role of experts in the work with gifted pupils

1. REGISTER OF POTENTIALLY GIFTED PUPILS

2. INFORMING PARENTS AND GETTING THEIR OPINION AND CONSENT

3. IDENTIFICATION PROCEDURE

4. INFORMING PARENTS AND GETTING THEIR OPINION

5. WORK WITH GIFTED PUPILS

6. ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION OF PROGRAMMES IMPLENTATION,

COMPLEMENTING AND PLANNING NEW PROGRAMMES

7. OTHER TASKS

IDENTIFICATION OF GIFTED ACCORDING TO THE CONCEPT MODEL –

recording, identification, informing parents and getting their opinion

• The document Identification and work with gifted pupils in the nine year Primary School was adopted at the meeting of Expert Council of Slovenija for General Education in 1999. It was prepared for the preparation of the concept for work with gifted pupils. With the introduction of the nine year PS at the national level, the implementation of the Concept became compulsory.

• Since there is no adopted theory on gift/talent Slovenian psychologists and experts, when producing the Concept, took into account Renzulli’s three cycle model of talent and referred to Marland’s definition of gift. Identification of talent according to Concept takes place in three stages: recording , identification and informing parents and getting their opinion.

1. Records• When keeping records we actually sift wider groups of pupils who are in the next stage

indentified through the approved psychological tests and assessment scales.

• For records we implement the already known information on individual pupils, as follows:

- education success

- achievements

- teachers’ opinion

- competitions

- hobbies

- opinion of school advisory service

• The objective of recording is primarily to rationalise the identification procedure of gifted pupils, as we avoid time consuming and expensive testing of pupils at schools.

• The recorded group includes all pupils who comply at least with one of the six criteria.

• It is a wider group of pupils than the group of gifted.

2. Identification- Includes deepened and detailed treatment of the recorded pupils.

Identification takes place according to the following measures:

• teachers’ assessment

• ability test: individual or group tests, for example

- WISC (Wechsler’s scale of children’s intelligence)

- Raven’s progressive matrix

• creativity test:

- Torrance’s tests of creative thinking

- Pupils are identified as gifted if they achieved at least in one criteria above average result.

3. Informing parents and getting their opinion

• It is the last stage of talent identification, when the advisory service together with class teacher can inform parents about their child’s gift and get back parents’ opinion on their children’s talent.

• The identification process of talented is not the same in all those stages of the nine year primary school (PS).

• Only recording normally takes place in the first triad. In the second, and if necessary third triad, also identification is carried out as well as informing parents and getting their opinion, since talent is at that stage already enough developed and it is necessary to determine it more precisely with the help of objective instruments.

• Decision on pupils’ talent is taken at the teachers’ staff meeting where also school advisory service and the coordinator of work with talented participate.

RECOGNITION AND IDENTIFICATION OF FINE ART TALENT

• Identifying certain aspects for detection of fine art talented pupils is limited to checking artistic works of pupils being members of several juries and to monitoring of work of arts teachers with pupils. Identification and work with talented pupils is thus left over to expert knowledge and teachers' efforts at each Slovenian school separately.

• On the basis of children's characteristics and features of their works of fine art we can identify fine art talent of children. Most usual forms of identification of talent are as follows:a) teachers observations,

b) identification lists (filled in by teachers, parents and children),

c) assessment of works and

d) opinion of established artists.

• In order to better recognise children's talent teachers and parents use lists for identification. The most appropriate are those inventories which describe concrete forms of behaviour of those children that teachers and parents observe directly, regardless the assessment of their talent.

• In Slovenia teachers, while identifying and recognising talent, may seek for help in assessment scales. The last improved and renewed version was issued in 2007.

• New scales were named Assessment Scales of Pupils Talent – improved form of 2007 or abbreviated OLNAD07. OLNAD07 is composed of 10 scales for 10 areas of children's talent.

• One of the novelties is that the artistic field is divided into music, fine art, literature and drama and added new technical area. Each scale contains 8 statements which describe talented behaviour of pupils in certain area of talent.

• Area of fine art is being verified by statements, which describe pupils’ behaviour in fine art instruction or during school art clubs. Talented pupils in this area can continue to observe pictures for a very long time and can plan their own artistic composition. They have got a very good memory for artistic details and for entire structure and they are capable of independent formulation of fine art product. They enjoy in trying new fine art materials, tools and techniques. They insist for a long time in literary activity and take it vey seriously.

According to the Concept of Identification of Talented a pupil is supposed to be talented if he/she achieves 90% in any area of OLNAD07 or in any psychological test, which means that such pupil belongs among 10 % of Slovenian pupils achieving the best results in a particular area. (Assessment scales, 2008)

Assessment scales of pupil’s talent - examples

• Scale description: We have called new scales “Assessment scales of pupil’s talent – improved version 2007 or abbreviated OLNAD07. OLNAD07 consists of 10 scales for 10 areas of pupil’s talent:

 • General intellectual area • Learning area• Creative area• Leadership area• Physical exercise area• Technical area• Musical area• Fine art area• Literature area Artistic area• Dramatical area

Certain scales cover areas determined in the definition of talent for the Concept :

• Talented and gifted are those children and young people who demonstrated high achievements and potentials on the intellectual, creative, specifically academic, leadership, artistic and psycho-motoric area.

 • Psycho-motoric area has been divided into physical exercise and

technique, and artistic contains musical, fine art, literary and dramatical area.

 • Each scale has got 8 statements. • Statements describe talented behaviour of pupils in certain area of

talent.

• Fine art area is verified by statements which describe pupils’ behaviour in fine art instruction or extra clubs. Talented pupils in this area can remain long in observing pictures, they have good memories for artistic details and entire structures as well as a distinctive aesthetic feeling. They enjoy in trying new artistic materials and techniques, they plan artistic compositions and remain long involved in fine art activities.

 

Implementation of assessment with assessment scales

In order to carry out OLNAD07 we need for each pupil the following:

• 10 scales, and the number of each of them depends on the number of teachers who teach a particular pupil in a particular area; summary list of assessments, list for resuming results of various assessors – teacher’s working instructions.

• OLNAD07 have been prepared in the first place for the pupils of the 4th grades of nine year primary schools, and may be implemented also for pupils of higher grades.

General guidelines • Advisory expert carefully considers and for recorded pupils proposes to

the assembly of the sectoral teachers the adequate teachers of compulsory subjects, elective subjects and free interest activities for all the areas that are assessed by the OLNAD07. In filling in the assessment scales only those professional workers may participate who comply with the requirements for performing educational work in primary schools or musical schools. Advisory workers are included. The selection of teachers and the scales are confirmed at a meeting of sectoral teachers assembly. Advisory worker also explains to teachers the guidelines and the procedure of assessment and also replies to any questions.

• All teachers who have known the recorded talented pupil for at least three months fill in the scales for general intellectual area, learning, creative and leadership area individually. The same applies for class teachers from the 5th to 9th grade.

• Besides above indicated scales, the remaining scales (physical exercise, technical, musical, artistic, dramatical) are filled in by teachers that educate pupils in those areas; this applies also to class teacher if he/she teaches in one of the mentioned areas (For example a teacher who teaches a pupil in Slovenian or foreign language, or if he is mentor to that pupil in dramatical or literary school club, shall fill in also scales for literary and dramatical area, the teacher of fine art instruction or as mentor in school club or artistic area and teacher of technical classes for the scales in technical area).

 • When the identification takes place in the 4th grade the class teacher fill in

all scales. And if it takes place in the 5th class it is done by ex class teacher, i.e., class teacher go the 4th grade fills in all scales.

• It is very important that a pupil is assessed by as many teachers as possible; for each area at least two. It is desirable that the scales are filled also by teachers of previous year.

• Teacher-assessor’s task is also to sum up the marks for individual area and put down the calculation.

Guidelines for assessment of pupils’ behaviour

• Guidelines for the assessment of statements is simple and understandable :

 

»Please, read each statement carefully and assess (by circling), to what extent is the described behaviour for a particular pupil true. Chose marks from 1 (not true at all) to 7 (completely true). At the end sum up your marks.«

• The marks have the following meaning: • 1 – not true at all• 2 – often not true • 3 – more not true, than true • 4 – equally true and not true • 5 – more true than not true• 6 – often true• 7 – completely true

• After teacher – assessor has written down all basic data on a pupil and he/she has written down also his/her name and the date of assessment he/she may start with filling in the scales. It is recommended that the image of pupils is recalled before filling in and that teacher tries to remember all pupil’s strong areas and good results in school activities.

• As some concepts might be less clear, they are additionally explained. The same ways should also advisory expert, if necessary, explain it to a teacher.

• When teachers have finished with assessment they should sum up the points and write them down in the box: TOTAL POINTS. The box: TOTAL POINTS AFTER INTERPOLATION is filled in by advisory expert.

• They should also be noted that they may write down the comments which refer to misunderstanding the statements, or perhaps, why they could not answer to a particular question, etc.

• Teachers should hand over the assessment scales personally to the advisory expert. He then urgently files them in a special folder for a particular pupil.

FINE ART TALENT

• Fine art talented children are many times deprived for being able to develop their potentials. We have to be aware of the fact that children have the right to advance and develop and to realize their life interests and desires.

Once there was an established opinion that everyone can develop his/her own fine art talent, if he/she has enough freedom, time and diverse material to express him/herself.

Today it is thought that intelligent children do not have artistic, but that above average intelligent are artistically talented. Fine art talented have a high level of non-verbal component of general talent, which is called spatial-perceptive intelligence.

• Maier’s definition of artistic talent from 1939 is still actual since it says that

the components of fine art talent are: abilities, motivation and creativity.

• Among abilities belong: precise detection, visual memory, manual skills (coordination of eyes and hands) and spatial skills.

• First three abilities are called abilities of visual thinking, which is thought to be the most important feature for artistically talented children.

• Individuals who distinctively have this skill express all their feelings through artistic products and not by words. The contact and dialogue with the world is kept through fine art work. All experiences are transformed into fine art symbols which are non-verbal. They differ form their peer in accuracy , technical quality and understanding of symbols.

• Spatial skills are shown in understanding of third dimension. Children with this skill show interest for planning, building and construction. Those are potential architects, project engineers and sculptors.

• Motivation of fine art talented

individuals is the same as motivation of general talent: high level of motivation and interest, highly expressed initiative assignment focus, deep involvement in artistic activity.

• Creativity is shown in the creation of new, original, personal, and in fluency of ideas as well as creation of visual experiences in to new units. Artistic creativity is expressed in dynamics and in independent creation of fine art works.

Basic features of fine art creativity are as follows:

- large independence in application of live, rich impressions, information, concepts.

- production of visual images to express thoughts and ideas.

- aspiration towards organization and compensation

In opposition to other non artistic types of talent the artistic talents need a kind of specific feature and proper symbolic system which enables an individual to express thoughts and ideas by visual tools which are not only descriptive notes or photos of environment and events.

Guilford proposed the following creative factors :• 1. fluency (wealth of ideas, words, signs, motions• 2. flexibility (flexibility of thoughts, divergent thinking),• 3. redefinition (ability to apply it cognitively in a new way),• 4. originality (statistically rare, original solution),• 5. elaboration (research planning and results structuring),• 6. susceptibility for problems (ability to separate essential from non essential,

ability to recognise the essence).«

• For fine art creativity are important flexibility and divergence of thinking as well as artistic abilities and correct and sensible perception, visual memory motoric skills and motoric susceptibility. For creative thinking a certain level of intelligence is needed. Since pupils with higher perception abilities have more opportunities to detect larger number of data, details. Thus, intelligence contributes to the development of fine art abilities which for example are accurate perception, visual memory and motoric skills.

• We can make a conclusion: fine art talent is a natural ability insuring an individual high achievements in artistic area. Besides creativity and motivation children have to have developed specific abilities in order to be recognised as gifted. From the artistic point of view these are visual spatial abilities.