Abstract
For effectiveness, educational provision for gifted pupils must be based on evidence rather then opinion. Although research in this area of education is varied in quality and influenced by culture, some general trends can be detected. Notably, to reach an exceptionally high standard in any area, children need the means to learn. Gifts may take varied forms and appear in unexpected situations at different points during a life-time.
Measurement and selection of an elite for special education can be less important in promoting excellence in a community than widespread educational provision which harnesses both children's and adults' motivation. Neither general enrichment nor simple grade-skipping are adequate as blanket measures. The evidence points to the benefits of focused education in the pupil's area of interest. Methods are suggested to increase the proportion of children now seen as the most able, e.g. Freeman's Sports Approach. No single style of programme, though, can be expected to cater for the needs of all the gifted. This presentation uses research findings to describe who are the gifted are, how they develop and how to educate them.
Reference:
Freeman, J. (1998) Educating the Very Able: Current
International Research. London: The Stationery Office.
The gifted are a special group
Gifted children share many problems and needs of all other groups of children who are in a statistical minority. Identification, for example, is beset with contention. Children seen as gifted in one school may be seen as merely average in a highly selective school. Or again, whereas some say that the gifted are so special they cannot be compared with any other children, others - such as myself - say that they are normal children with either exceptionally high-level potential or actual demonstrated high-level abilities.
I was recently asked by the Office for Standards in Education in the UK to overview all the international research on the education and development of the gifted, and that work has now been published by the government Stationery Office. The main aim was to find whatever practical applications could be extracted from reliable research. In fact, it emerged that no single style of teaching could cater for the needs of all gifted pupils, but like any others they need consistent and appropriate challenge to reach their potential. Neither general enrichment nor simple grade-skipping are adequate as blanket measures. For high-level achievement, the evidence points to the benefits of focused education in the pupil's area of interest.
Stereotypes of the gifted abound, but vary within cultures So often a teacher's image of a gifted child is of a physically undeveloped boy peering sadly through his thick spectacles; the 'little professor', frustrated and distressed because no-one understands him. Its also a false stereotype of a gifted child. American stereotypes, though often show the gifted as leaders. Still a boy, he is tall and handsome, with straight As across the board and an inbuilt morality above that of his classmates. Stereotypes place a burden on the shoulders of children who accept them. Yet virtually all the research shows gifted children to be of either gender, healthy, emotionally stable, of many different sizes and shapes and a pleasure to teach.
The gifted are not easy to study, though. School identification is nearly always by advancement, though teachers are sometimes given check-lists which focus on emotional problems and can be misleading. Rare follow-up studies show that school achievement is not a very reliable signal to adult success because gifts can take many forms and turn up in quite unexpected situations during a life-time. For example, their future world stature could not have been predicted from the school records of Sigmund Freud, Marie Curie or Bill Gates.
Academic research on the gifted is most usually by IQ, a measure which predicts school achievement very well, but was never designed to take account of motivation, opportunity, personality and all the other things in life which help an individual to reach fulfilment. The most recent ideas for the education of the very able has moved away from the medical model of 'diagnose and treat' to concentrate more on the outcomes of exposing children to opportunity; focusing on the positive effects of providing for the child's own interests. The most important predictor of excellence has been found to be high motivation within the chosen subject area.
The wrong way round
By the end of my survey of the research it seemed to me that education for the gifted and the promotion of excellence was being approached in the wrong way. Any extra help has been going to just the tiny proportion of children who were already highly achieving. They were typically from largely middle-class supportive homes. Children from poor schools and backgrounds are less likely to have their potential recognised as outstanding. Instead, we should be redirecting efforts towards a dynamic approach, taking children's opportunities into account and flinging the net more widely.
In my 14-year comparative follow-up study into the progress of recognised and unrecognised gifted children across Britain (Freeman, 1991), I sometimes found youngsters packed with potential but denied the route to excellence because of inadequate school and home provision. A comprehensive in Wales, for example, was only able to provide one study text between three A-level English pupils, so they had to take turns. The photocopying money had run out in the first term, and was being supplemented from the teacher's pocket. One girl from a modest home, but with an IQ over the top of any scale, spent her evenings laboriously copying long passages by hand. Not a very intelligent way of using her time. She was powerfully motivated, but her wings were clipped.
Identifying highly achieving children, whether by school marks or intelligence tests, is relatively easy, but how do we find the far greater number of children with hidden potential? The best way is to provide them with what they need to learn, with some guidance, so that they can show their mettle in the way they take it up. Provision can be in or out of school time, such as tuition for musical instruments and activities provided by many local education authorities.
In the right set-up children would be able to select themselves to work at any subject at a more advanced and broader level. I call it Freeman's Sports Approach. In the same way as those who are talented and motivated can select themselves for free extra tuition and practice in sport, they could opt for extra foreign languages or physics. This would mean, of course, that the facilities must be open to all, rather than only to those preselected by tests, experts, family provision or money to pay for extras. This is neither an expensive nor a difficult route. If we were to take this approach for all our children I am sure that in a few years we would have a far higher proportion of those we now see as gifted. Not only would this be of obvious benefit to the children, but also to the country.
Freeman's' Sports Approach
It is a strange feature of very high ability that some talents are more acceptable than others. Even in poor societies, local education authorities encourage talented footballers to benefit from extra tuition outside school hours. The boys are provided with equipment, transport to meet and engage with others at roughly the same level of skill as themselves, and sometimes even clothing to play in. Although there is some provision around for other subjects, notably music, and there are mathematics contests and get-togethers in a few big cities, the idea of opening up the school laboratories for a Saturday morning practice in chemistry is rare, if it exists at all. It is not difficult or expensive to find out what interests and motivates pupils via questionnaires, interest tests - or simply by asking them. And the facilities are already largely in place.
Freeman (1995) proposes that given the opportunity, and with some guidance, the potentially talented (and motivated) are able to select themselves to work at any subject at a more advanced level. In the same way that those who are talented and motivated can volunteer for extra tuition and practice in sport, they could volunteer for extra foreign languages or physics. This would mean, of course, that such facilities must be available to all, as sport is, rather than only to those preselected by tests, experts, or money.
This is neither an expensive route, nor does it risk emotional distress to the children by removing them from the company of their friends. It makes use of research-based understanding of the very able, notably the benefit of focusing on a defined area of the pupil's interest, as well as providing youngsters with what they need to learn with and make progress.
Teachers would need help in gaining techniques for encouraging high-level potential. For example, there would have to be familiar with ways of collecting information for a portfolio, and there should be some unification of approaches within schools and possibly authorities, as well as some form of recognition of what provision the pupils had access to. This could be done by a simple rating scale so that children who were excelling within the context of what is available to them would be seen to be doing so and not penalised because they had less access than others to learning material.
Freeman's Sports Approach: Identification and education of the gifted through provision
- Identification should be process-based and continuous
- Identification is by multiple criteria, including provision for learning and outcome
- Indicators should be validated for each course of action and provision
- The pupil's abilities should be presented as a profile rather than a single figure
- Increasingly sharper criteria should be employed at subsequent learning stages
- Recognition should be given to attitudes possibly affected by outside influences such as culture and gender
To reach an exceptionally high standard in any area, children of high-level potential need the means and encouragement to learn. Gifts may take varied forms and appear in unexpected situations at different points during a life-time. The enthusiasm of both children and adults makes all the difference.
References
Freeman, J. (1991). Gifted Children Growing Up. London: Cassell; Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann Educational. Freeman, J. (1995), 'Towards a policy for actualizing talent', in J.
Freeman, P. Span, & H. Wagner (Eds.) Actualizing Talent: a Lifelong Challenge. London: Cassell.
Freeman, J. (1998) Educating the Very Able: Current International Research. London: The Stationery Office. (Practical outcomes from the research evidence)
 |
 |