Following on from my last post about teaching programs catering to the core students only brings about another discussion about how we view & cater for our gifted students in the classroom.
There are over 400,000 gifted students in Australia, and these learners can be found in all communities, from all socio-economic backgrounds, students with disability and neurodiverse learners (twice-exceptional students), First Nations students, and culturally and linguistically diverse students. Article: 'Languishing and disengaged': our system's neglect of gifted students is shameful — EducationHQ
400000 - that’s a huge number yet the majority of these students, unless they have a full time advocate do not get the challenge they deserve.
The blame cannot lie in one place. It lies within many and within that many is the view we hold as a society of people who are academically gifted. In 2024 there is still an assumption that gifted students will be fine, they will cruise through life & they will be able to achieve everything happily.
But this is not the case for the majority of gifted students. Boredom leads to underachievement and low self efficacy, which can carry on throughout their schooling life and beyond - not something we want for those people who have the capacity to make a huge difference to out society.
So why are we still doing this in 2024?
- Teaching degrees do not offer a lot of study in the area of Gifted education.
- Ready made units of work aligned with the curriculum have flooded the market. They look great, they align with outcomes, they come with great resources BUT many of them are not differentiated. To the graduate or uninspired teacher this is all they will use, which does not help those who function above or below the core outcomes.
- Teachers may not know how to pre assess well. Pre assessment is necessary but not always done well in a busy classroom. With good quality data to draw from, we can support best practice.
- Government policy still stipulates students need to function with age peers. When more schools offer opportunities for students to work above or below their age peers, we will see that schools can cater for the varied needs our students bring with them.
I’d love to know what you think about this & how we can make sure all schools are supporting gifted students.
These learners will not be okay just left on their own in classrooms to somehow nurture their own potential and talent development, or worse, be trapped in a lock-step education system, or be used as tutors for other students – what are these types of practices doing to foster equity and excellence for all students, including gifted learners? A gifted sports person needs a coach, just like an intellectually gifted students needs a teacher as their coach.
When nearly 60 per cent of gifted students are underachieving, and when gifted students continue to leave school prematurely and become part of ‘school can’t’ cohorts, and little is being done to address these issues, high performance will continue to decline
An education system that truly focuses on equity and excellence, as espoused under the Mparntwe (Alice Springs) Education Declaration, must mean that all students are actually included, where equity must mean the inclusion and educational support of students who have the potential to become high performers.