Priority discussion points

There seem to be a lack of training and understanding by teachers, principals, GO's and administrators about the needs of gifted children, especially those labelled "underachieving" . There needs to be a focus on using strengths to address any weak core skills or areas of challenge rather than focusing on weaknesses in gifted children. Depth, complexity, rigour and higher-order thinking need to be stressed when teaching gifted children. It is not simply enough to differentiate the curriculum in the regular classroom. These children need to mix with like-minds who are not necessarily same age-peers. These children need to have the recommendations from their psychologists and other professionals, acted upon not ignored or even dismissed by schools. Gifted children need to be involved in activities that are not an add-on to the curriculum. Enthusiasm and initiative should be encouraged. In an ideal world each school should have a gifted coordinator to support teachers in developing programs for their gifted students. Identification needs to be thorough and un-biased by personality, race, gender or socio-economic background. Identification should be a first step to implementing a gifted program in State schools. Identification should include, student nominations, parent nominations, teachers and others who have an interest in the child, as well as portfolios of the child’s work and other input from psychologists, GO’s, OT’s and speech language pathologists where necessary. Not just teacher nominations should be used, research has shown that many teachers do not know what to look for when identifying gifted children and often pick the so called "teacher pleasers". QLD universities need to have compulsory undergraduate training in gifted education for teachers, as UNSW and UNE do. If not, QLD risks being left behind by the other states and indeed the rest of the world when it comes to education of gifted and talented students.

In Scotland, they have legislation in place to ensure that gifted children are included in the definition of special needs children. A similar attitude should be adopted here so that the funding will be available to provide for the needs of these children. There is no chance of recognition in the new Qld curriculum as there is no recognition of the needs of gifted children in the national curriculum. The national curriculum was designed with the assistance of the Australian Education Union, God bless its communist heart. How about this for a question.... When will Queensland set an example to the rest of the world and ability group all classrooms? Or.... why doesn't Qld abandon the concept of OP scores and adopt the IB as the standard benchmark for achievement? How about.... When will schools be a place where children are challenged and inspired? Not just at the occassional extra-curricula activity but as part and parcel of every day learning.

Hmm, priorities, where do I start?

Certainly I think the three key points listed are important. For us currently the biggest issue is the recognition of the needs of gifted children and knowing what to do about it. So as a first step, there does need to be recognition in the curriculum of the needs of gifted children, and lots of opportunites to cater for this. Further, there needs to be more teacher training in the area of giftedness - what to look for (including the fact that these kids can be underachieving and even twice exceptional), what the special learning needs are, what does and doesn't work (no, sticking a child in an aged-based classroom and giving him an extra task every now and then is not sufficient), and some ideas of strategies that are successful for these kids - eg acceleration and various class grouping options such as ability based grouping and cluster grouping.

As a next step I'd like to have more options available for our gifted kids. There are only a small number of state primary schools that cater well for gifted children but being gifted doesn't get a child into these schools. There should be exceptions for gifted children to attend as out of area students as they have a special need which the school caters for. Other schools with a number of identified gifted students should also be offered funding and trarining to set up appropriate programs also to give families more options.

We have only just hit the "primary school dilemma" so my high school knowledge is not good. But from what I know, there are also limited options at this level as well, apart from the academies and even then they are only from year 10. More in the way of selective schools like Melbourne's University High would be really helpful.

Being new to all this, I am sure there are many other burning issues that I haven't covered, but I think it's great that this is being discussed and that the QATGC is participating in these discussions. There are enough gifted kids for this to be an Educational priority, and the results would be well worth it. It's really a shame that so much talent and potential is going to waste, and that there are so many of us parents banging our heads against proverbial brick walls.

 

I cannot agree more with these comments about educators being accountable. What is the point as Irina says, of having Frameworks etc. if there is no accountability? Why have policies in place if no one has to follow them?

All the time and money expended on making documents that look good but achieve almost nothing because no one ensures implementation! The Framework for gifted education reads well and sounds like a great plan but I know numerous schools who haven't heard of it, can't/won't implement it and there's just about nothing anyone can do about it to make sure it is followed. Whcih leaves our gifted and talented kids where they were before the framework documentation existed, out in the cold with nothing to show for the money supposedly spent on gifted eucation in QLD.

Being called the SMART STATE is embarrasing when our gifted and talented kids are treated like this.

I think ronkpavia has it perfectly. There are hardly any teachers who actually have any understanding of how to nurture and support gifted and talented students.. all the resources go into assisting the struggling students... I find it really interesting that there is so much support for a child who has an IQ 30 points below average... but nothing except more work for those with an IQ 30 points above... surely they deserve curriculum modification and support, time and effort as well? I also strongly agree with teachers perception of underachieving gifted students.... apparently it is a difficult concept to grasp... if they aren't showing their brilliance, then apparently this means they are not gifted! More pressure on schools to cater (properly) for the gifted and more mandatory under graduate and professional development is essential! I have been in too many schools that have policies written on paper and promises made to parents... but no actual action! It is time that gifted and talented was brought into the light!

I would like to see more programs like GERRIC available in Queensland. Why aren't there more programs like this in the supposed Smart State? Not only just in Brisbane but how about Townsville and Mackay or any regional town that has a university. Gifted programs are expensive, why do we need to add travel expenses on top?

Although if the above points about education are addressed then there would be less need for these programs as the educational needs of gifted students would be address through their "normal" schooling.

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