Giftedness
Week 9
NJ Kang Special Needs
Gifted
and
Talented
Gifted and talented learners
• Are not a homogeneous group; to the
contrary, they are varied and unique
• Despite this diversity, research suggests that
there are a handful of traits that may occur
with greater frequency in gifted learners
than in the general population.
• It may vary based on a variety of factors,
including gender, sociocultural group, the
presence of a hidden or overt disability, age,
and whether a student is achieving or
underachieving.
Melinda
Shy and quiet
An avid reader and introvert.
Verbal skills were hard to identify
Her teachers had not seen any indications of
problem solving, humor, or other commonly
acknowledged characteristics of academic giftedness.
• But has an enthusiasm for helping a boy in needs.
• Carry out solution creatively and enthusiastically
with helps from other people.
• She analyses the problem and solves it creatively
using her own talents and others.
•
•
•
•
Andrew
• He had been identified as gifted in third grade.
• Required an IQ of 130 or above with hish achievement.
• Social student who enjoyed discussing his ideas with others
and was highly verbal, but had poor work habits in work
required out of his areas of interest, which were technology
and math.
• In high school he got low scores in the subjects that he did
not like teachers and contents.
• He got good score in the subjects that he liked both
teachers and contents.
• He liked to read science fiction not others
• His teachers and parents failed to see the traits associated
with his gifts and talents.
Sandra
• Was a cheerful, energetic, and outspoken high school
student who had been identified as gifted in elementary
school, and who showed a fluctuating pattern of
achievement and underachievenet through her school
career.
• In elementary school she got all As and Bs
• In junior high she got B’s and C’s. (when she was living with
lower class people and wondered of her identity)
• In high school she got B’s and A’s. She got a 2D’s and a C.
(when she was living in a white people village)
• Very creative writer and original thinker, a good speaker,
and one of the best, if not the best student in her speech
class.
• Her dream of the future was affected by her circumstances.
Analyse similarities and
differences of these three people.
• Have a discussion shortly.
Similarities and differences
Melinda
Andrew
Sandra
Shy and nonverbal
Sociable and good
speaker
High IQ and lower in
academic achievement
A cheerful, energetic,
and outspoken
Creative in writing
Good speaker
Her giftedness is
affected by some
situations in which she
believed to solve a
problem.
His giftedness is
affected by his likings
and dislikings about
Contents areas and
people.
Her giftedness is
affected by her
circumstances that
influence her feelings
and emotions
Giftedness ?
Giftedness as a construct
• Gifted education, in its drive to serve
diverse groups of learners, has embraced
diverse definitions of its central
constructs.
Giftedness, talent, intellect, and intelligence
are not easily defined.
Some people tried
•
•
•
•
•
•
Lewis Terman
Sternberg and Davidson (1986, 2005)
Cross and Coleman (2005)
Heller, Perleth, & lim, (2005)
Reis (2005)
Joseph Renzulli (1978)
Lewis Terman
• Equated giftedness with high IQ
• Many assumed psychometric intelligence
is equivalent to giftedness.
Sternberg and Davidson (1986,
2005)
• Conceptions of Giftedness
• Giftedness is a multidinensional
construct incorporating a variety of traits,
skills, and abilities, and manifesting in
manifold ways.
• It’s beyond IQ
Cross and Coleman (2005)
• Rapid learning as compared to others in
the population
Heller, Perleth, & lim, (2005)
• Attention control, memory efficiency, and
characteristics of perception
Reis, (2005)
• Desire to develop one’s gifts
Joseph Renzulli (1978)
• Gifted behavior consists of behaviors
that reflect an interaction among three
basic clusters of human traits
• Above average ability, high levels of task
commitment, and high levels of creativity.
--- (p. 8 ~ 9)
Manifestations of Giftedness
According to Joseph Renzulli’s
Three Ring Definition of Gifted
• Above Average Ability (General)
Behaviors.
• Above-Average Ability (Specific)
• Task Commitment.
The US’s current federal
definitions of giftedness
• ---children and youth with outstanding
talents perform or show the potential for
performing at remarkably high levels of
accomplishment ---- These children and
youth exhibit high performance
capability in intellectual, creative, and/or
artistic areas, possess and unusual
leadership capacity, or excel in specific
academic fields.----
The 1991 Columbus Grop
definition of giftedness
• focuses not on achievement or
production but on developmental
tragectory and affective qualities:
• Giftedness is “ asynchronous
development” in which advanced
cognitive abilities and heightened
intensity combine to create inner
experiences and awareness that are
qualitatively different from the norm.
Characteristics of giftedness
• Academically gifted
• Creative Giftedness
• Developmental Aspects of Giftedness
• Special Populations of Gifted Learners
Look at page 162-163
• Try to categorize these traits into five
characteristics of giftedness.
• Try to assume possible traits these three
people might have had and why?
• Think about how we can apply these
traits in ELT?
• Think about teaching reading skill
General
characteristics
General characteristics (Clark,
2002)
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•
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•
•
Cognitive (thinking) characteristics:
Affective (feeling) characteristics
Physical (sensation) characteristics
Intuitive characteristics
Societal characteristics
Susan Weinbrenner (1991, 2001)
• Learns new material faster, and at an earlier age,
than age peers
• Remembers what has been learned forever, making
review unnecessary.
• Is able to deal with concepts that are too complex
and abstract for age peers.
• Has a passionate interest in one or more topics, and
would spend all available time learning more about
that topic if he or she could
• Does not need to watch the teacher to hear what is
being said; can operate on multiple brain channels
simultaneously and process more than one task at a
time
General characteristics (Clark, 2002)
Cognitive (thinking) characteristics
 retention of large quantity of information, advanced
comprehension, varied interests and high curiosity, and a high
level of language development and verbal ability
• Weinbrenner
Has an advanced vocabulary and verbal ability
Has an outstanding memory
Learn easily with less help.
Operates higher levels of thinking
Ability to work with abstract ideas.
Perceives subtle cause and effect relationships.
Sees patterns, relationships, and connections that others don’t.
Comes up with better ways for doing things.
Prefers complex and challenging tasks to basic work.
Sees connections between apparently unconnected ideas and
activities.
Is curious about many things and asks endless questions.
Affective (feeling) characteristics
Such as unusual sensitivity to the feelings
of others, keen sense of humor,
heightened self-awareness, feelings of
being different, and idealism and sense
of justice.
Is very intense. May be extremely emotional and
excitable.
Has a sophisticated sense of humor
Has an advanced sense of justice, morality, an
fairness.
Physical (sensation) characteristics
Such as heightened sensory awareness, unusual
discrepancy between physical and intellectual
development, and low tolerance for lag between
their standards and their athletic skills
• Intuitive characteristics: being open to intuitive
experiences and creativity apparent in all areas
of endeavor
• Societal characteristics: strongly motivated by
self actualization needs, advanced capacity for
conceptualizing and solving societal problems,
leadership, and involvement with the metaneeds of society.
Traits associated with Gifted
Readers
• The National Research Center on the Gifted
and Talented (Reis et al.m 2004)
• Not all gifted students are talented readers
and not all talented readers are
academically gifted,
• Enjoyment in the reading process
• Read Early and Above Level
• Advanced Processing
• Advanced Language Skills. (see table 1.2 p.
12)
Enjoyment in Reading
• Read avidly and with enjoyment
• Use reading differently for different reading purposes
• Demonstrate thirst for insight and knowledge satisfied
through reading
• Pursue varied interests in and curiosity about texts
• View books and reading as a way to explore the richness of
life
• Seek and enjoy depth and complexity in reading
• Develop a deeper understanding of particular topics
through reading
• Demonstrate preferences for nonfiction
• Pursue interest based reading opportunities
Read Early and Above level
• Read at least two grade levels above
chronological grade placement
• Begin reading early and may be self
taught
Advanced processing
• Retain a large quantity of information for
retrieval
• Automatically integrate prior knowledge and
experience in reading
• Utilize higher order thinking skills such as
analysis and synthesis
• Process information and thoughts at an
accelerated pace
• Perceive unusual relationships and integrate
ideas
• Grasp complex ideas and nuances
Advanced language skills
• Enjoy the subtleties and complexities of
language
• Demonstrate advanced understanding of
language
• Use expansive vocabulary
• Use reading to acquire a large repertoire of
language skills
• Use language for humor
• Display verbal ability in self expression
• Use colorful and descriptive phrasing
• Demonstrate ease in use of language.
Personality
and
Giftedness
Personality and Giftedness
• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) (Cross et al.,
2007)
 Extroversion/Introversion (E/I)
Intuition (focusing on abstract ideas)/Sensing
(attending to concrete information gathered
through senses (I/S)
Judging (prefer order, structure, and
deadlines)/Perceiving (prefer to be spontaneous,
open, and free to change course as they see fit)
(J/P)
Thinking (logic based decisions)/Feeling(take
others’ feelings and personal values) (T/F)
MBTI in Gifted learners
• Prefer abstract thinking (Intuition) to
focusing on the concrete (thinking)
• 70% preferred intuition to sensing.
• Perceiving was preferred to Judging by
57%
• 40% combined preference for Intuition
and perceiving.
How do we help these learners in
ELT?
• Read the story and try to think about
questions and activities that may help
these Gifted learners.
Social
and
Emotional
Traits
Social and Emotional Traits
• Are gifted learners have more psychological
problems than normal ones?
 no! but when they have poor fit between
the individual and his or her academic or
social environment (Gross, 2002; Neihart,
2002)
When they are supported, many enhance
their resilience to negative life events and
enable them to use their talents to achieve
productive and satisfying lives.
Emotional traits (p. 341 ~ 343)
• Sudden changes in personality or
behavior
• Severe depression that lasts a week or
longer
• Concealed or direct suicide threats
• Talking about suicide, either jokingly or
seriously
• Giving away prized possessions
Five OverExcitabilities (OE)
(Mandaglio and Tillier, 2006)
•
Psychomotor (OE) : surplus of energy or a translation of nervous energy
into a variety of psychomotor behaviours such as tics, nail biting, broad
gestures, or impulsive behaviors.
•
Sensual (OE) : sensitivity to sensory input and a tendency to use sensory
outlets to release tension. Shopping, plastic surgery?
•
Intellectual (OE) : an intense focus on understanding, pursuit of the
truth, academic interests, and intellectual achievement.
•
Imaginational (OE) : an affinity and talent for imagery, fantasy, invention,
and other facets of the imagination
•
Emotional (OE) : intense feeling, and may include heightened sensitivity
to others’ emotions, inhibition, or shyness ; heightened ability to recall
emotional experiences; anxiety; and fear of unknown
Gifted adolescents
• Csikszentmihalyi, Rathunde, and Whalen (1993)
• Characteristics of male gifted teens.
• Intellectual curiosity, active reception of
information from the world, strong desire to
achieve, perseverance to attain their goals,
preference for leading and controlling, desire to
display accomplishments and gain others’
attention, and little questioning of their own
worth.
• Female gifted teens: an autotellic (self directed
or self –rewarding) personality.
Karnes and McGinnis (1996)
• Had a more internal locus of control than
average students
Assouline and Colangelo (2006)
Both male and female gifted teens may have
low estimations of their social abilities
and suffer from lowered self-satisfaction.
On the positive side, they tend to report
high opinions for their intellectual and
academic status.
Characteristics of gifted children
Not suitable for school life
(Weinbrenner)
• Resist doing the work, or work in a sloppy,
careless manner.
• Get frustrated with the pace of the class and
what he perceives as inactivity of lack of
noticeable progress.
• Rebel against routine and predictability.
• Ask embarrassing questions, demand good
reasons for why things are done a certain way.
• Resist taking direction or orders.
• Daydream
• Monopolize class discussion
• Become bossy with his peers and teachers.
• Become intolerant or imperfection in
himself and in others.
• Become super-sensitive to any form of
criticism; cry easily
• Refuse to conform.
• Resist cooperative learning
• Act out or disturb others.
• Become the class clown.
• Become impatient when he’s not called on
to recite or respond; blurt out answers
without raising his hand.
Learning disability
• 10-30% of gifted kids may have some form
of learning disability.
• They are not recognized for their gifts and
my have negative school experiences.
• Traditional remediation techniques offer
little challenges
• Need support to understand and effectively
use their strengths. (Reis, Neu, and McGuire)
Identifying underachievers
• Have observable discrepancies between
ability and achievement over a substantial
period of time (Mandel & Marcus, 1995).
• Have at least one major subject area is at
least one year below graded level.
• Have discrepancies between IQ test scores
and percentile scores, or grades that have
decliend for three years in a row. (Rimm et
al., 1989) (in Sally et al., 2002)
Twice exceptional children
• On test of ability, their scores may show significant
discrepancies of 12 points or more between verbal
and nonverbal subtest.
• Have large vocabs, which may be deficient in word
meanings and the subtleties of language.
• Read below grade level but have a large storehouse
of information on some topics.
• Excel at abstract reasoning but seem unable to
remember small details.
• Difficulty with traditional school tasks.
• Their slow reaction speed may result in incomplete
work and low test scores on timed tests.
Why?
Winebrenner:
Cognitive & learning style
• Perfectionism.
• Too easy or too difficult work.
• Learning does not have any meaningful,
relevant, or useful real-life application.
• The lack of opportunity to learn about
areas of passionate interest to them.
• The lack of opportunity to demonstrate
what they know in their learning style
strength.
Social & emotional factors
• Fears of being rejected for being
different.
• Loneliness, isolation from classmates and
the educational enterprise.
• The lack of dreams or goals, or the sense
that their dreams or goals are
unattainable.
• Family interaction patterns that may
intefere with achievement.
• Lack of self-confidence may
manifest itself as inflexibility, inability
to take risks, super –sensitivity to
any type of criticism, helplessness,
socially inadequate behaviors,
stubbornness, and other behaviors
designed to distract others from
their learning inadequacies.
• They may lack effective organization
and study skills.
Factors within the individual
• Internalizing issues: depression, anxiety,
perfectionism, failure-avoidance, low self-esteem
• Externalizing issues: rebelliousness, irritability,
nonconformity, anger
• Unrecognized learning deficits that interfere with
learning/performance
• Nontraditional gifts (spatial reasoning)
• Deficits in self-regulation: disorganization, impulsivity,
attention deficit.
• Maladaptive strategies, such as failure to set realistic
goals
• Social immaturity or overemphsis on social, as
opposed to academic, pursuits.
ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder)
ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity
Disorder)
Asperger’s Syndrome.
Try to link these characters with
psychological aspects
How do we relate in TESOL?
How do we relate in TESOL?
• Providing differentiated modifications 
• Part-time or full-time special classrooms
• A smaller student-to-teacher ratio exists,
teachers create less conventional types
of teaching and learning activities,
• Teachers give students some choice and
freedom in exercising control, and
students are encouraged to utilize
different learning strategies.
Homework
1) Summarize characteristics and reasons for having
emotional and social problems of Gifted learners
from the chapters we read and other chapters in
the pink book.
2) Read chapter 19 teaching gifted and talented (p.
121 ~ in Pink book) and chapter 2 and 3 (p. 183 ~
218). Try to give supportive solutions for gifted
learners with emotional problems using models
and theories that are introduced in these chapters.
3) 4 people 3minutes presentations will be expected
from next week
4) Makeup class will be carried out on the 1st of Dec.
at 10 ~ 12 am.