West Virginia Gifted Conference
2008
Marianne Solomon, MA Gifted Education
Executive Director
Future Problem Solving Program International
1
A Teacher’s Job Is Never Done!
Resource Teacher; Brevard County, FL
(75,000+):
– Gifted Program
g
– Accelerated Programs (AP, IB)
– Dual Enrollment
– Gifted Endorsement Courses
– AVID Program District Director – 7 schools
– Affiliate Director Florida Future Problem
Solving Program
– Etc., Etc., Etc.
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What I will include in today’s
presentation:
6 Steps approach to viewing Gifted
Education in the 21st Century
Some thoughts about the future in your
gifted classroom!
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4
5
Six-- Step Process at Mission Heights Junior College
Six
6
Step 1 - Setting the Stage
Gifted education addressed the
individual’s strengths & needs
Regular ed teachers began utilizing gifted
strategies
t t i for
f allll students
t d t
2002 Pres. Bush implemented NCLB
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1978 - Let me out of here!!
2002 Accountability rears its ugly head - again!
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High Achieving Student in the Era of NCLB
Forward byy Chester E. Finn,, Jr. & Michael J.
Petrilli
Low--achieving students (10% with the
Low
lowest scores) made big strides.
Performance of highhigh-achieving students
(10% with
ith th
the hi
highest
h t scores)) called
ll d
“languid” - nothing happened/no change.
Reported by Thomas B. Fordham Institute
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How do teachers feel?
40% of teachers called the content &
curriculum of honors & accelerated
classes “too
too often watered down & lacking
rigor”
Teachers responded that we must
challenge all students to fulfill their
potential rather than just focus on raising
potential,
the performance of students who have
been “left
left behind”
behind
Fordham Report
10
Many kids in the KK-12 education system
are not being provided the skills they will
need to succeed in the 21st century,
century
according to a recent survey conducted by
– Harris Interactive® on behalf of the
American Society for Quality
(ASQ).
(ASQ)
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Step 2 - Challenges
Education in the 21st Century must be
different from the past because . . .
– Students are different
– Work
W k place
l
is
i diff
differentt
– Skills needed for success are different
Teachers must address these differences.
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13
Products of Their Environments
Baby
Boomers
TV
generation
ti
Typewriters
Memos
Generation
X
Video games
Computers
Email
a
Net Gen
Th Web
The
W b
Mobile
devices
IM - Text
Messaging
Online
communities
14
The Net Generation
Born in or after 1982
Ctrl + Alt + Del is as basic as
ABC
Busy with extracurricular
activities
Fascination for new
technologies
Computers have always fit in
their backpacks
Photographs have always
been
b
processed
d in
i an hour
h
or
less
Bert and Ernie are old
enough to be their parents
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―Howe & Strauss, 2003
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“. . . Joseph Renzulli & Sunghee Park found
that 5% of the 3
3,250
250 gifted students they
followed dropped out after 8th grade ...
U t ld numbers
Untold
b
off other
th highly
hi hl intelligent
i t lli
t
kids stay in school but tune out.”
“When we ask exceptional children about
their main obstacle, they almost always say
it’s their school – Jan Davidson, coco-author of
G i D
Genius
Denied:
i d H
How tto St
Stop W
Wasting
ti O
Our
Brightest Young Minds.”
17
Neuroplasticity –
they are wired differently
The brain reorganizes
itself throughout life:
neuroplasticity
Stimulation
l
changes
h
brain structures; the
brain changes and
organizes itself based on
p
it receives
the inputs
Different developmental
experiences impact how
people think
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―Prensky, 2001
21st Century Learning
20th Century
21st Century
# of
Jobs
1 – 2 Jobs
10 – 15 Jobs
Job
Skill
Mastery of
One Field
Flexibility
And
Adaptability
Teaching
g
Model
Subject
Matter
Mastery
Assessment
Model
Subject
Matter
Mastery
Integration of 21st
Century Skills into
Subject Matter
Mastery
Integration of 21st
Century Skills into
Subject Matter
Mastery
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Life and Careers of the 21st
Century are addressed by:
Century
Creativity and Innovation
T
Teachers
h
and
d students
t d t learn
l
tto look
l k att
situations from a variety of perspectives.
20
Life and Careers of the 21st
Century are addressed by:
Century
Critical Thinking
Students use analysis:
- to gain an understanding of issues in
today’s world.
- to understand the significant aspects
of complex situations set in the
future.
21
Life and Careers of the 21st
Century are addressed by:
Century
Problem Solving Skills
Problem solving skills are used to work
through solutions and actions plans for
those situations.
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Life and Careers of the 21st
Century are addressed by:
Century
Communication and Collaboration
Clear and articulate communication is
d
developed
l
d while
hil collaborating
ll b ti iin teams
t
both verbally and in writing.
writing.
23
Next Challenge deals with our clients!
Report shows . . .
An overwhelming 96% of adults feel that
students today need to improve upon skills
needed to succeed in the 21st century.
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The survey finds that adults do NOT think KK-12 U.S.
schools are effectively
y teaching
g the following
g 21st
century skills:
Communications skills, e.g. listening and
speaking (49%)
Problem--solving and reasoning (48%)
Problem
Creativity, e.g. providing innovative
solutions to everyday problems (48%)
Teamwork and collaboration (39%)
Science and technology (36%)
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“It’s evident that many Americans believe our
schools must better prepare students to function
and contribute in a highly competitive 21st
century world
world,” said Jay Marino
Marino, chair of ASQ’s
ASQ s
K-12 Education Committee. “While No Child Left
Behind has been striving to improve test scores
scores,
the survey suggests that what adults really
support are efforts to improve skills like problemproblemsolving and creativity which are not tracked on
these tests.”
– Marino is also assistant superintendent for the Cedar Rapids
Community
y School District.
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No Child Left Behind - Football Version
1 All teams must
1.
m st make the state pla
playoffs
offs
and all MUST win the championship. If a
team does not win the championship
championship, they
will be on probation until they are the
champions and coaches will be held
champions,
accountable. If after two years they have
not won the championship their footballs
and equipment will be taken away UNTIL
they do win the championship
championship.
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2. All kids
ds will be expected
e pec ed to
o have
a e the
e sa
same
e
football skills at the same time, even if
y do not have the same conditions or
they
opportunities to practice on their own. NO
p
will be made for lack of interest
exceptions
in football, a desire to perform athletically,
or g
genetic abilities or disabilities of
themselves or their parents. ALL KIDS
WILL PLAY FOOTBALL AT A
PROFICIENT LEVEL!
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3. Talented players will be asked to workout
on their own, without instruction. This is
because the coaches will be using all their
instructional time with the athletes who
aren't interested in football, have limited
athletic ability or whose parents don't
don t like
football.
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4. Games will be played year round, but statistics
will only be kept in the 4th, 8th, and 11th game.
This will create a New Age of Sports where
every school is expected to have the same level
of talent and all teams will reach the same
minimum goals. If no child gets ahead, then no
child g
gets left behind. If parents do not like this
new law, they are encouraged to vote for
vouchers and support private schools that can
screen outt the
th nonnon-athletes
thl t and
d preventt th
their
i
children from having to go to school with bad
football players.
players
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Step 3 – Focus (UP)
Since No Child Left Behind curriculum has
not addressed gifted students and no
significant
i ifi
t change
h
h
has occurred
d iin th
their
i
learning according to the Fordham Report,
how might we as gifted educators address
the needs of our students so that they
become successful 21st Century citizens?
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Step 4 - Solutions
Realize that teachers don’t
don t have to “teach
teach
to the test.”
Wish on a star that the TEST will go away
or be
b replaced
l
db
by more authentic
th ti
assessment.
Pursue up-to-date
p
models and methods
that address the 21st Century students.
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Shifting Needs . . .
Schools set up to prepare students for a postpostWWII, industrial era must change now to one
that supports the informationinformation-services economy.
Education system must change from one
focused on basic proficiency to one that
encourages innovation, entrepreneurship, and
promotes the use of critical thinking skills
skills.
–
Education Week: New Skills Seen Essential for Global Competition
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New Skills … Global Competition
American students need to learn a new set of skills,,
including innovation & cultural competency, in order to
be competitive in a global economy.
– Australian National FPS Finals:
Singapore - Hong Kong - Australia - New Zealand -South Africa
The US’
US ability to create an education system that
produces these betterbetter-prepared students is the “central
economic competitiveness issue” facing the nation.
Report from Partnership for 21st Century Skills
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Confratute – University of
Connecticut Summer Program
July 13
13--24, 2009
35
Academic Competitions as Tools for
Diff
Differentiation
ti ti in
i Middle
Middl School
S h l
Differentiating the curriculum has been a challenging
taskk for
f classroom
l
teachers,
h
b
but iit h
has b
become even
more challenging after the No Child Left Behind Act
(2001), because the emphasis in programming and
funding in schools has shifted from realizing the
individual potential of every student to raising all
students to the same level of minimum competency.
Gifted Child Today
36
Differentiation in Process
“Differentiation in process can take place
in academic competitions in two principal
ways. The first is the expectation of
higher order thinking.
thinking . . . After acquiring a
working knowledge base, they collect,
analyze synthesize
analyze,
synthesize, apply
apply, and evaluate
data.”
Gifted Child Today, Spring ‘08
37
“The
The second way of differentiating
in process is to give gifted students
the opportunity to work on challenging
tasks in groups with their intellectual
peers.””
“For example, in the Future Problem Solving
competition, groups of students work on
contemporary realreal-world problems.”
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Step 5 - Plan
– Singapore
– Australia
– New Zealand
All with a plan to increase excellence!
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40
Caulfield Grammar School
9th Grade Required Course
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A Whole New Mind
by Daniel H. Pink
Describes a seismic – though as yet
undetected – shift now under way in much
of the advanced world
world. We are moving
from an economy & a society built on the
logical linear
logical,
linear, computercomputer-like capabilities of
the Information Age to an economy & a
society built on the inventive
inventive, empathic
empathic,
big--picture capabilities of what’s rising in
big
its place,
place the Conceptual Age
Age.
42
Moving out of the age of the
“knowledge worker” due to . . .
Material abundance
Globalization that is shipping whitewhite-collar
work overseas
P
Powerful
f l ttechnologies
h l i th
thatt are eliminating
li i ti
certain kinds of work altogether
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Conceptual Age Requires
A whole new mind:
– L-Directed Thinking indispensable
indispensable, but no
longer enough
– R-Directed Thinking will be the key to
professional achievement & personal
satisfaction.
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L-Directed Thinking
Characteristic of the left hemisphere of the
brain –
– Sequential,
Sequential literal,
literal functional
functional, textual
textual, &
analytical
**Emphasized in our schools and in the testing
PSAT SAT,
PSAT,
SAT ACT,
ACT GMAT,
GMAT LSAT,
LSAT MCAT,
MCAT and
Competency Testing
46
R-Directed Thinking
Characteristic of the right hemisphere of
the brain
– Simultaneous,
Simultaneous metaphorical,
metaphorical aesthetic
aesthetic,
contextual, & synthetic.
– Underemphasized in the Information Age
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Left brain vs
vs. Right brain
Is there really a difference?
What will it mean for students of today?
What will it mean for teachers of today?
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Now I’m
I m really out of here!
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Step 6 - Reflection
Definition: Careful thought
thought, especially the
process of reconstructing previous actions,
events or decisions
events,
decisions.
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What does this mean for
teachers of 21stt Century?
W cannott teach
We
t
h only
l core subjects
bj t
through
g memorization of rote facts.
We must redesign our classrooms so that
we address both left & right side of the
brain.
brain
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* The way students learn will
change:
1. Less
L
rote memorization
i i and
d more critical
ii l
2
2.
3
3.
4.
5.
thinking.
Less rote memorization and more
creative thinking.
Students learn to apply knowledge about
one subject area to another subject area.
Students learn to apply
pp y knowledge
g to
their real life challenges.
Students become engaged in real life
learning.
learning
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“The
The illiterate of the 21st
century will not be those
who cannot read and write,
but those who cannot learn,
learn
unlearn and relearn."
Alvin Tofler
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Dan Pink, NAGC Keynote Speaker 2008
A th off A Whole
Author
Wh l N
New Mi
Mind
d
“Lawyers. Accountants. Engineers. That's
what
h t our parents
t encouraged
d us to
t become
b
when we grew up. Unfortunately, those
professions – and the thinking styles they
embody – might not be the path to the good
and
d meaningful
i f l life.”
lif ”
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Steel mill town outside of
Youngstown Ohio
Let me out of here!
((Education in the 1960’s))
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What can you do
to incorporate 21st
Century learning
your classroom
in y
and school?
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