Introduction to Curriculum Design in Gifted Education

Frances A. Karnes, Kristen R. Stephens, Kristen R. Stephens, Frances A. Karnes

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781032144702
• eBook ISBN: 9781000493795
• Topic: Didattica
• Subtopic: Didattica generale

Gifted students require a curriculum that intentionally aligns with their advanced abilities to ensure engagement at the appropriate level of intensity and depth. Introduction to Curriculum Design in Gifted Education offers an in-depth exploration of curriculum development for the gifted. Included are the general foundations of good curriculum design, a survey of curriculum models appropriate for gifted learners, an examination of design considerations across content areas, a detailed analysis of the role assessment has in the curriculum development process, and an exploration of trends and future directions of curriculum development for the gifted. Each chapter is authored by experts with considerable knowledge pertaining to curriculum implications for gifted students and is written with the practitioner in mind to facilitate effective implementation. This text is an essential addition to the library of any educator seeking to create new and/or adapt existing curriculum to better address the interests and abilities of gifted students.

SECTION I
Foundations

DOI: 10.4324/9781003235842-1

CHAPTER 1
In Context

Gifted Characteristics and the Implications for Curriculum

Angela M. Housand

DOI: 10.4324/9781003235842-2

Introduction

Numerous perspectives within the literature on giftedness and talent development attempt to characterize giftedness. Listings of characteristics often include intellectual attributes, creative characteristics, domain-specific behaviors, affective characteristics, and trait comparisons, to both illustrate similarities between gifted students and eminent producers as well as to highlight differences between gifted students and their nongifted peers (Davis, Rimm, & Siegle, 2011; Reis & Housand, 2007; Renzulli, Siegle, Reis, Gavin, & Sytsma-Reed, 2009; Renzulli et al., 2013; Sternberg & Davidson, 2005). The purposes for listing such attributes vary from simply trying to broadly define manifestations of intelligence to informing procedures for effectively identifying gifted students. Recurrent across both purposes is the suggestion that gifted and talented students are atypical learners, capable of advanced performance, and qualitatively different from their nongifted peers in their cognitive abilities, personality traits, past experiences, and/or affective characteristics (Clark, 2002; Renzulli, 1978, 1996; Treffinger, Young, Selby, & Shepardson, 2002).

VanTassel-Baska (2011) contended that three characteristics of gifted and talented students—complexity, precocity, and intensity—are critical for curricular planning and development. Complexity as a characteristic refers to gifted students' abilities to grapple with complex ideas, reason abstractly, engage in higher order thinking, and enjoy challenging activities. This ability to enjoy complexity stems from their precocity or evidence of advanced performance in a domain as well as their emotional responsiveness and capacity for intense focus on topics they find interesting. Although consideration of these characteristics certainly leads to outstanding curriculum for gifted students, it does narrow the focus and limits attention to the influence of environment, thus potentially advancing the belief that giftedness is static or unchanging and that once a student is identified as gifted, he or she will always display these unique capacities.

Increasingly, however, experts suggest that the characteristics of gifted individuals are not static in nature and no one individual possesses or displays all of these characteristics consistently across time or content areas (Renzulli, 1986, 2005; Sternberg, 1997; Treffinger et al., 2002). It has been known for decades that gifitedness varies among individuals; across gender, cultures, and socioeconomic status; and across disciplines and time (Bloom, 1985; Frasier & Passow, 1994; Reis, 2005; Treffinger et al., 2002). Further, gifts and talents may be manifest and apparent, emergent and ill-defined, latent and hidden, or camouflaged by a learning disability. To further complicate matters, many conceptions acknowledge that giftedness and gifted behaviors manifest as a result of the dynamic interaction between internal factors, such as motivation, persistence, or interest, and external factors, such as access to resources, enriched learning opportunities, or support (Mönks & Katzko, 2005; Renzulli, 1996, 2002), and research supports that giftedness is developmental and fluid or less fixed than previously believed (Dweck, 2006).

The general agreement within the field of gifted education seems to be that giftedness is a multifaceted construct and no singular definition or clear consensus exists about the exact nature of giftedness. A position statement by the National Association for Gifted Children (2010) advances the idea that gifted individuals are those who demonstrate outstanding levels of aptitude or competence in a given domain. Within education, these exceptionally able learners progress in learning faster than their same age-peers, are found in all segments of society, and require differentiated educational experiences with opportunities for advanced levels, depth, and pacing of curriculum. Regardless of the complexities, some consideration of these characteristics is fundamental for designing and planning curriculum for gifted and talented learners (VanTassel-Baska, 2011).

Curriculum has to address the variability in the development of gifted behaviors and be prepared to support a broad range of developmental stages and individual characteristics even within the narrower population of students who have been identified as having the potential for advanced performance. Examples of some generally accepted and often used differentiated learning experiences for gifted students include acceleration in domains of talent or by grade-level; grouping practices that are flexible and cluster gifted students together by talent area or for advanced instruction; inquiry-based strategies that rely on seeking answers to open-ended problems or questions; embedding higher order thinking and problem solving into core subject areas; and focusing on curricular content and processes that are based on student interests, have applications outside educational settings, or have personal meaning for students (e.g., relevant to their sense of identity or future goals; Assouline, Colangelo, VanTassel-Baska, & Lupkowski-Shoplik, 2015; Ackerman, 2014; Colangelo, Assouline, & Gross, 2004; Renzulli & Reis, 2014; Rogers, 2004; VanTassel-Baska & Brown, 2007). Of paramount importance within these differentiated educational experiences are the curricular decisions: the consideration, determination, and description of what students ultimately are expected to be like and be able to do (Stahl, 1994) or as Tomlinson (1999) would suggest, what students should know, understand, and be able to do.

This provides the platform for thinking about curriculum as a means to serve not only the internal characteristics of gifted students, but also develop talent traits that are instrumental for advanced achievement such as intellectual engagement (Goff & Ackerman, 1992), openness to experience (Costa & McCrae, 1992), perseverance and passion for attaining long-term goals (i.e., grit; Duckworth, Peterson, Matthews, & Kelly, 2007), a need for Ascending Intellectual Demand (Tomlinson et al., 2009), and intense focus in areas of personal and "professional" interest (Housand, 2014; Renzulli & Reis, 2014). What then are the attributes of gifted and talented students in our classrooms that can be leveraged to support growth and achievement for these individuals? In other words, which traits of giftedness are most important to consider in decision making about high-quality curriculum, and what constitutes "high-quality curriculum"?

Gifted students are curious, creative, capable, and connected. They also have the potential to be the future leaders of society. These characteristics can be used to great advantage when designing curriculum (see Table 1.1). Curiosity for example, is a hallmark of giftedness that naturally results in engagement as gifted students seek answers to their questions. Each discovery provides the fodder for deeper questioning or a new line of inquiry altogether. Gifted students' capacity for advanced performance and creative productivity are demonstrated when they find and solve challenging problems and these students enjoy the challenging work and opportunity to be productive. Therefore, curriculum must be responsive to this need to ensure they still love the challenge even after they leave the academic setting. These students, quite simply, have the capacity to go deeper and further than their nongifted peers, and curriculum must support and stretch these advanced capabilities to help them be competitive in a globally connected society and become the compassionate and conscientious leaders that society needs.

Connected

Context

First, consider the milieu of gifted students today. This generation of students is connected like no other generation before (Pew Internet Research, 2010). The Internet and social media have transformed not only how people communicate, but also the ways they acquire, create, and share information. Although the characteristic of connectedness is not unique to gifted students, it is fundamental to who they are. No longer is technology merely a tool, it is the medium for attaining knowledge, collaborating with peers, exchanging ideas, creating products, and sharing knowledge and insights. It is imperative that any consideration of curriculum assumes that the use of technology tools is fundamental to the learning process, with an awareness that students today are adept at socializing via the Internet, but may yet require instruction about effective research skills, professional communication protocols, presentation modalities or tools, and responsible digital participation (i.e., digital citizenship). The implications of this

Table 1.1 Components of Effective Curriculum That Are Responsive to Gifted Student Characteristics

Gifted Student Characteristic	Effective Curriculum
Connected	• Connects to students' lives • Is real and useful beyond the classroom • Allows for meaningful collaboration • Is sensitive to global concerns • Provides authentic audience • Requires authentic outcomes (e.g., products) • Focuses on real problems and processes • Utilizes the conventions of a discipline • Guided by habits of mind • Provides opportunities for connecting with intellectual peers
Curious	• Promotes inquiry-based learning • Requires problem solving • Connects to students' lives • Reflects interest-based content • Supports persistence through emotionally compelling topics • Engages the learner through sufficient challenge • Requires effort
Creative	• Nurtures problem definition • Requires problem solving • Utilizes divergent thought as a problem-solving strategy • Provides opportunities for original, creative, and practical work in the disciplines
Capable	• Provides cognitive challenge • Challenges beliefs • Addresses profound ideas • Requires growth on the part of the student • Provides an authentic audience • Requires authentic outcomes (e.g., products) • Focuses on real problems and processes • Utilizes the conventions of a discipline
Conscientious leaders	• Requires self-reflection • Requires reflective practice and metacognition • Considers self within the world • Sensitive to multicultural and global concerns • Requires students to be respectful of others' needs and contributions • Requires decision making

connectedness are multifaceted and serve to address logistical, process, and content concerns in decision making about high-quality curriculum.

Curricular Considerations for Connected Students

Logistical concerns. For example, a unique logistical challenge in addressing the needs of gifted students is helping them connect with peers who have similar interests and abilities. Finding this type of connection is particularly important to gifted students' sense of identity, establishing feelings of belonging and acceptance, their ability to maintain engagement in and motivation for learning, and self-determination for achieving successful outcomes (Baylor, 2011; Phillips & Lindsay, 2006; Reynolds & Caperton, 2011; Ryan & Deci, 2000). Technology and access to the Internet provide unique curricular opportunities to connect youth to communities where they can find individuals who share their interests, advanced knowledge, and insights, and find mentors who can serve to advance gifted students' knowledge to expert levels while encouraging continual advancement in fields of interest. Take, for example, one student in a pilot study of FutureCasting^® (Housand, 2014), who generated professional-level blog posts that garnered, within a 24-hour period, 273 "hits" and opened an international dialogue with participants from the United States, Germany, Malaysia, and Singapore about achieving quality photographic images with a specific camera using various lenses and aperture settings. This example illustrates several things about ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Section I: Foundations
• Section II: Survey of Curriculum Models
• Section III: Curriculum in the Core Subject Areas
• Section IV: The Role of Assessment in Curriculum Development
• Section V: Trends and Future Directions for Curriculum for the Gifted
• About the Editors
• About the Authors