Please contact Madeline Campbell for more information and to indicate your interest in attending a workshop later in Term 2, 2012 (date to be advised) to develop a shared school-community understanding and direction for Gifted and Talented Education (GATE).
The following link contains comprehensive information and resources that will help you stay informed of our progress towards effective gifted education at Westland High School, it will be regularly updated:
Gifted and Talented Education Resources
The following information is selected from Gifted and Talented Online to provide an outline of what Gifted Education in New Zealand is about:
Gifted and talented practice in New Zealand aligns with the vision for young people identified in The New Zealand Curriculum. As the curriculum explains, New Zealand educators aim to develop young people: (Ministry of Education, 2007)
It is now accepted that the gifted and talented are not simply those with high intelligence. The gifted and talented represent a wide range of students with many different abilities, now viewed in terms of multiple intelligences. There are hundreds of definitions of the term 'gifted and talented'. Generally, they can be classified as conservative, liberal or contemporary:
New Zealand is a multicultural society with a wide range of ethnic groups. The concept of giftedness and talent that belongs to a particular cultural group is shaped by its beliefs, values, attitudes, and customs. The concept varies from culture to culture. Gifted and talented practice in NZ should reflect a multi-dimensional approach. Identification should be directly connected to how the school conceptualises giftedness and talent.
The identification process is intended to reflect the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi to demonstrate the unique status of the tangata whenua. Approaches to conceptualising, identifying and providing for Māori students are dual faceted: they may emanate from Te Ao Māori; a Māori worldview on the one hand, and have significant connotations to Te Ao Hurihuri (the global world) on the other.
The key constructs that are located within Te Ao Māori include:
The key constructs that are located within Te Ao Hurihuri include:
These approaches envisage that increasing the visibility of Māori giftedness within mainstream environments is not about adding a Māori dimension to existing constructs and practices, but requires that the very essence of the system itself is reflective of the principles of partnership, determination and power-sharing.
Twice exceptional students are sometimes also referred to as double labelled, or having dual exceptionality. These are gifted students whose performance is impaired, or high potential is masked, by a specific learning disability, physical impairment, disorder or condition. They may experience extreme difficulty in developing their giftedness into talent.
Like others, you may not always be happy calling yourself 'gifted'. But sometimes you may feel there is something just a bit different about the way you think and learn compared to others your age. Perhaps you have made some major achievements or won awards ahead of other students, but this is not always the case. The gifted student is not always the 'brightest' student in the class or the one who always gets top marks. You may stand out in some other way, like having ideas that are different from others, or maybe you ask a lot of interesting questions.
Gifted and talented learners can stand out in many ways. They can:
It can be hard when you are first told that you are “gifted” - you may not have been told what it means and you may wonder if it changes who you are and how you are supposed to act. You may look at other “gifted students” and try to see your similarities. If you look at the bullet points above, you can see that there is wide range of types of giftedness. You may fall into one category or you may fall into many categories. Either way you are gifted.
A good definition of giftedness is:
“…those with exceptional abilities relative to most other people. These individuals have certain learning characteristics that give them the potential to achieve outstanding performance.”
- Office of the Minister of Education, 2002
The key word here is potential. If you have been placed in a GATE Programme or told you are gifted then it means that you have potential to be “outstanding” in that area. This is likely to be an area that you enjoy – sports, art, music, maths, public speaking, being a leader, supporting people… the list is endless. You may also be Twice Exceptional, which means that you may have a learning disability (like dyslexia) as well as being gifted. Being gifted is not always easy. There are always two sides to the coin. Perfectionism and being too hard on your self are sometimes part of the package. You may also feel like you “owe the world” for being gifted. You don’t owe the world but you do owe it to yourself to get to know where your potential lies and how you want to use it.
Renzulli (1978) developed a definition of giftedness based on the interaction between three basic clusters of human traits:
Gagné (1995, 2008) noted that there was continuing confusion between the terms ‘gifted’ and ‘talented’ and developed a model to differentiate between the two. He defined giftedness as a naturally occurring ability, while the outward expression of that ability he labelled talent. His ‘Differentiated Model of Giftedness and Talent’ details the personal and environmental factors that may support, or hinder, the development of an individual’s gifts into specific talents.
