Education of the Gifted and Talented

Chapter 1: Gifted Education, History, and Definitions

Criticisms and Arguments

Elitism Many people believe that Gifted education is elitist, that it is "welfare for the rich." This has led to what sternberg calls "sounds of silence" including little federal funding and no laws to protect the rights of the gifted.
Love-hate There is a love-hate relationship between admiration of gifted people and commitment to equality.
Gifted Rights Argument is that gifted students deserve an education that is consistent with their needs and abilities, just like everyone else.

History of Gifted Education

Reflection of Societal Qualities Throughout history, different cultures have held different qualities and what are important. This means that our social definition of gifted or talented people is dynamic and dependent on societal beliefs.

Sparta: Military
Renaissance Europe Artists, architects, and writers
China-7th Cen Tang Dynasty Would send child prodigies to the imperial court. They also believes in multiple-talent conception of giftedness.
Late 1800 Japan High level only for Samurai children
Early America Ability was needed for secondary school and college
Age of Midiocrity America 1920s and 30's thinking emphasized equity. Image of everyone where the same suit looking identical.
England and Europe Have long used tracking, but in England the very apparent class-consciousness has slowed g/t education

Chapter 2: Characteristics of Giftedness

Chapter two describes the main characteristics of g/t students and explains the research used to find these characteristics. ===Termites=== Termites are a term used to describe Terman's gifted children. His project started in 1925 and followed 1528 students. In 1947 (22 years later) Terman summerized the main characteristics of the termites

Common Characteristics

Early Skill Attainment Reading, Speech, Writing, Math, Music
High Motivation
Affective Characteristics Are found to be higher is g/t students. Research on the self is admittedly difficult.

Lower anxiety and depression
Better self-concepts

Preferred Styles of Learning, Instruction, Thinking, and Expression G/T students often have similar learning styles. Sternberg splits them into three categories: Analytical, Synthetic , and Practical giftedness.