Gifted and Talented Education

This course provides approaches for differentiating the curriculum for gifted and talented learners. These approaches are based on core-curriculum modifications that work within the regular classroom as well as in other settings. Attention is given to meeting the needs of a diverse group of students. Participants will learn to create a curriculum that gives students a solid grasp of the core material while advancing their gifted abilities.

Familiarity with clusters of characteristics common to gifted people provides a basis for recognizing and understanding the individual differences and varied profiles that gifted students may exhibit. A historical perspective on the changing views of intelligence and case studies of gifted students provide the context in which to explore their intellectual, social-emotional and creative development. The aim of this course is to help participants understand the implications of all of these factors in order to assess, program, teach and parent the gifted.

This course focuses on teaching & learning strategies that have proved successful with gifted students, including the Hilda Taba teaching strategies, the Parnes creative problem-solving strategy, and Kohlberg's discussions of moral dilemmas. Participants investigate the assumptions underlying each strategy and the ways in which each meets gifted students' needs for differentiation. Selected strategies will be modeled in class which provides participants with opportunities for becoming proficient using the strategies and integrating them into both core and differentiated curriculums.

This course explores various program models for educating gifted students. As participants study major issues and factors affecting program development (philosophical views, general attitudes, parent involvement, funding, grouping, teacher training, collaborative efforts among programs, and parent education), they will be encouraged to share program materials from their own or their children's school districts to review current practices. Class members will be furnished with such materials and receive guidance in developing a gifted program based on an assessment of student needs and...

This course provides the student with a perspective of neuroscience as it relates to education, with the purpose of developing a depth of understanding for district-level decision-making. The scientific and holistic (whole student) philosophical perspectives provided in this course will provide students with a knowledge base for developing an organizational system of informed and skilled practitioners who instruct through differentiated approaches. Additionally, it provides students a base of information that will assist in aligning resources to differentiated instruction to support...

Differentiation System Design: School Practices, develops the focus of the differentiation lens on the development of a school learning community organized around the concept of 21st Century skills attained through site instructional system design, differentiated instructional practices, and development of higher level thinking skills and skill application. Technology plays an important role in the differentiation processes of the present and the future, and concepts and ideas will be presented and discussed in the course.

This course will focus more specifically on developing the understanding of classroom teachers and school leaders to better tailor instruction through differentiated approaches, based on the cognitive and socio-emotional needs of the variety of learners that make up most classrooms.

The Practicum in Gifted and Talented Education is an optional course for candidates requiring at least 45 hours of documented teaching of gifted and talented pupils in an educational setting. Candidates enrolled in this course will undertake supervised practice in a classroom that provides effective, balanced and comprehensive instruction with gifted and talented learners. During his/her tenure in the course, the candidate will provide regular updates on the experience and solicit feedback from an on-site mentor and the course instructor.