Gifted and Talented

The Three-Ring Conception of Giftedness (Renzulli, 1986)

After an extensive analysis of research studies of gifted individuals, Renzulli concluded that giftedness involves the interaction of three sets of characteristics: above average intellectual ability, creativity and task commitment. This interaction may result in giftedness in general performance areas such as mathematics, philosophy, religion or visual arts, or in the performance areas as specific as cartooning, map-making, play-writing, advertising or agricultural research.

Treffinger (1986, p.40) defined the characteristics as follows:

Above Average Intelligence

• Advanced vocabulary
• Good memory
• Learns very quickly and easily
• Large fund of information
• Generalizes skilfully
• Comprehends new ideas easily
• Makes abstractions easily
• Perceives similarities, differences, relationships
• Makes judgments and decisions

Creativity

• Questioning; very curious about many topics
• Has many ideas (fluent)
• Sees things in varied ways (flexible)
• Offers unique or unusual ideas (original)
• Adds details; makes ideas more interesting (elaborates)
• Transforms or combines ideas
• Sees implications or consequences easily
• Risk-taker; speculates
• Feels free to disagree
• Finds subtle humour, paradox or discrepancies

Task Commitment

• Sets own goals, standards
• Intense involvement in preferred problems and tasks
• Enthusiastic about interests and activities
• Needs little external motivation when pursuing tasks
• Prefers to concentrate on own interest and projects
• High level of energy
• Perseveres; does not give up easily when working
• Completes, shares products
• Eager for new projects and challenges
• Assumes responsibility

Taken from, BC Ministry of Education (http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/specialed/gifted/who_are.htm) 2011


Approaches to Programming

- acceleration -- moving through curriculum at a more rapid pace
- continuous progress/self-paced instruction -- allows students to move through curriculum at their own pace
- subject-matter acceleration -- moving through a particular subject at an increased rate
- curriculum compacting -- less time on general curriculum, more time on enrichment
- enrichment -- deeper curriculum

Smith, T. E. (1998). Teaching students with special needs in inclusive settings (2nd ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.