Gifted Students and Web-Based Education

Guest post by Lindsey Wright

School is meant to provide a nurturing learning environment for kids of all ages. Yet all too often, the traditional school model leaves gifted kids feeling bored, restless or trapped. Unable to work beyond the pace of their classes or take courses that meet their skill levels, it's easy for these kids and their parents to feel like they have no recourse when it comes to education. Luckily the growing number of online educational resources can give gifted students a way to expand their horizons and learn beyond what's offered in the classroom.

The Benefits of Online Learning

Online learning has many advantages over the traditional school setting, especially for gifted kids. One of the most important is pacing. When learning online, kids can do the work on their own time and don't have to work on the same part of an assignment at the same time as their classmates. Additionally, since course materials are available any time students are logged on, there is flexibility in when the work can be done. This aspect also fosters a greater sense of responsibility since kids are required to take the initiative when it comes to getting work done.

Course availability is another positive aspect of online learning. Brick-and-mortar institutions can only offer so many courses at each grade level. For some gifted students, even advanced placement (AP) classes aren't enough. Being able to turn to an online school allows these students to reach beyond the classroom and participate in classes that they wouldn't otherwise have the opportunity to take.

Online class sizes may also be smaller than those held in traditional classrooms. A lower student-to-teacher ratio means more individualized attention and more potential for positive interaction between the students themselves. When kids are taking a class voluntarily in a subject they enjoy, boredom becomes a thing of the past and ideas can be exchanged freely.

Online Classes

Since online learning requires a measure of self-discipline, some students may fare best taking classes in a structured environment. Programs like the Education Program for Gifted Youth (EPGY) and Virtual High School (VHS) offer classes headed by trained instructors and include virtual classrooms or discussion boards through which teacher and student interaction may take place. Assignments are given with clear deadlines, but students have the freedom to log on at any time of day or night to complete the coursework. Some classes include digital lectures to further enhance the learning experience.

These types of courses give gifted students a measure of flexibility and independence without completely removing the school structure. Likewise, as there is no restriction on when the work can be done, online classes can be pursued in tandem with traditional schooling. Kids who feel that they're not being challenged enough during the school day can add courses to expand their academic reach and give themselves something else to work on. As long as a gifted student has the time to devote, online classes are a positive solution to the problem of being dissatisfied or bored with school.

Unstructured Learning

An open-ended curriculum benefits kids who are self-motivated and desire a further measure of freedom in their education. While this format may require more participation on the part of parents or teachers, it can be worth it for gifted students who feel that their current school doesn't provide classes that delve deep enough into the subject matter that they find interesting. By working together parents and educators can create extra projects for kids to work on in subjects they enjoy. With the Internet as a guide and a myriad of informative websites for resources, there is really no limit to the amount or type of extracurricular learning that can be done.

Using computers and the Internet also aids developing skills that are necessary in today's technology-focused world. Gifted kids who like computers may benefit from spending time working with adults who know and understand subjects like website building, blog publishing, and troubleshooting both software and hardware. Learning these skills can give students a head start when they begin college or go out into the world. A solid grasp of technology offers an edge that students in traditional schools may not be getting.

Supplemental Education

Both structured online classes and the use of Internet resources to further education should be considered supplemental to traditional schoolwork. The foundations set by a basic school curriculum are essential for all students to be able to excel as they continue learning. On the other hand, a brick-and-mortar school shouldn't be looked at as the be-all and end-all for education. Learning is a lifelong endeavor that needs to be nurtured as kids grow, and gifted students require extra challenge to feel fulfilled in their learning experiences.

Therefore, gifted students who need something to focus on over and above what they're learning in school can benefit greatly from online education. Whether through structured courses or independent projects, it's possible to expand kids' horizons well beyond the traditional classroom. Best of all, the skills and knowledge gained through this supplemental learning will serve students well as they progress through primary and secondary school, and eventually move out into the world.

Lindsey Wright is fascinated with the potential of emerging educational technologies, particularly the online school, to transform the landscape of learning. She writes about web-based learning, electronic and mobile learning, and the possible future of education.

The Centre for Talent Youth, Ireland offers correspondence courses for:

• Second level CTYI students
• Transition Year students (no assessment required)

Update: "Aimed at parents who are home-educating their 11-16 year old children, expats who want their offspring to have a UK education when overseas, and those who favour flexible learning, The Web School (http://www.thewebschool.eu ) is opening its virtual doors for the academic term starting on 5, September 2011." 

Intelligent design | The Post

Many thanks to Catherine O'Mahony for writing such a well-researched and sensitive article in the Sunday Business Post yesterday. It makes a pleasant change to see giftedness discussed as something, well, "normal"! We do hope she's wrong about gifted education being destined to remain a middle-class phenomenon. It is up to us to ensure that this is not allowed to happen and that is why we are so determined to build a network of parents and teachers who can work together to raise awareness of these students and to ensure that they are provided for in every school, regardless of demographics.

Intelligent design | The Post

Parenting the Gifted in the Land of Saints and Scholars!

It is an honour to be a part of the SENG National Parenting Gifted Children Week blogtour. Little did we think when we tentatively launched our blog last year, that we would be celebrating our first birthday in such prestigious company! We hope our contribution will offer a different perspective and give some food for thought among our international friends.

To celebrate NPGC week, SENG has published a free e-book The Joy and the Challenge: Parenting Gifted Children.

For a nation which makes national sports of both put-downs and self-deprecation, being the parent of gifted children in Ireland can be like negotiating a minefield. Unless you tread very carefully, something is bound to blow up on you! First port of call after the suggestion of exceptional ability is usually the internet where most of the references are to programmes and research far away from our shores. It can be difficult to relate to discussion of GATE programmes, GT school coordinators and specialist teachers, AP programmes, G&T registers, One-day schools, acceleration or cluster-grouping when we have no such options available to us. Provision for gifted learners in Irish schools is largely a function of what individual schools and teachers can do within the confines of their classroom, their time and the school budget. As there is almost no teacher-training in giftedness, there is little real understanding of the issues involved in providing for these children. In addition, our Education Act of 1998 ensures that schools cannot enrol on the basis of a child’s ability, which leads to an emphasis on mixed-ability in all classrooms. This was underpinned by research from our Economic and Social Research Institute which found that streamed classrooms “do not boost the performance of the top group”.* We would love to know if any parents of gifted learners were consulted for that little bit of research!

What is universal however, is the experience of parenting gifted children. There we find we have much in common with our friends throughout the globe as we stumble through our parenting years as best we can. If there is no roadmap handed out in the delivery suite to any parents, it seems as if someone has actually tampered with the sat-nav of parents of gifted offspring. We are sent off on side-roads, dead-ends, even to the edge of cliffs at times before we start to find our way. Granted, it is a fascinating journey, but it can also be draining and exhausting. That’s where sharing our experiences with others can be a huge help. The thing is, there is no destination here, no neat platform to tell you you’ve arrived. So sharing with other parents is a way of making sure that you really are moving forward even when it feels as though you’re standing still, or heaven forbid, hurtling backwards!

So what’s different about doing this job in Ireland? Well, we admit to being somewhat envious when we read of parents “looking for a good school fit” in their district. Here, we have no school provision of programmes for exceptionally able children, so school choice on that basis is non-existent. Early enrolment in kindergarten or university is impossible in Ireland as children must be four years old to enrol in school and sixteen to enter third level education. In fact many parents hold off sending their little ones to school until they are at least five, sometimes very close to six because there is such an emphasis on the perceived advantage of being among the oldest in the class. This has a similar effect at the other end of the system where it is very unusual for sixteen year olds to go to university.

While trying to cope with all the usual issues of parenting a gifted child, in Ireland we must do this against a background where the education system barely recognises that our children have needs somewhat different to those of other children. It can be a heavy burden to bear and we find engagement with our global gifted friends through social networking provides us with support, inspiration and motivation to keep going. We hope that by encouraging other Irish parents and educators to join this community, we will eventually bring about positive change for our children.

*One of the ESRI researchers answers questions on Mixed Ability vs Streaming: What the Research Says, How Can Schools Make a Difference (02.29)

Gifted Students and the Literacy And Numeracy Review

Literacy and Numeracy Strategy For Learning and Life

The National Strategy to Improve Literacy and Numeracy among Children and Young People 2011-2020

The Department of Education and Skills launched this new initiative on Friday 8th July. As participants in the consultation process, our support group GAS, was invited to be present.

Minister for Education, Ruairi Quinn, introduced the strategy by explaining that literacy and numeracy skills are “crucial to a person’s ability to develop fully as an individual, to live a satisfying and rewarding life and to participate fully in our society. Ensuring that all young people acquire these skills is one of the greatest contributions that we can make to achieving social justice and equality in our country.” This strategy is the result of a period of consultation following information, both national and international, which indicates that many children in Ireland are not developing these skills to the best of their abilities.

Later, the Chief Inspector, Harold Hislop and Alan Wall, Director of the Department of Education and Skills went into some detail on the plan:

• Literacy includes the ability to use and understand spoken language, print, writing and digital media.
• Numeracy is the ability to use mathematics to solve problems and meet the demands of day-to-day living.
• Before we make judgements about how well students are achieving, we need a clear statement of the learning outcomes that we expect children and young people to achieve at each stage in the education system.
• The Government will clarify what they expect children to learn and develop at each stage of the education system and standardised tests will be introduced at the end of second, fourth and sixth class in primary school and at the end of second year at second level. This will enable schools and teachers to ensure that students achieve what is considered to be age appropriate for them at each stage.
• In implementing the strategy, the Department of Education and Skills will draw on specialist advice from from national and international experts on literacy, numeracy, assessment and school improvement and consult regularly with the education partners and relevant interests regarding the implementation and development of the strategy through meetings, conferences and other means.
• Pre-service and in-service teacher training will be improved to ensure that teachers understand how to interpret and use this data to plan the next steps in their teaching and their students’ learning. There will be emphasis on both assessment of learning and assessment for learning (AfL).
• There was much emphasis on improving pre-service teacher training and on continuing professional development (CPD) to ensure that all teachers remain up-to-date with the latest best practice in their field after qualification.
• Procedures between the various education providers should ensure that relevant information transfers at each juncture to facilitate continuity and progression for the child.
• Engagement with parents should be a core part of the literacy and numeracy plans of schools
• Children with special educational needs, including children who are exceptionally able, need to be supported in different ways. While children and young people who are exceptionally able may not experience difficulties in acquiring literacy and numeracy skills, we need to adjust their educational experience to enable them to achieve their potential.
• Ensure that serving teachers and principals have access to continuing professional development courses and guidance on meeting the learning needs of students with special educational needs.
• Ensure that schools prioritise the tracking, assessment and analysis of the achievement of students with special educational needs as part of the school’s self-evaluation and improvement process.
• Parents will often be able to enrich teachers’ knowledge of their students’ progress through providing further information about the students’ learning at home.

We were delighted to see mention of “exceptionally able” students in the report and like to think that our participation may have had a role to play in this. However, our excitement was dimmed a little during Dr Hislop’s address for two reasons:

1. He did not refer to exceptionally able learners at any stage, but mentioned “high achievers” at least twice. Our concern here is that, for many reasons such as lack of stimulation/motivation or a learning difficulty, not all students with exceptional ability are high achievers. These terms are not interchangeable. The very students who may be in most need of support are the ones who have high ability but who are not achieving.

2. He described the plan to introduce standardised testing at various stages of a student’s school career and said that this will be done to ensure that students achieve a level of achievement deemed appropriate for their age and that they continue to achieve at this level throughout their school career. Once a student scores full marks, will the school then rest assured that all is well and they are doing very nicely, thank you? We feel that there is a very real risk that standardised testing may work to the disadvantage of gifted students unless it is recognised that for some children, this arbitrary ceiling is a barrier not a challenge.

So, we approached Dr Hislop to attempt to express these concerns. He was very anxious to assure us that by having these tests, teachers would be able to make sure that all students were achieving to an age-appropriate level and that they maintained this level of achievement as they progressed through school. Precisely our point, Dr Hislop! However, he was in a hurry to move on, so we were unable to attempt any further explanation.

We had better luck with Minister Quinn who was interested to know what organisation we were representing. One could say that he is a very experienced politician, but we got the distinct impression that he was genuinely listening and that he appreciated what we had to say. He explained that every child would carry a passport with them from primary level to secondary level. He felt that this would help to ensure that the depth of understanding of each child which is built up by a primary school teacher who has a child in their class all day, would not be lost in the transfer to second level where several different teachers see each student for only a few classes a week. This would appear to be a positive development.

We were encouraged to note how much emphasis was put on parent engagement in education. Yes, our right as the primary educators of our children has always been enshrined in the Irish Constitution, but we are often made to feel less than welcome in our children’s schools. It seems that the DES recognises that, in order to really improve children’s literacy and numeracy levels, parents will have to be actively involved.

So, the bottom line as we see it, is that we need to keep our eye on the ball here to ensure that the needs of gifted learners are indeed fully appreciated and addressed and that we avoid the pitfalls encountered in the USA when they introduced the No Child Left Behind Act which has come to be referred to in gifted education circles as the “No Child Gets Ahead Act”.

The full report can be read here.

Irish Talent Development Programmes

A recent online discussion caught my eye and got me thinking about the idea of “talent development” in Ireland. The discussion centred on the opinion of a teenage blogger that by participating in the CTYI summer programme in DCU many young people became arrogant about their intelligence. The post was roundly criticised by many former CTYI students who took issue with the blanket accusations therein. The young man in question had taken part in the three-week residential course last summer. The post touched on all sorts of gripes, from elitism, to labeling, to nature versus nurture to questioning the criteria for entry to the programme. It was quite a rant, designed for maximum impact! The responses from other teenagers who had gone to CTYI were predictably articulate, passionate and well written. Most of them conceded that there are some arrogant teens among the two hundred or so on each course, but rejected the assertion in the blogpost that all of them are arrogant about their intelligence or became so as a result of attending CTYI. But what really piqued my interest were the comments from some adults:

“These kids lack social skills”

“Their parents put them on a pedestal”

“Everyone is equally gifted in their own way” (italics mine)

“The idea of ‘needing’ to be surrounded by those who have similar academic qualities to yourself is ridiculous....it is simply intellectual snobbery, and the less of it there is the better.”

And this gem, which is no doubt familiar to many of us who work to dispel the myths surrounding giftedness;

“I suspect you’d do a lot more for the ‘gifted’ students by addressing their deficits rather than focusing on their already exceptional abilities.”

So, I thought I’d do a little research into other “talent development” programmes in Ireland and see what differences there were in their entry criteria. I wanted to open up some dialogue on the attitudes of adults, parents, teachers and students into their benefits. It was easy to find information on various national squads for sports, and for entry into music academies. It was difficult to find any opinion on whether these programmes are a negative for the participants however, so I had to dig a little deeper! I trawled various social media in Ireland for any trace of opinion either positive or negative on these specialist academies but found none. A very unscientific bit of research on Twitter is ongoing, results to follow!

Tennis Ireland has in its Criteria for Team and Representative Selection what they call the “future potential factor” in choosing their national squad for training at junior level. National squads under Swim Ireland must reach qualifying times in designated swim meets in order to qualify for inclusion in their elite training programme. In rugby, Ireland’s clubs and schools take on player development at younger ages, then the province academies take over when player potential has been established through participation at highest school levels. The Royal Irish Academy of Music hold auditions to determine potential in their admittance procedure, and all new entrants must pass an exam at the end of their first (probationary) year to retain their place.

I would imagine that all the children and young people who reach the standards required for these elite programmes are pretty talented and very committed. I am certain that we have in Ireland some very gifted young tennis players, swimmers and musicians. It is a tribute to those involved in these organisations that we can offer to our young citizens the specialised training that can support their talents and set them on the road to achievement. I also think that the parents of these gifted young people deserve huge praise for supporting them, driving them to training, matches, swim meets and concerts or buying them equipment, uniforms and instruments. I would be surprised if the parents would be regarded as pushy or delusional about their child’s talent. I think they would be quietly admired for their dedication! I doubt too many people would disagree with me and say that these programmes should not exist and we should caution against letting these children know how talented they are for fear of making them arrogant. I am pretty certain that not many would think that this kind of training is elitist and has no place in an egalitarian Ireland. I think most people, like myself would consider any government funds well spent in ensuring that these young people might one day represent Ireland proudly.

So, back to the Irish Centre for Talented Youth. This programme also requires people to qualify in order to take part, by sitting a test which measures their “future potential” much like Tennis Ireland, and by scoring above a certain point similar to Swim Ireland’s qualifying times. The teenagers whose intellectual ability qualifies them to take part in these programmes are no different than those whose musical or sporting ability allows them access to elite training in their field. So why does it seem to matter so much to some adults that CTYI exists and that the kids who attend are exceptionally bright? Why are they offended by the very idea of CTYI while accepting of other programmes offering elite training for sporting or musical talent? Our children are all different, they have all manner of talents which can be nurtured and developed with proper support. Some will reach the top of their talent pool, others will be content to achieve a more modest level, still others will not develop their talents because a support system was unavailable for them. Not all of the children who participate in these programmes will go on to win Olympic medals, Nobel prizes or join prestigious orchestras. Most of them won’t. But does that mean we shouldn’t even provide them the chance to see how far their ability takes them? Does it mean we should desist from trying to identify those who may have talent? Of course not, Ireland needs all kinds of talents to recover its strength, from modest to mind-blowing! If we can agree that tennis players, swimmers, rugby players, violinists, scientists and writers do not emerge fully formed from the womb, but rather with a potential which becomes apparent as physical maturity and opportunity arise, why can some not accept that all these various talents or gifts should be supported and encouraged whether they be physical, musical or academic?

Scroll back up the page to the quoted comments about CTYI and the kids who participate for a moment. Now reread them with our young high potential athletes and musicians in mind (you may have to replace a few words with ‘sporting’ or ‘musical’ but you get the idea). We shouldn’t allow our talented young violinists get together for orchestra training , that would be ‘musical snobbery’? We should identify our young swimmers weaknesses and get them out of the pool to improve them? They are so focused on their ‘ability’ and training at all hours of the day and night that they have social skills deficits which are far more important than their progress in tennis or flute? We should concentrate on making ‘well-rounded’ individuals instead of ‘one-dimensional’ achievers in tennis? I don’t know about you, but I think that sounds pretty ridiculous. How can young people be expected to reach the highest levels of ability without spending the time needed to develop the talent they have inside?

The original piece was just a teenage shot across the bow of a boat carrying some other teenagers. He went to CTYI, didn’t enjoy it for whatever reason and is doing something different this summer. Maybe he should have left it at that. The young people who go to CTYI in the summer should be able to do so without fear of misplaced criticism from the rest of us. The young people who spend their summers playing tennis tournaments aren’t generally pilloried for spending all that time getting better at their chosen activity. Let them all go enjoy their learning. Let them all act like teenagers. They will grow up as we all eventually do. And then there will still be pretty much the same percentage of arrogant ‘eejits’ as there always is, trust me!

All the same, I quite enjoyed the delicious irony of a teenage blogger basking in the glory of grown-up readers telling him he was absolutely spot on in accusing a bunch of other teenagers of being arrogant!