Gifted Learners and Lev Vygotsky's ZPD

Lev Vygotsky was a pioneering Russian psychologist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries whose interest in the fields of developmental psychology, education and culture led to his being known as “the father of cultural-historical psychology”. A prolific author who researched relationships between thought, language, speech and play, Vygotsky studied the development of cognitive skills in children and developed a concept known as the “zone of proximal development” (ZPD). He described it as “the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance, or in collaboration with more capable peers” .

Arguing against the use of tests to examine a child’s progress, Vygotsky said that what should be measured is a child’s ability to problem-solve independently, rather than with assistance. Real learning takes place in the ZPD, according to Vygotsky and the later psychologists who developed his idea further. This ZPD is the area of growth which is just beyond the current ability of the learner but not so far as to be impossible or demoralising. If the level is set so low that the child has already mastered the task, or so high that the student cannot achieve it without considerable assistance, effective learning will not take place. The ZPD is the zone where the student, aided by a teacher or expert, can stretch to the point just beyond their current capabilities. This is where learning is internalised and previous skills can be built upon, according to Vygotsky.

Later psychologists and educationalists elaborated on Vygotsky’s idea of the ZPD by introducing the concept of scaffolding. Scaffolding is the provision of sufficient support to learners that they are able to reach their ZPD. The support offered is only enough to allow the student to build on prior knowledge and skills and is gradually reduced and removed as the learner enters his or her ZPD. Examples of instructional scaffolding are resource materials, visual aids, templates, guidelines and verbal or written demonstration.

The concepts of ZPD and instructional scaffolding are now applied wider than Vygotsky’s original context of problem-solving to a range of educational domains such as reading, reciprocal teaching and problem-based learning. Many researchers now believe that young children learn their native language while in their zone of proximal development, with scaffolding provided by their parents as the child’s skills develop.

The ZPD has particular resonance for highly able learners. In many classrooms the material regularly presented to them would be within their current ability level and therefore would not bring them into their zone of promixal development. All students need to be required to work in their ZPD on a regular basis, including gifted learners. Where most students experience this level of challenge daily, highly able children for whom the regular curriculum holds less challenge may not. In order to internalize the learning process, to experience the stretching of their capability beyond what is easily achievable we must find a way to ensure that gifted pupils enter their ZPD. Effective differentiation can go some way to this goal.

In a paper entitled “Different Differentiation” Paul and Sharon Ginnis outline eight different strategies which teachers can use to ensure that every pupil works in their ZPD. They recommend setting the parameters by planning the task between the outcome projected for their most able and their least able learners. The ZPD of the class is within this. The two factors of the challenge of the task and the skill of the individual learner will determine the outcome. If the gap between these two factors is either too big or too small, outcomes will be less successful. Interestingly, they point out that in both cases (too little challenge or too much) the likely result is the same, that of disengagement and underachievement.

The strategies they describe cover a range of teaching approaches, from a higher level of teacher control to a more student-controlled task. From setting a task above and below the core task expected of the majority of the class, through peer-coaching and ability grouping, all the way to what they label “self-service” there is a menu of styles. Each of them have at their centre the goal of having each student work in their ZPD. For exceptionally able children, opportunities to work in the types of learning environments described would allow them to learn how to synthesize their learning and how it feels to be challenged to reach a goal. These are not usual outcomes for highly able children in Irish classrooms who often find themselves with little or no challenge for long periods of time. We need fresh approaches and an increased awareness that opportunity of challenge is essential for all learners and that gifted pupils need this as much as any other. It is not exclusive or elitist or selfish, it is only fair.

Link to the paper on “Different Differentiation” is here

More on Lev Vygotsky can be found here

Introduction to Twitter. Part 3

Twitter Chats

Have you ever tried to take part in a twitter chat and been completely lost? If it's a lively one, it can move very fast. By the time you have written what you want to say, the conversation has moved on. In your panic, you forget to add the hashtag and your tweet doesn't even show up. Every time you look up there are 101 new tweets waiting for you to refresh the page...you know what I mean? Well, there is a solution.....Tweetchat. (There are a couple of solutions, but this is the one I like.)

The way a chat works is that everyone adds a particular hashtag to their tweets. Then when you do a search for that tag, every tweet containing it will come up in your stream. Most of them have a specified day and time when people sign in together and chat live. There are loads of chats on twitter, but if you want to explore gifted issues, the two to look for are #gtchat at 5pm and midnight GMT on Fridays and #gtie at 9pm GMT on Sundays.

Tweetchat, described below, has been a lifesaver for many a twitter chatter but it looks like it's about to disappear due to changes with Twitter. For the moment, it is working intermittently. if anyone knows of a good substitute, let us know!

Step 1: Go to tweetchat.com and click "sign in":

Step 3: Allow tweetchat to access your account:

Fill in your username and twitter password and click "Allow".

Step 3: Find your chat.

Enter the name of the chat you are looking for in the box at the top and click "Go". I have entered gtie this time.

Step 4: Get set, go.

1. This chat refreshes itself automatically, but is set to do so every 10 seconds. If you click on "refresh speed" you can slide this down to 5 seconds. (if you ever find yourself at a particularly lively chat and have trouble keeping up, just increase the refresh speed!)

2. If you click on this symbol opposite a tweet, it sets you up to reply to that person by making their name appear in the box at the top for you. 

3. Clicking this symbol opposite a tweet will retweet it by making the text appear in the box at the top, all ready to go.

One other big advantage to tweetchat is that it automatically adds the hashtag to the end of each tweet. So you just need to write your message and click "Update". 

With all these things done for you, you can now sit back and enjoy chatting! 

Introduction to Twitter. Part 2

Now you have an account, but it is rather bare and you are feeling a bit lost and lonely. There are a few more things you need to do:

Step 1: Click "Upload a profile picture".

Step 2:  Bear in mind that you can come back and change any of these details as often as you like, so don't worry about being perfect!

Picture: Click "Choose file" to select/open a photo or picture which you already have saved on your computer. It's nicer that remaining as an egg! The name of the file will appear but the picture itself won't show until you save everything at the end of this page.

Name: Leave this unless you wish to change it.

Location: You can fill this in or leave it blank.

Web: You can enter the URL of your blog or website here if you have one. You can also get the code here for embedding a twitter widget on your site.

Bio: It is a good idea to write something here to show who you are or what your interests are.

Now click "SAVE".

Step 3: Click "Home".

Step 4: Find people to follow:

You can enter the names of people you know into the box to the right and click "search".

Or, if you are Irish, type #gtie into the box at the top and click on the little magnifying glass to find other people with an interest in gifted in Ireland. Searching for #gtchat will find you gifted advocates from all over the world.

You can save your searches so that you can find them again easily.

Once you have spotted someone who looks interesting, just click on their name and their profile will come up to the right. If you still like what you see,   click on the "follow" below their name. Now each time that person tweets, it will show up on your page or stream, as it's called.

To begin with, I would suggest following just a few people till you get the hang of it...which will happen very quickly!! May I suggest Frazzlld and Dazzlld? (Beware the odd spelling. When we were signing up, the proper spelling version had already been taken) You can just watch for a day or two until you see what goes on. 

Now you're ready to dive in...

You will find that quite a few people whom you follow will follow you back.

Everyone is referred to with @ directly before their name. eg @Frazzlld is me.

Try breaking the ice by typing something like "Hello, I'm new to twitter" into the "What's happening?" box and clicking "Tweet".

Tweeting directly at someone: If you want to direct a comment at someone in particular, type @TheirUsername into the "What's happening" box followed by your comment. If you do this, only that person and people who follow you both will see it appear. Or, if you hover over a tweet, the option to "reply" will show up below it.

Retweeting: If you see a tweet that you want to pass onto your followers, you can retweet it. There are two options: Click "retweet" below the tweet and a window will appear asking you to confirm or cancel the retweet. Or, you can type RT into the "What's happening?" box and then cut and past the text in after it. This gives you the option of editing the tweet before it goes out. Make sure that you include the name of the original tweeter, though eg RT @Frazzlld........

You will be surprised how quickly you will become familiar with twitter. You just need to take the plunge now. Go on..I dare you!

Introduction to Twitter. Part 1

Twitter is a fantastic way of connecting with other people in the gifted world in order to share experiences and to learn. Just this week, a new forum was launched to bring together teachers and parents with an interest in gifted education in Ireland. At 9pm on Sunday evenings we can all meet up on twitter and "chat".  You can watch these chats without having a twitter account here, but to participate, you will need an account.

This is a very basic guide to help even the most nervous person to get started. After this you will have no excuse!!

Step 1: Go to http://twitter.com/ and click the yellow "Sign Up" box:

Step 2: Fill in your details:

Enter your first and last name:

You can make up a name or leave this blank if you wish. However, If you are planning on connecting with other people, I suggest that you give your real name so that people know you are real and who they are talking to.

Username: 

This can be anything you like provided it has not been chosen by someone else already. Once you begin to interact with people, this is the name by which you will be addressed, so choose carefully! Either use your real name, a version of it, or something that reflects your interests or personality. It can be no more than 15 characters long. You are only allowed 140 characters per tweet and your username is part of this allowance. The longer your name, the less you can say. 

Password: 

As for any account you set up.

Email: 

You must enter an email address. An email will be sent out for you to confirm/activate your account. 

"Let others find me by my email address": At the next stage, you will be asked if you would like to find other people whom you may know on twitter, by allowing twitter to search your email contacts list for people with twitter accounts. If you have left this box ticked, it means that anyone else who has your address in their contacts list will be able to find you on twitter in this way. You may wish to allow this. Personally, I have all sorts of people in my email contacts and I don't really want them all finding me on twitter, so I removed the tick from this box when I signed up. It's up to you.

Once you have carefully read the terms of service, as I'm sure you always do, click "create account".

Step 3: Type in the wiggly words to prove that you're not a computer and click "finish" to get to the next step.

Step 4: Find people to follow or just confirm your account: (if you follow someone on twitter, it means that whatever they tweet will show up in your account. It's like friending on facebook)

You can now search for people to follow by selecting interests or looking for specific people. Or you can ignore this step and click "Next Step: Friends" in the blue box at the bottom. 

              

Here you have the option of finding friends via other services which you may use, such as gmail, yahoo or hotmail. Again, you can choose to "Skip import" and move on.

At this point, as it says at the top of the twitter page, you must go to your email inbox and confirm your email address in the email they have sent you.

Now you're ready to roll.

Part 2 will show you how to add the finishing touches to your account and begin tweeting.

Widening the Reach of Irish Gifted Advocacy

There is an ongoing discussion between Irish and global advocates for gifted education on Facebook at the moment which has reminded me that we still have a long way to go to reach our intended audience. Our blog’s goal is to raise awareness among teachers and parents in Ireland about the needs of gifted learners. We make no secret of the fact that our scope is limited and neither of us have teaching qualifications or experience, but our lofty ambition is to open some dialogue between teachers themselves. As we have learned, there is little if any formal support for teachers who have a gifted pupil in their classroom. For parents, on the other hand, there are quite a considerable amount of online resources and support available, both in an Irish context and internationally. The challenges of parenting gifted children can be shared globally via online discussion groups, Twitter, Facebook and support websites. Teaching gifted children however, is often more specific to the education system in place in a given country. It can depend on what legislation is in place to support gifted learners (if any!), how the progress of pupils is measured, whether teacher-training includes gifted education, or what time or resources an individual teacher has available.

Over the past few years we have been involved, through Twitter’s #gtchat and Facebook groups among others, in advocacy online in Ireland. There has been a strong and constant Irish presence for some time now and the circle is growing wider. There are many parents and teachers of gifted children in Ireland who do not “tweet”, who are not on Facebook, who don’t partake in online discussions. However, their children and pupils do or certainly will in the future! If we do not at least try to keep up with this next generation of digital native, we ourselves, our message, our experience and our wisdom will get left behind. It is up to those of us who are learning the value of using social media to coax, cajole or encourage as many advocates as we can to join us. There are others who are making a difference on the ground, in their schools and communities....but how much better would it be if they had a platform to share their experience and ideas with all of us?

If our knowledge can be pooled for the good of all our gifted learners we all benefit. If a teacher in Laois or Donegal has an insight which helped a pupil but has no way to share it with a wider audience of fellow teachers or parents, that valuable resource may be lost.  Those  who do make a difference in the classrooms of Ireland should be at the forefront of the Irish voice of gifted awareness. We need to find a way for this group to share their work so others can benefit. The bigger the group, the more resources are shared and the louder the voice will be in raising awareness of gifted education. Doing this through Twitter or Facebook or other online resources makes perfect sense for Ireland. Currently we are without a national organisation for gifted issues so using social media allows everyone to participate. There are no committee meetings to which people have to travel long distances and every voice can be heard equally from the comfort of their own home, school or local library. It is a democratic and powerful outlet, and inclusive of those who would not necessarily seek out gifted information but who nonetheless may be a positive force in the school life of a gifted learner.

Taking part in online Twitter chats is a commitment, to time, to research, to putting your opinion out there. It can be intimidating at the beginning, but it is not difficult. If you can send an e-mail, you can master Twitter! The most important thing to tell potential “tweeps” is that #gtchat and the new Irish #gtie are welcoming and warm places where every participant is valued for their contribution. (Oh, and that they may have to brew a pot of strong coffee to stay awake on Friday nights!) Perhaps some people will never feel comfortable with it and will decline to take part. That does not invalidate the work they do for gifted children, long may they continue it. But those who are trying to create an online presence to include as many advocates as possible should be lauded and encouraged to continue this valuable work. If  some brave teachers and parents are willing to speak up, maybe, just maybe, that will be the catalyst for others to do likewise. We may be a handful now, but for all our gifted learners we should strive to be a powerhouse. It’s all about the children.......

Dazzled and Frazzled's End of Year Review

Although 2010 didn’t herald any great advancement of gifted education in Ireland, it was a watershed year for Dazzled and Frazzled! 2010 marked the year when we found our way to be a voice for gifted learners in Ireland. In January we took part in the inaugural #gtchat on Twitter. Guided by the wonderfully innovative and energetic Deborah Mersino, #gtchat has grown from enthusiastic beginnings into a strong global platform through which parents, teachers, psychologists and gifted education experts can share vision and strategy for gifted children. It was a privilege to have been there at the very first chat!

Through #gtchat, Frazzled and I realised that we have a wealth of knowledge between us about giftedness. There are many respected experts among #gtchatters, and many more passionate and well-informed amateurs like the pair of us. We all have a common goal though; to promote awareness of the educational needs of gifted learners everywhere.  On Friday nights we have felt welcomed and validated by the many professionals working across the globe. This has given us the courage to speak up through our blog about issues of particular relevance to Ireland.

It took us a while to get the blog up and running. In July, we hid ourselves away for a few days in “La France profonde” where we shared ideas about what shape our blog might take. We declared our “2nd Annual Conference” in south-west France a thorough success, in particular the entertainment and wine-tasting! One of the stand-out moments was sitting at the patio table, wine and cheese at the ready, laptops opposite each other all set to go for #gtchat...surreal but fun!

By the end of July and into August we had our first blogposts up and soon our opinions on a wide range of issues were getting an airing. Both opinionated and forceful at times, it was a nerve-wracking first few weeks as we nailed our gifted colours to the mast! We held our breath and hoped we wouldn’t be dismissed as being too radical, too clueless, or worst of all...just a couple of pushy parents! We needn’t have worried however, as our #gtchat friends supported and encouraged us as we posted each new piece. Thank you all for your support in 2010, it meant a great deal to us both.
 

In October another big opportunity came our way. We were invited to speak at the Irish Teaching and Learning Festival in Dublin. We gave a presentation entitled “Using Social Media to Support Gifted Learners in Ireland”. Bedecked in our regal purple #gtchat t-shirts kindly fast-tracked to us by Deborah Mersino, we completed our metamorphosis into conference speakers together. In equal parts thrilling and terrifying, by the end we were exhilarated and enjoying our new-found confidence! The realisation that we do have something to offer to those interested in giftedness was empowering and encouraging. We are not experts and do not pretend to be so, but are happy to share the knowledge we have gained through our own research. A big debt of thanks is due to Deborah who had faith in us to fly the #gtchat flag on her behalf. We were honoured to do so.

In November our Gifted Advocacy and Support (GAS) group made a detailed submission to the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) during their consultation process for the new Junior Cycle. Although quite a radical departure from the traditional exam-based system, we felt that a fresh approach catering to as many different learning styles as possible would be a real benefit to our gifted learners in particular.

The end of 2010 has seen us making new connections from within and without our GAS group. There are some exciting new ideas ahead in 2011 and a team seems to be forming which will hopefully make some progress in raising awareness of the needs of gifted children in Ireland. Frazzled and I are looking forward to being a part of this new initiative. We would like to thank our families for their support, encouragement and patience as we got the blog off the blocks. We wish all our friends, #gtchatters, fellow bloggers, support group members and future readers a very Happy New Year in 2011!

A Vision for a New Irish Junior Cycle

The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) has nearly completed  a consultation process on ideas for a revised Junior Cycle for our secondary schools. Our GAS group discussed this process at our recent meetings and after many pots of tea and cups of coffee, decided that we would make a submission on behalf of our group of gifted learners in Ireland. Many of our members have young children in the early years of  primary school and for them the Junior Certificate seems a long way off. As we know however, change takes a while to happen, so it may very well be those children who see the benefit of comprehensive educational reform.

Our idea is that the Junior Cycle would move away from the traditional but narrow examination format to a flexible programme which would give our young people responsibility for their learning and its outcomes. We have called it the Junior Cycle Portfolio. In short, it would consist of a personal learning portfolio prepared and produced by each student in the early secondary years . In addition to exam results from school, it would include multiple ways that students could show mastery, achievement and interest in the curriculum. Participation, accomplishment and effort would all combine to demonstrate the skills learned by each student. Using this approach, every pupil would reach the end of the Junior Cycle with a foundation in the key skills needed for 21st Century learning.

We feel that this approach may be of particular benefit to both Exceptionally Able and Twice Exceptional students in Ireland. Our gifted learners are not well served by the current exam-based system, either in its pace or content. When they want to move deeper and faster with the material there is often no opportunity to do so. For Twice Exceptional students it is sometimes also a challenge to demonstrate ability in ways rewarded by our educational system. If our gifted pupils could work with a portfolio system they would be able to add breadth, depth and pace to their learning. Using their personal learning strengths, they would be able to achieve at a level commensurate with their ability. Many of Ireland’s exceptionally able learners go unidentified by their schools and unnoticed by their teachers because they have no opportunity to demonstrate what they could learn, as opposed to what is on the curriculum. The Junior Cycle Portfolio would give them the chance to take ownership of their learning and bring their areas of strength into sharper relief.

You can read our Submission below:

Creating a Learning Revolution

Dazzled and I were at a very interesting café workshop in Dublin this evening. The invitation from Design 21C was to “ join us in a discussion to explore how we learn and what steps we can make to bring about a learning revolution to transform education in Ireland.” Needless to say, we could not resist!

I went in not knowing what to expect and, as usual, felt a little awkward in referring to gifted education. You know that feeling that people will think “oh, for God’s sake, would you listen to yer wan in her ivory tower”? However, a very diverse group of us spent three hours talking about education and it could have been a room full of gifted advocates talking! Amongst many other things, ideas raised were: 

• Making room for failure and the value of learning by failing.
• Learning how to deal with failure and to see it as an opportunity.
• Learning how to take risks.
• Learning how to learn.
• Learning as a lifelong skill.
• Creative thinking skills.
• Problem solving ability.
• Why do we put children through our system in lockstep by age?
• Recognising different learning styles and strengths.
• Moving from the sage-on-the-stage model of teaching to a guide-on-the-side, where teachers are facilitators of learning.
• Moving from rote learning to learning by doing and experiencing.
• Project based learning.
• Reforming teacher training.
• Learning life skills such as how to interact with others positively.
• Learning to feel comfortable with yourself.

Any of this ring bells with you gifted advocates?!! Are these not exactly the things which we are looking for in gifted education? Are many of these not precisely what a good G&T programme offers?

It has been obvious to me for a long time that all the things which we seek for our gifted children would benefit all children. More and more, the rest of the world is looking for the same as we are. Surely this is a huge opportunity for us. If we could achieve a new model of education based on some of the ideas above, would we not have achieved a great deal? By joining with others in the call for general education reform, we have far more chance of being heard than if we fight alone for gifted children only. By joining forces, we also have an opportunity to overcome some of the negative myths that surround giftedness, such as that gifted means mini-Einsteins who breeze through school with no difficulty or effort and have pushy middle-class parents. It would not, however, be a one way street. Much of our collective experience would be of great benefit to others in this endeavour and many gifted advocates have just the skills needed to inspire and lead others.

I absolutely accept that there is a significant cohort of gifted children who are so far to the right of the bellcurve that, just like those to the left, they probably cannot be provided for adequately in mainstream education. However, I also believe that a new model could accommodate a large number of gifted children very well. The advantages of such a model for gifted children would be many. They would be provided with challenges and opportunities to learn appropriate to their ability. Gifted children from all socio-economic backgrounds would be able to shine and be appreciated, not just the ones whose parents are well educated and able to fight for them and support them or send them to expensive schools.  All children should be engaged and excited to be learning, so gifted children would not feel so out of step and isolated. If we got it right, the benefits for society as a whole would be enormous. In order for this to work, we absolutely must be part of the dialogue.

While I believe that we should join the movement for general education reform, we do need to keep our eye on the gifted ball too. Gifted children have a particular set of needs which is not shared by others and which needs to be recognized and addressed. No one else will do this if we don’t. This is our role as gifted advocates.

I must also say that it struck me that many of the people at this meeting tonight were there because they love learning, are full of ideas and opinions, are passionate, want to make a difference to society and probably consisted of a disproportionate number of gifted individuals, even if they didn’t know it themselves!

After all that excitement, I'm not sure I'll be able to deal with a #gtchat at midnight. My head is in such a buzz already and I can see that the first of today's sessions was lively. No sleep for me tonight , I fear!

Bright Young Things, Growing Up Gifted In Ireland

Last night RTE aired a documentary following six gifted children as they negotiated the Irish education system. Bright Young Things; Growing Up Gifted in Ireland. To be perfectly honest, I am not sure how I feel about it. I do think it portrayed a more realistic picture of the lives of gifted children than some documentaries which have tended to sensationalise the issue and make these children out to be "geniuses".

I liked the way that, just as in real life, it included children from very different backgrounds and with very different stories; not all middle class with pushy parents. I liked that Gavin didn't get straight A's in his Junior Certificate. Sorry Gavin, it's nothing personal, but it countered the myth that gifted students always get A's with no effort whatsoever! It showed very well, the sense of difference and sometimes loneliness that gifted children can feel from a very young age. I have heard it said that it came across as a little bleak, but at least it showed that the life of a gifted child is not necessarily plain sailing. It also showed that gifted children are far from being a homogeneous bunch. Not all gifted children are like the ones portrayed in the documentary, but many gifted children struggle in their own way with similar issues.

It is very easy for viewers to pick holes and criticise both the programme-makers and the families concerned. However, many of us complain that no one understands us and the problems we encounter. We talk about how gifted children and adults are different. So, when someone does a documentary about us, we can hardly complain about how it showed the participants to be somehow unusual, now can we? Let's face it, we do tend to be a little different. Sure isn't that the whole point?!

How many of us would have subjected ourselves and our children to the same level of scrutiny? You may say that this was unfair on the children concerned, but at the same time, if we all continue to hide away under the guise of protecting our children, then how can we expect people to understand us? It's a very tricky dilemma and I'm not sure I know the answer. I do feel, however, that we owe the families who did participate a great debt of thanks. They were very brave to put themselves out there for all the world to see and comment upon.

It is impossible for a fifty minute documentary to cover the issue of giftedness in its entirety and I feel that, on balance, this one did a pretty good job. It certainly went some way to busting some of the myths about gifted children. I would like to say well done to all concerned and to wish all the participants the very best as they continue their journeys.

Dr Colm O'Reilly of CTYI was spot on when he said:

"We tend to have the attitude of "well, sure it'll all work out in the end". For a lot of them, it doesn't work out in the end and they end up underachieving greatly, and what do we say then? "Well, they weren't that smart to begin with". I can't agree with that. The reason they underachieve is because we never did anything for them in the first place, to allow them to fulfill their potential"

May 2011: The documentary is available on the RTE Player again for a while.

Purpose and Passion Part 2

Teachers With Passion

We all know that our teachers can pass through their entire basic training without ever hearing about gifted education at all. Once out, they are faced with classes of maybe thirty students of wide-ranging ability and a good sprinkling of various learning and behavioural difficulties. How they deal with all this on top of getting our children through the curriculum to our satisfaction is, quite frankly, a miracle. When it comes to CPD, given that only 3% to 5% of children are gifted, I wouldn't imagine that gifted is too high up their priority list. Why would it be?

However, through Twitter, Dazzled and I have discovered a whole world of teachers with passion. These teachers are tweeting and blogging their hearts out. There are a few things which have struck me about them: they are engaging with each other to collaborate and share ideas, they are incredibly generous, they are innovative and open to new ideas. Most importantly, they very obviously LOVE what they do. Sometimes I sign into Twitter just to catch some of their infectious enthusiasm! I can only imagine what it must be like to be a student in one of their classrooms.

Whilst there are many teachers globally who are gifted and talented education specialists, I think most of the Irish ones are not. They probably have little idea about the niceties of gifted education theory. But, you know what? It doesn't matter. They are already well on the way to doing what our children need. They must surely be inspiring their students to love learning, just like they do. They are open to new ideas and that is where I feel parents have a role to play.

Unlike these teachers who must deal with every possible learning scenario, parents of gifted children have the luxury, if you will, of being able to focus on gifted issues alone. Given that it often seems to run in families, many parents of gifted children are themselves gifted. Which means that they tend to go at things which interest them with gusto and to learn quickly. Many are extremely well-informed when it comes to gifted education and psychology. However, what most of us don't have is training in education and knowledge of what happens or what works in our children's classrooms. 

It strikes me that if we could all work together, we could really make progress. For that to happen, parents must be prepared to speak up, but in a supportive and encouraging way. Teachers must accept that, whilst they are the educational professionals, parents sometimes have more knowledge in a particular field that they do. Sometimes parents can come across as pushy and critical and sometimes they are just that. But often, they are just frustrated.

In terms of provision for gifted education in Ireland, we have draft guidelines from the NCCA and the SESS has resources and a pilot project, Equality of Challenge. So, progress is being made and some groundwork has been done. However, in reality for the vast majority of us, nothing is happening. I propose that we stop waiting around for change and we just get on with it by connecting with each other and working together.

Twitter is a great place for this to begin. As one teacher commented: "For me Twitter is like the biggest staffroom in the world. Full of wonderful, inspirational, helpful people". Here is a tiny example of what our teachers are up to:

@HumphreyJones is a science teacher in St Columbas College in Dublin. He also has a blog. 

@TheFrogBlog is the science department of St Columba's  and has an award-winning blog, The Frog Blog.

@sccenglish is the English department of St Columba's has a fantastic English blog.

@physicsteacher, Noel Cunningham from King's Hospital School, has a superb physics blog: thinkforyourself.ie

@simonmlewis, Simon Lewis, is the Principal of Carlow Educate Together NS. He runs two sites which are fantastic resources for primary school teachers:  anseo.net and mash.ie.

If you ever need proof that Ireland has teachers with passion, check these guys out. I was completely blown away by how they tweeted and blogged all summer long...we even had some tweets from France! (Not sure how that went down with their wives...)

We all have so much to learn from each other. Through social media tools like Twitter and blogs, we have an opportunity like never before to really engage and collaborate; to dispel the myths and false ideas we have about each other. We all want the same thing: to support and encourage our children as they negotiate their way through our education system into adulthood. We need to support and encourage each other too.