Dos and Don'ts of Implementing School-based Gifted Education
1. Vision and rationale of school-based gifted education
Dos |
Don'ts |
Recognise both of students' potential and achievements through multiple means. |
Label particular students as "gifted" and others "non-gifted" based on achievements. |
Celebrate students' achievements based on the multiple intelligences approach. |
Emphasise academic results as the sole indicator of success. |
Identify and cater for students' diverse forms of giftedness through the consensus and commitment fostered among staff. |
Identify gifted students with sole reference to acedmic achievements. |
2. School administration and management structures
Dos |
Don'ts |
Establish a designated team to discuss and formulate a school-based gifted education policy addressing both the cognitive and affective needs of gifted students. |
Adopt a laissez-faire approach to install short-term measures in response to the needs of gifted students. |
Ensure full undertstanding of the school-based education policy among all staff through different communication channels. |
Formulate the school-based gifted policy by the middle and senior management and inform all staff at general meetings only. |
Define clearly the roles undertaken by different staff involved in the different school-based gifted education provision. |
Involve staff in undertaking different parts of the school-based gifted education provision on a voluntary basis only. |
Strategically arrange appropriate professional development for members of the designated team as well as other frontline teachers. |
Encourage teachers to attend professional development programmes out of their interest. |
Develop an open and fair mechanism to identify gifted students for nurturing holistic development. |
Request individual teachers to spot and identify gifted students from their own observations. |
3. Learning and teachning in school-based gifted programmes
Dos |
Don'ts |
Infuse the core elements of gifted education (i.e.creativity, higher-order thinking and personal-social competence) in regular classroom learning for all students (Level 1 provision). |
Focus on KLA-based knowledge and leave the core elements of gifted education to programmes designated for gifted students. |
Spot and identify students with good performance and potential through the Level 1 provision to inform the planning and provision of school-based pull-out gifted programmes (Level 2 provision). |
Provide pull-out activities open to all students with consideration of teachers' expertise and resources only. |
Identify and select students to Level 2 and Level 3 programmes through a well-defined multiple-criteria selection mechanism. |
Identify and select students to Level 2 and Level 3 programmes based on a single criterion, e.g by students' academic achievements. |
Cater for both the cognitive and affective development of gifted students . |
Emphasise only the cognitive needs (acdemic domains) of gifted students at the expense of their affective development. |
Evaluate all prgrammes/services to inform the school of the students progress and future development of provision. |
Evaluate all programmes/services for appraisal and accountability purposes. |
4. Pastoral care for gifted students
Dos |
Don'ts |
Develop a holistic plan of provision to cater for the learning and life planning of gifted students taking into account of their affective needs. |
Provide only counselling and remedial affective education programmes to gifted students with maladjusted behaviour. |
Inform all staff of an open, clear referral mechanism with reference to suggestions from EDB to identify and follow up with gifted students with special educaitonal needs. |
Only student guidance personnel are consulted for proper follow-ups of gifted cases which potentially require special attention. |
5. Resources deployment
Dos |
Don'ts |
Examine the ambit of different school funds to plan for optimal use for school-based gifted education provision. |
Allocate school funds to different department/functional sections upon requests from coordinators only. |
Keep exploring resources that could be tapped from different stakeholders to enrich and support gifted education provision. |
Rely on government funding for supporting gifted education provision. |