Cognition

“Gifted and talented education is not rocket science,” says Dr Jenny Horsley, the Professional Leader for Cognition Education’s gifted and talented education project. “It’s just good practice.”

By using existing assessment data as a starting point, Dr Horsley believes that teachers can develop differentiated  programmes so that students of all abilities are catered for. Once that has been established, they can move to identifying other characteristics of giftedness.

“We want to empower teachers to use the data and information they already have to identify which students are highly able.”

Dr Horsley is a lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington and has recently completed a Fulbright-CERT scholarship in gifted and talented education at Johns Hopkins University, Center for Talented Youth in the United States. She is passionate about what we can do here in New Zealand for gifted and talented students.

“Identifying gifted students is often a contextual issue. A lot depends on the values of the community a child is in and the characteristics of that community. Identifying those values in relation to giftedness and talent can be a challenge, and some teachers can also find the idea of developing a differentiated programme challenging, although it really shouldn’t be.”

An Education Review Office report in 2008 suggested that New Zealand schools need support with meeting the needs of high ability Maori, Pacific Islander and rural school students.

The Ministry of Education is helping to support schools with this through Professional Learning Communities as part of their service agreement. Low-decile and rural schools are invited to send teachers to these workshops. Cognition will then work with these teachers over the rest of the year to address how they meet the needs of high ability students in their classes and schools.

“We would hope that the outcome will be differentiated programmes in their classes and that these teachers ultimately help other teachers in their school to do the same,” says Dr Horsley.

“We would also like to see the schools developing sustainable programmes for gifted and talented education.”

Above level testing is something that Dr Horsley would like to see happen more in New Zealand. This means that if students are performing well at their level, they can then be tested at a higher level.

Teachers will then know what level the child is performing at in a particular subject and can give them work at that level. This is described as an optimal match between the student’s needs and their learning programme.

“If you assess well, and use the data to make decisions about what you are going to teach, then you are able to plan to meet student needs,” Dr Horsley says.

“We’re trying to focus on what schools are already doing and empower them to look at what the data tells them and use that to help all their students, but particularly those who demonstrate high-academic potential or ability.

“It’s definitely worth while doing. These kids are the future of New Zealand. They’ll be our leaders one day and we need leaders from all walks of society.”

Her recent study of those factors that successful NZQA Scholarship recipients perceived to have facilitated their success showed that successful students have teachers who believe in them. Parents, families and communities also make a difference, but students perceive the teacher is the overriding factor in their success.

“For students to be successful, the class has to well organised with teachers using a range of teaching and learning strategies. The teacher also needs to believe in the students and articulate that belief,” says Dr Horsley.

“This is good practice anyway, and good practice is what is required to meet the needs of all students, and particularly those who demonstrate – or have the potential to demonstrate – exceptional ability.”

Cognition Education is running Gifted and Talented symposia on behalf of the Ministry of Education and Jenny Horsley is one of the facilitators. For more information please click here.