“GIFTEDAND TALENTED

STUDENTS”

By
Abrar Riaz

(Educational Psychology)
Introduction:
Gifted children were thought be mentally rich, having high intelligence and above average I.Q
scores but today the concept of giftedness has expanded from high mental abilities to physical,
social and academic excellence. Gifted students learn easily and rapidly and retain what they have
learned.
Definition
“According to Renzuli and Reis (1991) giftedness is defined as a combination of three basic
characteristics;
• Above average general ability
• A high level of creativity and
• A high level of task commitment or motivation to achieve”.
(Renzuli and Reis, 1991)

“A very bright, creative and talented student is called a gifted student.”

(as cited in Woolfolk, 2004)
Classification of Gifted Children/Students
They are classified in three categories according to their I.Q. scores, as under
• Superior with I.Q. 116-124.
• Gifted having I.Q. 125-140.
• Extremely Gifted-Genius or Super Genius with I.Q above 140.
Characteristics of Gifted Children/Students
 Positives
L.M Terman and M.H. Oden (1925, 1947 and 1959) in their longitudinal study of 1528 gifted
males and females found out the following positive characteristics.
 I.Q. score 140 and above on Stanford-Binet test.
 Stronger and healthier than normal.
 Emotionally more stable better adjusted than average.
 Superior in all personality traits like physical-mental health, social adjustment, emotional
stability, academic achievements sports-athletics and diversity of interests.
 More highly qualified and expert in their professional field.
 Negatives
Researchers also find out that some of the gifted children may have some negative
characteristics which creates difficulty in their social-emotional adjustment and health.
 Few people understand them.
 Being teased by children for being smart.
 Difficulty in accepting their own emotions due to mismatch between their mind and emotions.
 Impatience with friends, parents and teachers due to not sharing of their interests and abilities.
 Adjustment problems especially for children with I.Q. above 180. (Keogh and Macmillan,
1996)
Strategies for Identifying and Teaching Gifted Students
 Assessment (Recognizing Gifts and Talents):
Assessing and identifying the gifts and talents is not an easy job, however these can be
assessed through objective
 I.Q. scores,
 Rating scale for leadership, creativity, learning and motivational force and
 Subjective evaluations based on observations of teachers and parents.
 Many psychologists recommend a case study approach to identifying gifted students.
(Renzuli and Reis, 1991; Sisk, 1980).
 Teaching Gifted Students:
Some educators believe that gifted students should be
 Accelerated-move quickly through the grades or through the particular subjects.
 Other educators prefer enrichment-giving the students additional, more sophisticated
and more thought provoking work but keeping them with their age mates in school
(Torrance, 1986).
 Example: How to Teach and Modify Content for Students with Gifts and Talents

Subject →
Modification
Technique ↓
Math Science Language Arts Social Studies
Acceleration Algebra in 5th grade Early chemistry and Learning grammatical Early introduction to
physics structure early world history
Enrichment Changing bases in Experimentation and data Short story and poetry Reading biographies for
number systems. collecting writing historical insight
Sophistication Mastering the laws of Learning the laws of Mastering the structural Learning and applying
arithmetic physics properties of plays, principles of economics
sonnets and so on

Novelty Probability and statistics Science and its impact on Rewriting the novels, Creating future societies
society writings with happy and telling how they are
endings governed
Source: (cited in Woolfolk, 2004)