(4) Rationale for gifted education (29% – 1200 words
Purpose:
As a culminating task at the end of this topic, it is an important activity to reflect back on the conceptions of giftedness and creativity that have been described and discussed and elaborated, and now consider the ‘so what?’ factor. This assignment asks students to consider ‘why gifted education?’ as it is critical to be able to communicate one’s informed and defensible beliefs about why we should advocate for and promote gifted education. When schools set about the task of writing or reviewing their policy for gifted students, the school community should discuss the rationale and this should articulate with the school’s philosophy and policies about other aspects of education and special needs groups of students. As someone who has undertaken studies in gifted education, you may be a key person involved in writing or reviewing a policy for gifted education, so it is important that you are able to reflect on your own philosophy of gifted education and articulate a defensible rationale for gifted education.
Task:
The question “Why gifted education?” appears to be deceptively simple. In this final essay, students are required to examine the place of gifted education in their own educational context, and to present the most convincing arguments that can justify their response. Refer to topic and wider reading and research to develop your rationale for gifted education in your stated educational context. Resources: Every article and book that you will read over the semester will help to provide knowledge and understandings about the purpose of gifted education, so as you work your way through the topic content, keep this final assignment in mind and note down any ideas (and the citation details) as they occur. Your critical reflections will have focused on reasons why other people may not see that gifted education is necessary, so Assignments 2 and 3 are intended to sharpen your insights into the nature and purpose of gifted education and its relationship to general educational provision.
Resources:
Every article and book that you will read over the semester will help to provide knowledge and understandings about the purpose of gifted education, so as you work your way through the topic content, keep this final assignment in mind and note down any ideas (and the citation details) as they occur. Your critical reflections will have focused on reasons why other people may not see that gifted education is necessary, so Assignments 2 and 3 are intended to sharpen your insights into the nature and purpose of gifted education and its relationship to general educational provision. The expectation is that your rationale would be supportive of gifted education, but it is also important to consider the alternative view, so I encourage you to consider Borland’s position – read Chapter 8 in the textbook. Borland has also written articles about this, and has contributed a book chapter in Sternberg, R. J., & Davidson, J. E. (Eds.). (2005). Conceptions of giftedness (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Consider also the Federal goals of education that are relevant to your country and think about how gifted education ‘fits’ within national goals. Australian education is underpinned by the Melbourne Declaration (2008) http://www.mceecdya.edu.au/mceecdya/melbourne_declaration,25979.ht ml Phillipson, S., & McCann, M. (Eds.). (2007). Conceptions of giftedness: Sociocultural perspectives. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
This book looks at giftedness across different cultural contexts, and may offer some different perspectives to consider.
NAGC’s website is always a good resource, and this short article about
advocacy may give you some ideas: http://www.nagc.org/index.aspx?id=697