Syllabus

Course Description

Teaching gifted students provides classroom teachers the strategies and techniques they can use to meet the academic and emotional needs of the gifted and talented. Course content includes practical approaches for challenging the most able students in the regular classroom, pull-out, or full-time classes for gifted students. A course emphasis is upon ways of knowing (epistemology) unique to gifted students, and an appropriate pedagogy to specifically enhance each student's giftedness.

Objectives

• Identify an array of characteristics of the gifted
• Acquire the knowledge and skill to accurately identify gifted and talented students, Pre-K through 12th grade
• Identify a pedagogy and curriculum format that meets the unique attributes of gifted and talented students
• Learn to utilize appropriate instructional strategies for the gifted
• Identify and articulate the social, political, and parental misconceptions faced by teachers of the gifted and talented
• Address the issues and concerns with tests and testing as they relate to the identification, placement, and teaching of gifted and talented students
• Identify the academic needs of students who are gifted
• Use instructional strategies for differentiating the curriculum for students who are gifted
• Identify resources available to use in instructing gifted students
• Examine the emotional dimension of giftedness
• Examine contributions of experts in the field of gifted education

Curriculum Design

Teaching Gifted & Talented Students is a forty five-hour, 3 graduate credit course taught online.

Time Requirements

This course is offered over a period of 15 weeks. Modules are completed over the 15-week period pending length of assignments per week.

Skill and Hardware Requirements

Students may use either a Macintosh computer or a PC with Windows 2000 or higher. Students should possess basic word processing skills and have Internet access as well as an active email account. Students also are expected to have a basic knowledge of how to use a Web browser, such as Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, etc.

Course Materials

The required textbook for this course is When Gifted Kids Don't have All the Answers by Jim Delisle & Judy Galbraith, Free Spirit Publishing, 2002. A variety of readings will be referenced throughout the course. In addition, selected Web resources will be read and reviewed.

Course Outline

Module One: Establishing a Conceptual Framework for Action Research

Contents:

• Course orientation
• History of scientific research
• Action research defined
• Different research approaches
• Research terminology
• The research process
• Four stages of action research

Module Two: Differentiation Between Formal and Action Research

Contents:

• "Here and now" research for immediate application
• A systematic method of inquiry versus the pragmatic use of research tools
• Topic selections
• What if...?
• The problem and its setting
• The focus of action research

Module Three: Basic Principles of Experimental Design and Data Analysis

Contents:

• Developing basic concepts
• Applying basic concepts
• Generating experimental ideas
• Describing experimental procedures
• Constructing tables and graphs
• Writing reports
• Improve problem selection for the action research process.
• To name problems specifically related to teaching and learning in the classroom.

Module Four: Major Concepts

Contents:

• The concept of control (central idea in research)
• Time series experiments
• The sample and selecting the sample
• The hypothesis
• Claims and proof - truth and validity
• Baseline data
• Replication
• Define the concept of research design
• Identify the experimental approach to action research

Module Five: The Design

Contents:

• The proposal
• Research symbols to facilitate design
• Overview of:
• Historical design
• Descriptive
• Analytical
• Emphasis - the experimental design

Module Six: The Data

Contents:

• Related literature
• Collecting data - What data do we collect?
• Sources of data for action research
• Analysis and interpretation of data

Module Seven: The Data Continued

Contents:

• The role of statistics
• Constructing data gathering instruments
• Taking action
• Reporting results - Why and to whom?

Module Eight: Integrating Action Research and Teaching

Contents:

• Rationale for student research
• Strategies for classroom and independent research
• Parental support
• Scheduling student research
• Assessing student research
• Maximizing student research

Module Nine: Related Topics

Contents:

• Critical thinking
• Logic
• Constructivism and action research
• Utilization of technology
• Unleashing imagination - preparation, incubation, persistence
• Creativity - finding new ways, making associations, discovering unexpected solutions

Module Ten: The Research Process

Contents:

• Research as an integrated process
• The problem related to method and analysis
• Student action research safely
• Student action research and the prescribed curriculum
• Relevant case studies of:
• Teacher action research
• Student action research
• Review, the cycle of research
• The action research lesson
• Synthesis

Course Requirements:

1. Forum Activities - Actively participate in all Forum activities. If you post your assignment early, you must go back in the Forum and dialogue with your colleagues. 'I agree' types of replys do not count for credit towards fulfilling this requirement.
2. Reflections - Complete all reading assignments in the textbook, Web sites, and research articles or best practices and answer questions presented in the assignment section. Write an informal reflection as outlined in the assignment and send it in the body of an e-mail message.

Grades
100-93 - A
85-92 - B
75-84 - C

Grading Criteria

Assignments	Maximum Points
Introduction Forum Posting	2 Points
Module 1 Reflection Part 1	5 Points
Module 1 Reflection Part 2	5 Points
Module 1 Forum Posting	2 Points
Module 2 Reflection	5 Points
Module 3 Reflection Part 1	5 Points
Module 3 Reflection Part 2	5 Points
Module 4 Reflection Part 1	5 Points
Module 4 Reflection Part 2	5 Points
Module 4 Reflection Part 3	10 Points
Module 5 Reflection Part 1	5 Points
Module 5 Reflection Part 2	2 Points
Module 6 Forum Posting	2 Points
Module 6 Reflection Part 1	5 Points
Module 6 Reflection Part 2	5 Points
Module 7 Reflection	5 Points
Module 8 Reflection	5 Points
Module 8 Forum Posting	2 Points
Module 9 Reflection	5 Points
Module 10 Reflection Part 1	5 Points
Module 10 Reflection Part 2	5 Points
Module 10 Forum Posting	2 Points

Student Academic Integrity

Participants guarantee that all academic class work is original. Any academic dishonesty or plagiarism (to take ideas, writings, etc. from another and offer them as one's own), is a violation of student academic behavior standards as outlined by the Teacher Education University catalog and is subject to academic disciplinary action.

Bibliography

Berndt, D.J., Kaiser, C.F. & Van Aaalst, F. (1982).  Depression and self-actualization in gifted adolescents.  Journal of Clinical Psychology 38: 142-150.

Boyer, A. (1989).  Surviving the blessing: Parenting the highly gifted child.  Understanding Our Gifted, 1 (3), pp. 5, 17, 20-21.

Cohen, LeoNora M.  Mapping the Domains of Ignorance and Knowledge in Gifted Education.  Roeper Review February/March 1996, Vol. 18 No. 3 p. 183.

Daniel, N. & Cox, J. (1988).  Flexible pacing for able learners.  Reston, VA: The Council for Exceptional Children.  (ED 298 725)

Grost, A. (1970).  Genius in Residence.  Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Higham, S. & Buescher, T.M. (1987).  What young gifted adolescents understand about feeling different.  In T.M. Buescher (Ed.), Understanding gifted and talented adolescents (pp. 26-30).  Evanston, IL: The Center for Talent Development, Northwestern University.

Janos, P.M. & Robinson, N.M. (1985).  The performance of students in a program of radical acceleration at the university level.  Gifted Child Quarterly, 29 (4), 175-179.

Hildreth, D. & Sawyer, P. (2001). Reinvigorating the professorate: Reflections about teaching academically gifted youth. Roeper Review. 23.

Kaiser, C.F. & Berndt, D.J. (1985).  Predictors of loneliness in the gifted adolescent.  Gifted Child Quarterly 29: 74-77.

Kline, B.E. & Meckstroth, E.A. (1985).  Understanding and encouraging the exceptionally gifted.  Roeper Review, 8 (1), 24-30.

Lewis, G. (1984).  Alternatives to acceleration for the highly gifted child.  Roeper Review, 6 (3), 133-136.

Powell, P.M. & Haden, T. (1987).  The intellectual and psychological nature of extreme giftedness.  Roeper Review, 6 (3), 127-130.

Rogers, Karen, A Study of 241 Profoundly Gifted Children.  Online Document, web address: http://www.gifteddevelopment.com/articles/astudyof241extraordgc.htm, June 27, 1998.

Tolan, S.S. (1989).  Special problems of young highly gifted children.  Understanding Our Gifted, 1 (5), 1, 7-10.

Teacher Education University reserves the right to adjust and adapt this syllabus as necessary.