Selecting Instructional Strategies for Gifted Learners

Abstract

Teachers employ certain techniques and delivery systems in the classroom to provide appropriate curricula to gifted learners. Most instructional strategies have some value in working with the gifted, but those strategies that allow for more open-ended, interactive, and generative learning behavior are probably most beneficial. How do we know what strategies work? One way is to examine the strategies used in exemplary programs that reflect positive growth gains for gifted learners. Four programs that meet this criterion are the William and Mary language arts and science curriculum, Junior Great Books, Philosophy for Children, and Man: A Course of Study (MACOS). Students exposed to these programs have demonstrated growth gains in critical thinking and interpretation of written material (Lipman, 1988; Norris, 1985; Sternberg & Bhana, 1986; VanTassel-Baska, Zuo, Avery, & Little, 2002), and scientific research skills (VanTasselBaska, Bass, Ries, Poland, & Avery, 1998). The common instructional strategy across these programs is inquiry, the use of questions to stimulate and expand thinking about what has been read, experienced, or seen. Thus, gifted educators typically promote inquiry and question asking as key elements in gifted programs. Another way to ascertain effective strategies is to observe what exemplary teachers of the gifted do to facilitate growth in their students. Martinson ( 197 4) developed an observational rating scale for recording the behaviors of gifted teachers. Subsequent adaptations to that scale have sought to extend our understanding of teacher behaviors based on general teacher education research as well as our understanding of what works with the gifted (VanTassel-Baska, 1995). The behaviors evaluated in teachers of the gifted in the Saturday and summer programs at the College of William and Mary consist of the following: