Elizabeth Riker reflects on what she has learned about gifted and talented (TAG) students through her course. She discovered that gifted students have cognitive and affective differences beyond just academic intelligence. She became particularly interested in profoundly gifted students with IQs over 180, who ask complex questions, have extensive vocabularies, and excel at math. However, these students can struggle relating to peers and with moral development. If teaching profoundly gifted students, Riker would create individualized learning plans to appropriately challenge and accelerate students at their own paces through university programs, tutors, and real-world experiences.
Elizabeth Riker reflects on what she has learned about gifted and talented (TAG) students through her course. She discovered that gifted students have cognitive and affective differences beyond just academic intelligence. She became particularly interested in profoundly gifted students with IQs over 180, who ask complex questions, have extensive vocabularies, and excel at math. However, these students can struggle relating to peers and with moral development. If teaching profoundly gifted students, Riker would create individualized learning plans to appropriately challenge and accelerate students at their own paces through university programs, tutors, and real-world experiences.
Elizabeth Riker reflects on what she has learned about gifted and talented (TAG) students through her course. She discovered that gifted students have cognitive and affective differences beyond just academic intelligence. She became particularly interested in profoundly gifted students with IQs over 180, who ask complex questions, have extensive vocabularies, and excel at math. However, these students can struggle relating to peers and with moral development. If teaching profoundly gifted students, Riker would create individualized learning plans to appropriately challenge and accelerate students at their own paces through university programs, tutors, and real-world experiences.
Elizabeth Riker reflects on what she has learned about gifted and talented (TAG) students through her course. She discovered that gifted students have cognitive and affective differences beyond just academic intelligence. She became particularly interested in profoundly gifted students with IQs over 180, who ask complex questions, have extensive vocabularies, and excel at math. However, these students can struggle relating to peers and with moral development. If teaching profoundly gifted students, Riker would create individualized learning plans to appropriately challenge and accelerate students at their own paces through university programs, tutors, and real-world experiences.
I have learned so much about the characteristics of TAG students throughout this course! Initially, I was under the belief that students were accepted into the TAG program simply because they were academically smart. However, I learned that there are many cognitive and affective differences within and outside the gifted population. In addition, diverse populations are enhanced by understanding how families and cultures may impact the development of gifted children. I researched Profoundly Gifted students and discovered that they have the capacity to learn that is significantly advanced even beyond the average gifted child. Their IQ range is 180 and above and their occurrence is less than 1 in a million. I was intrigued by this special population because I encountered a lot of students that fit into this description while studying at Vanderbilt University. In my experience, the profoundly gifted students in my classes asked complex questions, had an extensive vocabulary, were able to mentally solve mathematical operations simultaneously, and were exceptional with numbers and puzzles.
After researching this population, I found that these students
struggled with relating to their peers and making moral decisions since they were often put with other students beyond their maturity level. On a personal note, one of my good friends at Vandy is profoundly gifted. He informed me that he did not receive appropriate instruction when he was in mainstream public school because he had already completed the mathematics courses and the teachers at his school were not certified to teach to his level/ appropriately challenge him. If I were to teach profoundly gifted students, then I would need to create individualized learning plans so that the children would not grow bored of the curriculum and would be appropriately challenged/ accelerated. I would offer fast paced courses so that they could learn at their own paces. I would work with university based programs, tutors, counselors, and mentors in order to make learning meaningful, fun, and rigorous. In addition, I would reach out to the community so that the children would know that their learning would directly impact the area around them. It would be my goal for the children to have real world experiences inside and outside of the classroom.
In conclusion, I have learned so much about the
characteristics of TAG students. I was introduced to the characteristics, development, and needs of the gifted learner. I will be mindful of these qualities when I teach my students in the future.