Abstract
Curricular experiences designed for gifted students adhere to many of the defined and accepted elements of differentiation that have been accepted by educators over time. Each of the following examples references traits that align with the expectations that challenge gifted students across grade levels: defining and substantiating alternative perspectives, relating focused subject matter to many and varied subjects or disciplines to achieve interdisciplinarity, and considering the multiple interpretations and applications of a broad statement or “big idea.”
Differentiated Options
Consider multiple points of view that could be related and substantiated to a stated perspective in the study of a scientific phenomenon such as the use of robotics in medicine.
Select a feature of a genre or category of artistic representation in literature or the arts. Investigate the interdisciplinary relationships of this feature to other disciplines. For example, how do the features relevant to character analysis in fiction relate to character depictions in art and history?
Define the multiple meanings of the statement: “Power can be destructive, productive, and/or instructive” as it applies to the study of science fiction.
The question is not whether these examples of differentiation meet the accepted criteria or expectations for differentiation. The question is whether these examples are sufficient to accommodate the intellectual as well as the affective needs of gifted students. The inclusion of an additional dimension to differentiation has the potential to promote affective development to the intended academic outcomes derived from the gifted students’ curricular differentiated experiences.
The new dimension suggested to support affective development includes a set of questions that initiate the development of self-awareness as a student and gifted learner. These questions shift emphasis from academic success as the primary purpose of differentiation to acquiring understanding of the “self as a learner.” The assessment of the product or outcome of differentiation is often aligned to the work sample and not to the worker, to the qualities exhibited in the task and not the traits administered by the learner who performs the task and judged by general external rather than internally imposed criteria applicable to the student. In some situations, a gifted students’ involvement in differentiated experiences is intended to validate their identification as a gifted individual. In these experiences, there is a disregard for the gifted students’ identification of the self as a unique learner. Educators can shift the emphasis from accolades given to the performance of the task to using the task for students to understand their performance as a means to understand themselves as a learner.
The shift in emphasis from assessing the intellectual outcomes from differentiated performance to assessing the nature of the gifted student as a learner can be achieved by considering responses to these questions as a result of the differentiated learning experience.
Self-Reflection Questions
How does the differentiated task emphasize the ACCUMULATION of information rather than an APPRECIATION for the information?
How does the differentiated experience relate to a SPECIFIC CONTEXT rather than its application ACROSS UNIVERSAL PROBLEMS and EVENTS?
How does the differentiated experiences accomplished NOW (or in the PRESENT) provide understanding of what can accomplished in the FUTURE?
How does the differentiated experience completed inform YOU of your SCHOLARSHIP and your future abilities as a SCHOLAR?
How does the differentiated experience accomplished meet general classroom EXPECTATIONS for the task and/or your abilities to ACTUALIZE or utilize your interests, abilities, and potential as you perceive them?
How does the accomplished differentiated experience have relevance or applicability IN or BEYOND the dimensions of the SCHOOL as a time and place?
Among the goals and definitions of differentiated curricular experiences for gifted students is the need to recognize and respond to the characteristics of giftedness. Simultaneous to underscoring this objective should be the consistent outcome to plan and implement differentiated curricular experiences that reveal and support the gifted students’ opportunities for self-understanding as a learner. One primary source for gifted students to understand giftedness and their affiliation to the label of being gifted is the set of differentiated curricular experiences extended to them. “I am” statements often are derived from and are correlated with the differentiated experiences. These statements can include the following comments:
I am a fast learner.
I receive all As.
I am in the top reading group.
I am a good student.
While these statements are indicators of learning, they are general and in essence, only describe the achievement of the differentiated experience in contrast to the specific “I learned this about myself as a learner” outcomes. These statements are void of specifically defined responses that reveal self-reflection of attributes that define the self as a learner. The set of self-reflection questions shift emphasis from assessing the differentiated experiences as solely an academic outcome to a process that enables students to probe their intellectual abilities as a gifted student. To this end, the differentiated curricular experiences can have both specific academic task and intellectually personal outcomes. The differentiated experience afforded to gifted students should promote the academic prowess of a student and simultaneously promote the individualistic awareness of self as a scholar.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Bio
Sandra N. Kaplan, EdD, is a clinical professor at the University of Southern California and Past-President of the National Association for Gifted Children. She may be reached at University of Southern California, Rossier School of Education, Waite Phillips Hall 1002C, Los Angeles, CA 90089.