Schools' Provision for Gifted and Talented Students: Good Practice (June 2008)* 01/06/2008

Acceleration

Involving curriculum activities at challenging levels.

asTTLe

Assessment Tools for Teaching and Learning (asTTle) gives teachers good information about their students’ achievement and progress in reading, writing and mathematics. The tool is specially designed for New Zealand students from Year 4 to Year 12, including those learning in Māori‑medium.

Australasian Schools Competitions

Now called the International Competitions and Assessments for Schools, these competitions are run by Educational Assessment Australia, operated by the University of New South Wales. They have assessment in the following subject areas: science, spelling, writing, mathematics, computer skills, and English.

CREST

CREST is a national awards system administered by the Royal Society of New Zealand designed to encourage student projects in science and technology. Undertaking a CREST project gives students authentic experience in scientific investigation or technological practice of their own choice, working with a consultant from industry.

de Bono’s Thinking Hats

Edward de Bono’s six Thinking Hats represent different thinking strategies – factual, emotional, critical, positive, creative, process.

Emotional intelligence

A non-cognitive skill of understanding and managing other people. Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences includes both interpersonal intelligence (capacity to understand the intentions, motivations, and desires of other people) and intrapersonal intelligence (the capacity to understand oneself, to appreciate one’s feelings, fears, and motivations).

Enrichment

Providing additional activities to broaden understanding.

Extending High Standards Across Schools

Extending High Standards Across Schools (EHSAS) is designed to raise student achievement by promoting excellence among New Zealand's schools. Funding is made available to successful schools to improve student outcomes by developing and extending their proven practice in collaboration with other schools in a self-selected cluster. The emphasis is on develop of around what works to improve student outcomes.

The principles behind EHSAS are to raise student achievement by promoting excellence in the school system and supporting high standards. EHSAS projects can run for up to four years and schools can only be involved in one EHSAS project at a time.

Future Problem Solving

Future Problem Solving is a year‑long programme where students, working in teams, learn and apply a six-step problem solving process that provides them with the tools to tackle problems that they will meet throughout their life. Throughout the year, students apply the process to consider the challenges and issues contained in complex social and scientific problems to be faced in the future or tackle existing problems in their own communities. The programme encourages students to carry out in-depth research, to think creatively and critically, to apply ethical thinking skills and to work as part of a team.

Gifted Education Advisory Support

The Ministry of Education provides additional funding in the School Support Services Contract for the delivery of gifted education advisory support to schools.

GLOSS

Global Strategy Stage test determines which global strategy a student uses. This test is part of the Numeracy Project development.

Habits of Mind

The 16 Habits of Mind identified by Costa and Kallick are a composite of many skills, attitudes and proclivities including: value, inclination, sensitivity, capability, and commitment.

Inquiry learning

Inquiry-based learning is a constructivist approach, in which students have ownership of their learning. It starts with exploration and questioning and leads to investigation into a worthy question, issue, problem or idea. It involves asking questions, gathering and analysing information, generating solutions, making decisions, justifying conclusions and taking action. Inquiry-based learning approaches can help develop higher-order, information literacy and critical thinking skills. They can also develop problem-solving abilities and develop skills for lifelong learning.

Kaitiakitanga

Guardianship of knowledge, environment, and resources.

Learner centred, self-paced, integrated approach

This approach to learning incorporates the following pedagogies:

• a differentiated classroom programme designed to meet the needs of individual students rather than a one size fits all approach;
• learning where students set the pace, meaning that gifted and talented students are able to focus more indepth on a particular aspect of their topic; and
• a programme that includes content from a range of learning areas, encouraging students to see the connection between learning areas.

Learning intentions

Making learning explicit to students by using language they understand to explain what they are learning.

Manaakitanga

Hospitality, kindness, generosity.

Matauranga

Education, knowledge, wisdom, understanding, skill

Multi‑categorical

Gifted and talented students represent students with many different special abilities. Some may be gifted and talented in science or mathematics, others in visual arts or literacy, and others in leadership. Gifted and talented does not only include students with high intelligence.

MYAT

The Middle Years Ability Test (MYAT) is a test of general ability designed to assist teachers in their assessment of students aged 10 to 15 years. As well as verbal and numerical reasoning items in the tradition of the Australian Council of Educational Research Intermediate Tests, MYAT includes non-verbal (or abstract) reasoning items, giving a more complete picture of students’ general ability.

NumPA

Numeracy Project Assessment is a diagnostic assessment tool that gives teachers information about number knowledge and strategies. There is a version of NumPA (Te Poutama Tau) for students in Māori immersion classes.

PATs

Progressive Achievement Tests are standardised tests developed by the New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER). There are PATs for Year 4 to Year 10 students in reading comprehension, reading vocabulary and mathematics. There is a listening comprehension PAT for Year 3 to Year 10 students.

Purdue Academic Rating Scales

The Purdue Academic Rating Scales were developed to give secondary teachers an opportunity to evaluate students specifically as learners in English, foreign languages, science, mathematics, and social studies. Teachers often comment that general rating scales for identifying the gifted contain items that the teachers had no opportunity to observe. These scales are derived directly from teachers’ classroom experience with superior students. Teachers can also use the Purdue underachieving gifted profile.

Questioning skills

Skills to help students to develop better questioning by understanding the features of an effective question and the skills of an effective questioner. Rather than ask close questions, students learn to ask relevant, open questions based on what, who, when, why, where, which, and how.

Rangatiratanga

Self-determination, self-management, leadership inspiring unity.

School Entry Assessment

SEA is a standardised assessment procedure that can be used to collect information on the skills, knowledge and understanding of new entrants. The teacher usually tests children about four to eight weeks after they have started school.

Scaffolding

A teaching strategy where the teacher supports the student in their development and provides support structures to achieve the next step in their learning. The goal of scaffolding is for the student to become an independent learner and problem solver.

Six Year Net or Six Year Observation Survey

The six-year observation survey is a comprehensive assessment of each six-year-old child’s progress in reading and writing. The six‑year net helps teachers to find students who have reading difficulties early.

SOLO Taxonomy

The SOLO taxonomy stands for Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes. Developed by Biggs and Collis, it describes levels of increasing complexity in a student’s understanding of a subject. The five stages are pre-structural, uni-structural, multi-structural, relational, and extended abstract.

Stanines

A stanine indicates a student’s rank in comparison with other students who took the same test. Stanines are expressed as a scale of nine units with a low of one and a high of nine. The scale follows a bell-curve, where 20 percent of the students fit in stanine five, four percent in stanine nine, and four percent in stanine one.

STAR

Supplementary Test of Achievement in Reading. The New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER) developed STAR. It identifies students who need extra help in reading. Teachers also use the information to group students for reading.

Success criteria

Making learning explicit to studetns by providing them with criteria to measure their success.

Talent Development Initiative

The Talent Development Initiatives Funding Pool is available through the Ministry of Education as part of the New Zealand Government's gifted education policy. The purpose of the funding pool is to support:

• the development of innovative approaches in gifted education that result in improved outcomes for gifted and talented students;
• research into the impact innovative approaches have on learning and teaching; and
• the sharing of knowledge, understanding, and models of effective practice with others in the education sector.

Teacher Observation Scales

Used to identify children with special abilities in five characteristics domains: learning, social leadership, creative thinking, self‑determination, and motivational.

Te mahi rahi

Physical and artistic performance.

Thinking Maps

David Hyerle has created eight thinking maps geared toward triggering certain types of thinking. Each of the eight Thinking Maps is based on a fundamental cognitive skill such as comparing and contrasting, sequencing, classifying, and cause-effect reasoning.

Thinking skills

Giving students the skills to be creative, critical and metacognitive thinkers so they can make sense of information, experiences, and ideas. These skills help them to develop understanding, solve problems, make decisions, shape actions, and construct knowledge. Examples of thinking skills programmes include: de Bono’s Thinking Hats, Thinking Maps, Bloom’s Taxonomy, Philosophy for Children (P4C), Future Problem Solving, and Thinker’s Keys.

Tikanga

Procedure, custom, protocol that reinforce beliefs and values.

Tuakana-teina

Tuakana/teina refers to the relationship between an older (tuakana) person and a younger (teina) person and is specific to teaching and learning in the Māori context. Within teaching and learning contexts, this can take a variety of forms:

• Peer to peer – teina teaches teina, tuakana teaches tuakana.
• Younger to older – the teina has some skills in an area that the tuakana does not and is able to teach the tuakana.
• Older to younger – the tuakana has the knowledge and content to pass on to the teina.
• Able to less able – the learner may not be as able in an area, and someone more skilled can teach what is required.

See http://www.tki.org.nz/r/hpe/exploring_te_ao_kori/planning/methods_e.php

Wairuatanga

Spirituality.

WALTs

WALTs (We Are Learning To…) are expected or intended learning outcomes for students.

Whānaungatanga

Kinship, connecting as one people, family values and relationships.