Giftedness     

Spring 2019 

Nancy Kim, Brae Schaan, and Hannah Taves.     

Three Types of Giftedness:      

● Giftedness Exceptionality  

Gifted exceptionality as defined by the British Columbia Ministry Education, “​A student is
considered gifted when she/he possesses demonstrated or potential abilities that give evidence
of exceptionally high capability with respect to intellect, creativity, or the skills associated with
specific disciplines. Students who are gifted often demonstrate outstanding abilities in more than
one area. They may demonstrate extraordinary intensity of focus in their particular areas of
talent or interest. However, they may also have accompanying disabilities and should not be
expected to have strengths in all areas of intellectual functioning” ​(British Columbia- Ministry Of
Education, 2006) 

● Twice Exceptional  

Students who are twice exceptional can fall under these two categories, those with disabilities whose
gift generally mask their disabilities, or those whose disabilities so severe that they mask the gift (Baum
& Owen, 1988) 

● Gifted Learning Disability  

Gifted Learning disability behaviour that results from the interaction of high capability and a 
learning disability that may create socio-emotional problems as a student struggles to 
understand why they can know the answer but unable to say it or write or correctly (Reis & 
Colbert, 2004) 

Learning and Behaviour Challenges  

● ​ ​Social-emotional – Gifted students often feel that they are different from their peers, 
which often leads to bullying, and depression 
● Zone of Proximity - Task/content the teacher gives students is not challenging enough. It is
important for students to reach their ZOP for optimal learning to take place.
● Setting unrealistic goals – Gifted students are often their own toughest critic. As educators, we
have to teach students healthy perspectives
● ​Guilt – Students often feel that they have to peer tutor their peers, and assist the teacher in the
lesson. They have this overwhelming pressure to give back to the class.
● ​Perfectionism – Overachieving
○ Being sensitive to criticism

 
  
○ ​ ​Some students may be excelling in some subjects, and not in others. In which
drives their perfectionism because they feel like they need to be perfect all around.

○ ​Often associated abdominal pain, eating disorders, and obsessive-compulsive

personality disorders
● Impatience – Sometimes gifted children feel they need to be perfect therefore have the need to
be able to understand something immediately. Students will get flushed, angry, or upset
● ​There is usually a characteristic overlap between gifted students and emotional problems such
as ADHD, ASD, and OCD

Assessment Tools 
● By compacting the curriculum you are able to streamline the student through. First, the teacher
will access prior knowledge by looking at student portfolios, or testing. Then you modify or
remove any content that the student has already mastered.

● ​By looking at their portfolio, it provides insight into what skills they have. Once a teacher
determines where the student is, the teacher can then implement differentiation strategies for
an inclusive class  
● ​Gifted assessments may include:
○ Intellectual testing
○ Achievement testing
○ Supplementary testing
○ Supplementary psycho-educational testing

List of Strategies  
● Flexible grouping – grouping students according to strengths, needs and interest

○ Sometimes this can lead to the gifted child feeling guilty that they have to help their
peers → Try to limit this
● Multi-level stations
○ Each student working on similar content with a variety of complexity
○ Create meaningful/enriching class discussions
● Differentiating lessons
● Product Choice/Tiered Assignments– Allowing the student to choose the final product to
demonstrate their learning.

o This allows the student to demonstrate their understanding of the context/topic without their
disability getting in the way

o Inclusive to the whole class

● Community of Learners
● Provide consistent, frequent, and specific feedback & setting up for success