Program Models, Structures, and Organizations

Structures and Models

Conceptual Frameworks

• One of the conceptualizations often used in gifted education, Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: Handbook I: Cognitive Domain, can be used to plan for learning experiences at many levels to meet the needs of a variety of learners.
• Opportunities to work at more advanced levels are crucial for the more able student.
• The students themselves, after becoming familiar with the taxonomic structure, can analyze and create experiences at each level to motivate their learning.
• Guilford’s Structure of Intellect (SOI) Model provided psychology with a multifactor view of intelligence to replace the single-factor view previously held and introduced creativity as a major part of the concept of intelligence.

Curriculum Models

• In addition to the Integrative Education Model introduced in Chapter 6, models often used in gifted education include the following:
  • The Schoolwide Enrichment Model (Renzulli & Reis),
  • The Grid (Kaplan),
  • The Autonomous Learner Model (Betts & Kercher),
  • The Multiple Intelligence Model (Gardner),
  • The Triarchic Componential Model (Sternberg), and
  • The Parallel Curriculum Model (Tomlinson et al.).
• Districts should be encouraged to find the elements in each model that best fit the conditions and limitations unique to their population and synthesize them into their own district’s plan for gifted education.

Program Organizations and Structures For Gifted Learners in Elementary School

• Our challenge is to find a place for children who may be 6 years old, read like a 10-year-old, write like a 6-year-old, solve mathematics problems like a 12-year-old, talk like a 15-year-old, and handle emotions and hurt feelings like a 4-year-old.
• As was true in the home, the responsive learning environment, in which the child is the guide for the pace and content of learning, is still the best means for optimizing learning at school.
• Some of the educational organizations and structures used with young gifted learners are early admission; nongraded or cross-age-grouped classes; individualized instruction; accelerated promotion (i.e., grade skipping); independent study; mentors; pullout or resource room programs; grouping by ability or need (e.g., clustering in the regular classroom); field trips; after-school, Saturday, or summer enrichment; tutorials; adjunct programs; internships; special classes; magnet schools; and special schools. There can be advantages and limitations to each approach.
• Each district would be well advised to have a wide variety of programs available for the continuum of services needed. Because no one structure can meet the needs of all the gifted learners in any district, providing a range of planned services would be the best practice.
• Individualized classrooms allow more flexibility for the learner and may be combined with clusters, pullout, and nongraded or cross-age grouping with even more effect. Special classes and special schools allow even more needs to be met, especially for the highly gifted students.
• Gifted students in any of the program structures suggested have higher achievement than do gifted students who are in regular classrooms and are not in gifted programs at all.
• It is important to find a way to individualize school learning experiences so that gifted individuals can have their atypical needs met continuously throughout their school career.

Program Organizations and Structures for Gifted Learners in Middle School and High School

• Few special provisions are made for gifted learners during or after sixth grade, when most schools departmentalize their curriculum and the concepts of differentiation and continuous progress are seldom used.
• Modifications to program organization used in middle and high schools to meet the needs of gifted learners include early admission, core academic classes, group seminars, honors classes, mini-courses, personalized instruction, and early entrance to college.
• Program structures and models being used at middle and high schools include school-within-a-school programs, governor’s schools, Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, the Secondary Triad Model, the Autonomous Learner Model, the Purdue Secondary Model, and accelerated college enrollment. Just as was suggested at the elementary level, field trips; after-school, Saturday, or summer classes; independent study; and mentors are other possible elements of programs that can be provided.
• The data indicate that gifted programs in the secondary school make significantly positive differences and are well worth the development and implementation effort.
• A commonly used practice at the secondary level is the establishment of one or two advanced classes into which all gifted students are tracked, regardless of their needs and abilities. However, neither tracking systems nor a few special classes are a complete program that can meet the needs of gifted secondary learners.

Homeschooling: An Alternative Approach

• Students who are highly or exceptionally gifted and for whom provisions such as radical acceleration are unavailable may learn too rapidly or think at levels of abstractness and complexity that are so advanced that placement and materials are not easily available for them. Homeschooling can provide an alternative approach to obtain appropriate education.
• There are many factors that impact the homeschooling decision: the characteristics of the learner, including motivation, self-initiative, independence, and drive; the skill of the parent as teacher; and the accessibility of resources. However, when the fit is right, homeschooling can be very successful.