Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts with the label Gifted education

Metaphor Use and Understanding as a Sign of Gifted Intelligence

Analytical thinking is not the only way to test for giftedness. The use of metaphors also offers an opportunity to understand how language uses certain skills that are also part of the process of creative and intelligent thinking. The researchers Tan, et. al. (2013) found that metaphor sections of the Aurora Battery affords a selection process of gifted through the use of comparative, categorical, and evaluative thinking while mapping literal and figurative meanings from one word to another. The use of metaphors can be a sign of one’s intelligence. Metaphors are not simple statements and rely on literal and figurative understandings to make meaning. To use metaphors well requires categorical, comparative, evaluative thinking. This is a mapping of meanings from one word to the next and establishing connections of words that may be different.   It requires a deeper analysis of language. Their study looked at whether metaphor comprehension is an appropriate task for gifted ide

Saving Gifted Butterflies with Service Learning

Service learning can help high school and college students raise their grades and connect to a wider world. A paper by Bruce-Davis and Chancy (2012) discuss to a greater degree how service learning improves upon the platform for regular students but can help gifted students reach new heights. Education isn’t always stuffed in some dusty book and can include practical application of interests. Once engaged, gifted students can engage for years until breakthroughs are created. Gifted learners are often underachievers. Their brains work at a capacity where standard curriculum bores them right out of school and directly into the school of life. This is why history is full of the genius drop out. Adding on top of this, teacher misperceptions, rigid classroom structures, and improper social relations, the school system can seem more like a prison system.  Gifted learners underachieve because there is little to achieve for. If their classmates are focused on the latest He Man to

Understanding the Universal Traits of High Performance

Giftedness is often seen in the context of culture and therefore may only partially explain the phenomenon. The authors Foreman and Renzulli (2012) argue that giftedness should be seen as those unique traits that apply to the population across various cultural vantage points. As each culture emphasizes certain behaviors as appropriate they inherently skew the recognition of the traits that lead to higher performance.   Having universal and global gifted traits will help in the proper identification and development of this unique population. North American scholars are seen as advanced within their gifted assessment and understanding. They still struggle with finding practical applications of such ability and falter under the multiple perspectives and conceptions. Certain traits may be more universal in nature and transcend local cultures depending on which philosophical perspective the researcher desires to take. Philosophical traditions focus on different fundamental aspec

The State of Gifted Education in Finland

Picture by Dr. Andree Swanson Different educational opportunities are needed to develop the highly gifted to create national innovation and development. Kirsi Tirri and Elina Kuusisto (2013) studied the gifted educational opportunities in Finland and found that even with recent improvements the nation is still suffering from a complete understanding of this population. Improvements are being made to spur national innovation but there is a general lack of funding, understanding, and research on this population.  Most international tests indicate that Finland appears to do well on science, math and reading tests. Education is free but this has created a reliance on public education with little variability within the market. Most of the education focuses on the average student and those who are considered special needs but fosters few educational opportunities for the gifted.  To many administrators and decision-makers education is seen as a national investment. It is beli