I can grow up to do many great things. Give me chance now to learn how to use my gift before I lose it forever.
I first thought of doing this course when I saw a positive LinkedIn post form a previous participant. I have found it intriguing how across thousands of teachers who have been part of my inclusive classrooms training, every time I asked about children with additional needs, the assumption was always that we were talking about the deficit side of the spectrum. They never realised it was important to also have the same kind of mindset for children who were gifted & talented.
It is so important to provide the necessary support, access to experiences for growth, space and motivation for a child who is gifted or talented as there can often be a sense of insecurity amongst these children. This really struck me as I moved through the modules and reflected and shared in the assignments.
My research interest is in metacognition, across my masters, dissertation and beyond. I see this fitting in beautifully with gifted and talented children. If a child is at a higher level of cognitive thinking ability and can think about his own thinking and identify what works for him or her, the best results are bound to be better.
My thoughts also take me to the talented identification which makes me believe it is so important to have a multi-disciplinary approach. E.g., if a child is good at playing an instrument, why must it be restricted to performances on stage and accolades in school competitions, why can the talent not be built in as you design a lesson on sound in physics or a history lesson or an English teacher who decides to make children write a descriptive essay after they have seen the music performance from a friend?
I do want to take this learning beyond the certification. The more I think about it, these strategies are not just restricted to the children identified as Gifted & Talented. The strategies can be broad-based as a lot will change in this technology-enabled world. It is about time we moved over to creating experiences that benefit all children according to the needs they display. They have all the knowledge exposure they need – we need to act as facilitators that can show them that we empathise with their needs and can have a growth mindset and the design thinking approach. If not challenged enough to grow, children will not develop to their true potential.
Thank you to Vasundhara Kaul for this lovely review. If you are interested in our Teaching Gifted & Talented Students course, our current self-paced term runs until 26h of August 2021.