Identifying Gifted Learning in the Regular Classroom : Seeking Intuitive Theories

Identifying instances of gifted thinking in the regular classroom is a continuing challenge for many educators. This chapter links a contemporary model of gifted knowing and learning with identification procedures that are readily implemented in the regular classroom. One way in which students’ learning capacity is displayed in the classroom is through the interpretations or understandings they generate of the teaching. Thinking characteristics of gifted learners include the spontaneous use of high-level fluid analogistic, inferential, analytic, synthetic, and metacognitive strategies. These lead to interpretations that have the characteristics of ‘intuitive theories’. These interpretations differ in their quality from those formed by students who are not gifted. This chapter describes two types of tasks that teachers can use as part of their regular teaching to provide gifted students with the opportunity to display their qualitatively different understanding, concept mapping, and scenario problem-solving. For each task context, summaries will be provided of recent original research studies that show that the task distinguishes between gifted and regular learning students and the characteristics of students gifted in multiple domains. How understanding classification frameworks, such as those provided by Fischer’s (2008)) Dynamic Skill Theory, can be used to analyse and evaluate the understanding generated by students who are gifted in various domains will be explored. The methodology will be included for administering each type of task, the procedures used to interpret outcomes, and the implications for formative assessment and the differentiation of pedagogy and curriculum

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