Suggested activities for PGCE sessions



Suggested activities for PGCE sessions

GTIP Think Piece - Gifted and Talented

These activities could be used within one half-day session.

Objectives:

• To become more aware about government policies and initiatives which have focused on gifted and talented pupils

• To develop an understanding of some of the issues surrounding identification and provision for gifted and talented pupils

Opening activity:

It is important to clarify the many terms and acronyms used. One way to start this session would be to brainstorm what trainees understand by the following terms, and to what extent they have already come across these terms on their school placements.

• Ability

• Gifted and Talented

• Aimhigher

• Personalised Learning

• NAGTY

• Extension, enrichment, acceleration

Ability: No single definition of ability exists, and because ideas of ability are linked to cultural values which change over time then so too the notion of ability. There are continuing debates about the role of IQ and creativity as indicators. Some psychologists maintain ability is static and measurable and others consider it to be changeable and influenced by factors such as environment, opportunity and personality. Discussions about the role of nature and nurture continue. Some favour a quantitative definition others a qualitative approach.

For further reading look at Oxford Brookes University website:



Hart, S., Dixon, A., Drummond, M.J. and McIntyre, D. ( 2004) Learning without Limits, Open University Press

Howe M.J.A. (1997) IQ in Questions: The Truth about Intelligence, London: Sage publications

Gifted and Talented: This term is used to describe all learners with gifts and talents and the usual definition, adopted from the DfCSF Excellence in Cities initiative, identifies:

• 'Gifted’ learners as those who have abilities in one or more subjects in the statutory school curriculum other than art and design, music and PE

• 'Talented’ learners as those who have abilities in art and design, music, PE, or performing arts such as dance and drama.

Aimhigher: A national programme run by HEFCE with support form the DfCSF aiming to widen participation in higher education particularly from under-represented groups. Works with 14 to 19 year olds and is part of broader Widening Participation initiative.

Personalised Learning: "Put simply, personalised learning and teaching means taking a highly structured and responsive approach to each child's and young person's learning, in order that all are able to progress, achieve and participate. It means strengthening the link between learning and teaching by engaging pupils - and their parents - as partners in learning." Report of the Teaching and Learning in 2020 Review Group.

The government wants to ensure that education is tailored to individual need, interest and aptitude so that every pupil achieves and reaches the highest standards possible, notwithstanding their background or circumstances, and across the spectrum of achievement. (DfCSF Standards site)

NAGTY. The National Academy for Gifted and Talented established in 2002 at Warwick University providing support for the most able, their teachers and parents and now responsible for establishing the National Register.

Extension, enrichment and acceleration: Extension material usually adds depth, enrichment adds breadth and acceleration adds pace.

Activity One: Identifying gifted geographers

Ask PGCE students to work in small groups and come up with a list of characteristics they think are typical of gifted geographers. They could aim for four or five characteristics, which could be listed on a flip chart for discussion. When the group list has been drawn up, show them the characteristics suggested on the DfCSF National Curriculum web site (see below). Ask them to identify the three characteristics they feel are most important, and to justify this.

Pupils who are gifted in geography are likely to:

• Understand geographical ideas and theories, and apply them to real situations

• Communicate effectively using both the written and spoken word, using the subject specific vocabulary accurately

• Reason, argue and think logically, and can understand, and are able to explain, complex processes and interrelationships, for example, within and between physical and human environments

• Enjoy using graphs, charts, maps, diagrams and other visual methods to present information

• Be confident and contribute effectively when taking part in less formal teaching situations for example take part readily in role-play situations or simulations and enjoy contributing to outdoor fieldwork

• Relate well to other people, showing an ability to lead, manage and influence others, appreciating and understanding others' views, attitudes and feelings

• Be willing to share their knowledge and understanding, and steer discussion

• Have a more highly developed value system than most pupils of their age and have well-considered opinions on issues such as the environment and the inequalities of life in different places

• Have a wide-ranging general knowledge about the world, where places are and about topical issues

• Be able to transfer knowledge from one subject to another

• Be creative and original in their thinking, frequently going beyond the obvious solution to a problem

Adapted from Guidance for teaching Gifted and Talented. DfCSF nc.gt/geography/index.htm

Activity Two: Discuss these two issues with your PGCE students

• Identification of a school’s gifted and talented cohort is usually based on data such as CATs scores, KS2 or KS3 NC test results. This might not identify gifted geographers. How do you think gifted geographers should be identified? What methods were being used in your placement school? What might you need to do as a teacher to make sure gifted geographers you teach are identified? What difficulties might there be?

• OFSTED (2005) reported that some EiC schools were not making good provision for the gifted and talented. One point of criticism was that ‘some pupils were not aware that they had been identified as gifted and talented, and neither were their parents informed’. Do you agree that those identified as gifted and their parents should be informed? What issues arise if they are, or if they are not, told that they are in the school’s gifted and talented cohort?

Activity Three: Identification. How can gifted geographers be supported in the classroom?

In February 2004 OFSTED reported:

“Teachers’ expectations are lower (in geography) than in most other subjects…”

In some schools and in some lessons teachers know which students have been identified as ‘more able’ but seem to make little provision for them beyond a record in their mark book. Providing challenging work for the ‘most able’ should become embedded in classroom practice, and this should be in a way which ensures they make progress rather than providing extension activities which simply ask for ‘more of the same’.

Ask PGCE students how they are going to challenge the ‘most able’ geographers in their classes, and how they are going to show them that they have high expectations of them. Ideas might include:

• Providing challenging work for all, for example through thinking skills (Leat, 1998)

• Using targeted questioning

• Providing scope for good quality extended writing

• Encouraging the use of more sophisticated geographical skills when analysing data

• Expecting better use of geographical vocabulary

• Using recent newspaper articles to stimulate and inform about global events

• Using contrasting case studies to develop depth and breadth of knowledge if possible giving pupils a choice about where or what or how they do this

• Using Teaching Assistants to support gifted pupils

This might be a useful opportunity for the PGCE students to describe successful strategies they have used and to share these with others who could then try them. They might share information about some of the pupils in their classes who might be defined as gifted and what opportunities and challenges this provides for them.

Activity Four: Examining the research

Ask your PGCE students to study the data below which was obtained for the first of an annual series of surveys of a random sample of enrolled members of the National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth (NAGTY), in October 2004. In total there were just over 13,000 NAGTY students and the survey sampled 4,000 of these 2,000 by post and 2,000 by email, using a questionnaire.

The full report can be found here:

School provision for gifted students

| |Percentage responding yes |

|We have special classes for gifted students |14.6 |

|They put me in the top set |67.4 |

|We have after-school activities for gifted students |17.5 |

|They give me more challenging work |22.6 |

|They encouraged me to become a member of NAGTY |64.4 |

|The gifted and talented coordinator organises activities for us |31.7 |

|At our school we all get individual learning plans |3.4 |

|I was allowed to skip year groups |0.9 |

|We can take exams early |17.0 |

|I get access to wider activities beyond the school |21.2 |

|Other (please specify) |8.2 |

Discuss these findings and consider how teachers might address some of the issues raised.

Activity Five: Supporting the ‘gifted’ geographers outside the classroom

Although the DfCSF suggests that the main emphasis of provision for the gifted and talented should be effective classroom practice, there is certainly a place for out-of-hours enrichment activities, and there are many examples of challenging activities and interesting opportunities for gifted geographers. Examples include a targeted group or club in school e.g. organising activities for Fair Trade week, fieldwork visits for a day or longer close to school or further afield; cross curriculum initiatives for example working with historians or linguists, inviting visitors into school or organising visits to local Universities or businesses.

Task for PGCE students

You have been given the task of organising a day’s activities for a group of gifted geographers in Year 9. There are 24 pupils (10% of cohort). Your head of department wants this to challenge the gifted pupils but also to encourage these pupils to choose geography for GCSE. A small amount of funding (£50) is available but anything else you will need to raise or ask for contributions from pupils.

Ask them to work in a group of two or three to come up with a proposal which they think would be feasible and enjoyable and then justify this to the others.

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