Administrators' ratings of competencies needed to prepare preservice teachers for oral deaf education programs

Deaf education teacher preparation programs must prepare teachers to staff an increasing number of oral programs. A survey was conducted to determine which competencies administrators of deaf education programs rate as important for teachers in oral programs and to compare ratings of these competencies by oral school administrators to ratings made by administrators of comprehensive deaf and hard of hearing programs. Between the two groups of administrators, six areas of agreement about competencies were found. There were notable differences in the range of ratings between the two groups. These differences were attributed to the roles teachers assume in the two types of programs and the focus of instruction in each type of program.     

Evaluating state funding for gifted education programs

As a follow‐up to a previous article in which Baker and Friedman‐Nimz (2002a) recommended that gifted education advocates should focus on improving state funding of gifted education, this article provides an overview of state school finance policies for gifted education and frameworks for evaluating those policies. The frameworks are then applied for evaluating state school finance policies as of 1998–99 and state aid allocated to local districts for gifted education in 2000. In that year, only Florida provided both sufficient and equitable support for gifted education, assuming general education conditions to be adequate as well as equitable in that state. Gifted education funding in Virginia, while less adequate than supplemental funding in Florida, continues to be a model of equitable distribution.     

REDSIL: A forth generation evaluation model for gifted education programs

There is a current interest in evaluation of gifted programs. Unfortunately, program evaluation efforts to date have fallen short in terms of usefulness for making program improvements. The REDSIL model is based on different assumptions and uses qualitative methodology in an attempt to overcome shortcomings of previous efforts. This three phase model has been field tested and determined useful.     

Racial experiences influence us as teachers: Implications for gifted education curriculum development and implementation

As African American faculty members, the authors share one narrative from their collective experiences to elucidate how race manifests itself in lived experiences and, thus, curriculum development and implementation. In sharing their experiences and telling this story, the authors make the cogent point that race dces matter (C. West, 1993) in curriculum development and implementation. Because the authors believe that race matters in the curriculum, they challenge gifted education professionals to move beyond colorblindness (D. Y. Ford, J. J. Harris III, C. A. Tyson, & M. Frazier Trotman, 2002; D. Y. Ford, J. L. Moore III, & H. R. Milner, 2004), to think seriously about their own racial experiences, and to think about the racial experiences of their students in developing and implementing curricula. The authors urge and challenge all education professionals to consider how race penetrates the curriculum in a number of ways and what the implications may mean for all students. The authors do not stop at putting out a call for action; in this article, they share a personal, race‐central story, and connect that story to curriculum development and implementation. The authors conclude the article with a discussion of strategies for educators to consider and, ideally, adopt when developing and implementing curricula.     

Values education for gifted adolescents

Teaching values should have an important place in the curriculum of gifted adolescents     

Futures education for the gifted

Futures education is an important area for educators of the gifted who are interested in leadership potential for it develops those skills which students can use to meet the issues and challenges of today's and tomorrow's world.     

Creating ownership in gifted and talented programs

The author explains how classroom teachers can participate in the gifted program and come to regard efforts to meet the special needs of the gifted as a shared responsibility.     

Recent doctoral dissertation research on teachers for gifted

In the Mind's Eye: Visual Thinkers, Gifted People with Learning Disabilities, Computer Images, and the Ironies of Creativity Thomas G. West Prometheus Books, 1991 700 East Amherst St. Buffalo, NY 14215 359 pages, cloth, $24.95

The Challenge of Art to Psychology Seymour B. Sarason Yale University Press, 1990 New Haven CT and London 92 A Yale Station Cloth, $25.00     

Linking theoretical models to actual practices: A survey of teachers in gifted education

A regional survey of teachers of gifted and talented (G/T) programs, grades kindergarten through nine, in a southeastern state, was carried out. The principle foci of the survey were on theoretical models identified and used by teachers, and the importance of perceived outcome goals for children who are gifted. Respondents claimed awareness of several models of intervention but varied widely in the use of these models. Implications of the disparity between awareness and use of models are discussed. Outcome goals ranked by respondents varied in order, based on three grade level groupings of the teachers, most likely indicating changing perceptions of developmental needs as children progress through grade levels.     

Examining the rationale for gifted education

The rationales underlying the enrichment and acceleration approaches to programming for the gifted are analyzed and compared. The focus is on how each approach views questions concerning who are the gifted and how they are best educated. Acceleration emphasizes development of specific cognitive abilities while enrichment is aimed at helping students with certain personality characteristics to organize their abilities into constructive and creative products. The Revolving Door Identification Model debate aired in an earlier issue of this journal is used to illustrate the differences that exist between proponents of enrichment and acceleration programming models.     

Instructional practices of teachers enrolled in educational technology and general education programs

This study investigated classroom practices of 38 teachers enrolled in university masters' degree programs in educational technology and in other areas of education. The classroom practices related to five key concepts associated with educational technology: (a) learner-centered instruction, (b) instructional design, (c) media and technology, (d) assessment, and (e) instructional alignment. Teachers rated their frequency of use of desirable practices in these five areas on a 30-item Likert type survey. In addition, one class of students per teacher rated its own teacher's frequency of use of the practices on 20 items parallel to items on the teacher survey. The mean overall rating across all teachers for the classroom practice items was very close to Often, or 4.0, on the 5-point scale. There were few reported differences between the teachers enrolled in educational technology programs and those enrolled in other education programs. Student ratings indicated less frequent teacher use of the desirable practices on 16 of the 20 common items, with significantly lower student ratings on 8 of these items. However, there was strong teacher-student agreement on several other comparisons.The study reported in this article was conducted as a doctoral dissertation at Arizona State University.     

Providing for affective growth in gifted education

Efforts should be made to include specific affective growth objectives in curricula designed for the gifted.     

Reflective thinking and education for the gifted

Using the questions posed by a gifted twelfth grade girl during on American History class, this article defines the nature of reflective thinking as a search for meaning that involves both imaginative as well as critical, logical thought processes. Such thinking is essentially poetic in nature. The author concludes by drawing implications for the education of gifted persons.     

Ten suggestions for including gifted education in preservice teacher education

Abstract

New teachers have usually had little or no preparation for teaching the gifted students they will all encounter. Undergraduate education programs are crowded, and courses in special education do not usually focus on students who are academically advanced. The authors present ten suggestions for weaving information on gifted students into a variety of experiences, including other education courses, separate workshops or short courses, and opportunities outside the classroom. These suggestions can help prepare teachers for a type of diversity that is often overlooked.     

Policy and practice in gifted education

The main purpose of this study was to investigate how policy has become practice in the area of gifted education in the New South Wales government school system. In general, it was a heuristic study of the articulation of policy and practice. A conceptual framework applied to the policy process was used to consider the extent to which the policy intent was realised. At each level of the policy process perceptions and practice were revealed through interviews, documents, content analyses and, in addition, at the school level, through questionnaires as part of a case study approach. The study clarified and gave validity to general assumptions in the areas of policy-making and gifted education. Findings showed that providing for gifted and talented children was not a priority, was not systematic and was not routine. Specifics were lacking through the policy process, resulting in the ad hoc nature of provision for gifted children which varied according to individual initiatives. As the then Minister for Education saw it, the situation was ‘a pepper pot of exciting activities alongside inaction (Metherell 1989).