Karen L. Westberg

The Classroom Practices Observation Study.

The Classroom Practices Observational Study conducted by The National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented (NRC/GT) examined the instructional and curricular practices used with gifted and talented students in regular elementary classrooms throughout the United States. This article describes the procedures used in this study and the results obtained from systematic observations in 46 third or fourth grade classrooms. The observations were designed to determine if and how classroom teachers meet the needs of gifted and talented students in the regular classroom. Two students, one gifted and talented and one average ability student, were selected as target students for each observation day. The Classroom Practices Record (CPR) was developed to document the types and frequencies of differentiated instruction that gifted students receive through modifications in curricular activities, materials, and teacher-student verbal interactions. Descriptive statistics and chi-square procedures were used to analyze the CPR data. The results indicated little differentiation in the instructional and curricular practices, grouping arrangements, and verbal interactions for gifted and talented students in the regular classroom. Across five subject areas and 92 observation days, the observed gifted and talented students experienced no instructional or curricular differentiation in 84% of their instructional activities.

Classroom Practices Used with Gifted Third and Fourth Grade Students

The Classroom Practices Survey was conducted by The National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented (NRC/GT) to determine the extent to which gifted and talented students receive differentiated education in regular classrooms. Six samples of third and fourth grade teachers in public schools, private schools and schools with high concentrations of four types of ethnic minorities were randomly selected to participate in this research. The major finding of this study is that third and fourth grade classroom teachers make only minor modifications in the regular curriculum to meet the needs of gifted students. This result holds for all types of schools sampled. It also holds for classrooms in different parts of the country and for different types of communities. Implications of these findings for researchers and gifted education specialists are discussed.

The Impact of Staff Development on Teachers' Ability to Modify Curriculum for Gifted and Talented Students1

In this study, three levels of staff development were provided to elementary teachers to train them in a technique called curriculum compacting. Teachers in 20 school districts across the country were randomly assigned by district to one of three treatment groups that received different levels of staff development. After receiving training in curriculum compacting (a procedure that enables teachers to eliminate previously mastered curriculum and substitute more challenging alternatives), teachers were able to eliminate between 42% and 54% of the content for the high-ability students they selected. Teachers in Treatment Group 3, who received the most intensive staff development, completed the highest rated compactor forms. The majority of the teachers in the study were enthusiastic about the process of modifying curriculum for high-ability students, reinforcing Guskeys (1986) model of the process of teacher change.

A Survey of Classroom Practices with Third and Fourth Grade Students in the United States.

Advocates of special programs for gifted learners have claimed for years that the needs of gifted and talented students are not addressed in regular classrooms in the United States. Are these claims justifiable? The Classroom Practices Survey, conducted by the University of Connecticut site of The National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented, investigated this issue through a survey of nearly 4000 third and fourth grade classroom teachers. The results of this nationwide survey indicated that only a limited number of teachers make any modifications in their instructional and curricular practices with gifted and talented students.

Return Gift to Sender: A review of The Bell Curve, by Richard Herrnstein & Charles Murray

intelligence: Anglo whites, Ashkcnazi Jews (their qualification, not oms, of those of the Jewish 1-clifioll), certain Asians, and so on. Moreover, the definition makes no allowance for those who may not.score particularly highIv on cOI1l’elltional intelligence tests, but who show gifts according to broad<.’) theories 01 intelligence or giftedness, in gciicial. Consider justateBB or these nroclern conceptions of giftedncss. For l’xaIIlplc, aInong those written Oil ~ti-c people who are ,iitcct in terms of spatial, mrrsicul, bodilv-kiIlL’stl1L’ti,’, oliliti~II)Cl-s()IILII intelligeuccs in terms of (~arclncns (19t33) Of multiple intcll>gci>Lc;; or in rrcativr or praWical intdlig,’nlT in