In Orange County Public Schools, Gifted Education offers a "differentiated curriculum" - curriculum which is differentiated for the needs and abilities of identified Gifted learners.  In a nutshell, Gifted curriculum explores three main areas of Problem Solving, Critical Thinking, and Creativity Training.  These areas are explored through various activities, simulations, projects, direct instruction, group tasks, and production efforts.  Curricular"chunks" like Futures, Independent Research, Communication, and Service Learning are also part of the Gifted Curriculum. Of course, efforts in any ESE program are always driven by the Educational Plan for each student. 

Beyond the local scope of Gifted Education, there is the national view of Gifted Ed., which calls upon programs to offer differentiated Content, Process, Product, and Affectives.  Our program responds to this call for differentiation through our curriculum, instruction, methodologies, assessment strategies, environmental design, etc.  Gifted classroom often look and feel different than most regular classrooms. There is a focus on process and engagement. The affective needs of gifted learners are varied and specialized. Their emotional needs are always of outmost concern.  Comfort, safety, and openness are prerequisites to learning for most students. 

Driving the local curriculum and national tenets are the gifted learners themselves. Research about (and our daily experiences with) gifted learners tells us that gifted learners can typically handle greater depth, novelty, complexity, and/or acceleration.  Our program seeks to serve these needs as well.

Cognition Training: Teaching Thinking

One of the major focal points of our gifted program is the teaching of thinking.  Eric Hoffer eloquently stated the needs of today's students: “In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world which no longer exists.”   Our task is to prepare children for their future, not for our own.  Cognition Training is a major focus in our classroom.  It is knowledge which traverses disciplines, experiences, ability levels, etc. The ability to understand yourself as a thinker, the ability to describe, defend, and justify your responses to the world, and the ability to understand and appreciate the thinking patterns and processes of the people around you are all powerful tools which will lend themselves well to the future of today's children.

How do we teach thinking?

The notion of teaching thinking often brings to light the question of how, exactly, one can teach thinking.  While there are many "takes" on the subject, the one to which I subscribe is a combination of the methods of immersion and identification, wherein, thinking skills and processes are identified and explored individually as well as being immersed into projects and activities. 

By introducing, highlighting, and exploring the skills and processes that make up good thinking.

By weaving the discussion and analysis of thinking into our activities and productions.

By becoming scholars of good thinkers, those people in our society and in our history who have been celebrated for their thinking abilities!

By journaling about our thinking processes. 

Other Educational Theories