Successful Collaboration Among Various Educational Sectors in Nurturing

Successful Collaboration Among Various Educational Sectors in Nurturing Gifted Learners Anna Hui Center for Child Development Hong Kong Baptist University

If you are a gifted … • • Infant Toddler Young child School child Adolescent Young adult Parent Adult

You probably have met … • • • Home educators Play group volunteers Early childhood educators Elementary school educators … High school educators … University educators … Counseling professionals … Psychologists … Coach or instructors in talented areas … • Other professionals from all walks of life …

School-Based Collaboration (Kochhar-Bryant, 2008) Educational Needs Support Services Needs The student Social Worker Teachers School counselor Specialist Teachers Psychologist Career teacher Therapist/Speci alist Principal Parent/Guardian Job coach/ mentor Social, Physical, Extracurricular Needs Classmates Physical education teachers Coaches School club leaders Music, theater, arts teachers

Division of Labor • Family education needs • General education needs • Advanced education needs • Talent education needs • Career-vocational education needs • Emotional and psychological needs • Peer relation and social needs

Collaboration Partners in Education Sectors • • • Elementary school educators … High school educators … University educators … Counseling professionals … Psychologists … Coach or instructors in talented areas … • Other professionals from all walks of life …

Point 1: Basis for Collaboration • col (together) – laboratus (work) • Enter a collaboration because of a shared passion and vision about education and optimal development of potentials of learners. • It’s not just a school or government project, it’s about developing potentials in individual children and talents for the school and community.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child • All rights apply to all children without exception or discrimination of any kind (article 2). • That the best interests of the child must be a primary consideration in all actions concerning children (article 3). • That States have an obligation to ensure that as much as possible every child’s survival and development (article 6). • Children’s views must be taken into account in all matters affecting them (article 12).

Point 2: Opportunities for Collaboration (modified from Kochhar-Bryant, 2008) Elementary Collaboration Activities at Student, Family, School levels Pre-referral Support Transition Support Family Partnership Junior High School Senior High School Collaboration Activities at Student, Family, School levels Related Services Transition Support Family Partnership Collaboration Activities at Student, Family, School levels Inter-agency plan Transition Planning Family Partnership College/ Post-High Collaboration Activities at Student, Family, School levels Transition Planning Support Services Postsecondary Partnership

Point 3: Interface between Gifted Education & General/Quality Education (Tomlinson, Coleman, Allan, Udall, & Landrum, 2004) • Collaboration between Gifted Education & General/Quality Education balance the roles of equity and excellence to the benefit of all students • Equity: Maximize capacity for all learners, including the gifted • Excellence: Promote talent development for all students

Collaboration facilitates shared common goals and benefits the total school community • Rich content • Regular expectations for critical and creative thinking • Development of meaningful products • Establishing expectations for high quality and hard work

Point 4 : Collaboration to Improve Perceptions about Gifted Education • Take clear, consistent, proactive public stands that gifted education is part of the movement to improve education for all students • Use broadened conceptions of intelligence, focus on gifted education as a resource for talent development in a broad range of students • Develop videotapes of effective examples of gifted education and share them broadly with educators of various subject domains (e. g. Gifted Strategies, EDB, 2008)

An Infusion of Creativity Project • Level 1: Various Subjects – infuse creativity into subject learning and teaching (Level IA – whole class, general enrichment) • Level 2: Creative Problem Solving for Able Students (Level IIC – pull-out, creativity training)

Point 5: Collaboration to Effective Instructional Practice & Programming • Team members contribute their best to analyze, develop and make more effective educational and support practices • Focus on how to assess student needs and interests, and how to design responsive instruction • Example of HKRSSTPSS (Level IID – Pull-out Mathematics on Solid Geometry)

Point 6: Collaborative Identification through the Regular Classroom • An interactive process that enables teams of people with diverse expertise to generate creative solutions to. . problems. The outcome. . produces solutions that are different from those that any individual team member would produce independently (Idol, West & Lloyd, 1988) • Example of LSTYKH Secondary School (Level IIC: Pull-Out, Critical Thinking & Visual Media)

Identification Instrument/Procedures Ratio 1 Questionnaire 30% 2 Individual Interview • Description of news pictures • Problem solving of news story 70%

Point 7: Promote Collaboration between Specialists in gifted education and Other Educators • Create and share specific models of differentiated instruction and flexible grouping in the regular classroom • EDB (2008) Resource CR-ROM

Torrance’s Incubation Model of Teaching for Creativity (Level IA – whole class, general enrichment) • Primary & Secondary Chinese & English Language Experts – textbook & student sensitive • Chinese Education Experts – curriculum sensitive for best practice • English Education Experts – curriculum sensitive for best practice • Gifted & Creativity Education Experts – individual difference sensitive

Salt Water Crocodile – Pui Hong Kong Wetland Park - Exhibition Galleries - Pui's Home • A Chinese text for Primary 5 students • Heightening Expectation • Deepening Understanding • Keeping the Curiosity or Creativity Going

Point 8: Collaboration for Preservice, Inservice, and Graduate Preparation • Encourage university level educators of the gifted to volunteer to teach preservice courses, and take part in preservice seminars • Encourage university level educators of the gifted to collaborate with other educators to develop and teach models of differentiated instruction for academically diverse classrooms

Point 9: Facilitate and Create Opportunities for Collaboration to Influence Policy and Political Action • Plan conferences to enable interested parties to meet one another • Nurture support which now exists for gifted education • Support educators of the gifted and other advocates for gifted child education in becoming administrators, school board members, committee board members, PTAs and other policymaking groups and positions

Point 10: Sustain Influence through Research and Dissemination Efforts • Encourage educators to take the lead in action research projects on topics related to high ability learners • Provide funding for research and studies (qualitative, quantitative, longitudinal) related to gifted learners and their developmental needs in families and schools • Conduct longitudinal efforts to study and modify teacher attitudes about giftedness

Two Teacher Training Courses offered by CCD commissioned by EDB • To enhance teachers’ knowledge and skills in helping and nurturing gifted students; • To enrich teachers’ knowledge of giftedness, leadership, creativity and critical thinking; • To facilitate teachers’ self-understanding and development; • To foster teachers’ understanding of the affective characteristics, needs and development of gifted students • To reinforce teachers’ skills through practicum in school and sharing in class. • Workshops & lectures (33 hours), practicum (3 hours): recognized as continuous professional development

Demographic details of Participants

Subscales of Scale on Teachers’ Role in Gifted Class (Yang, 1985) • Class teaching: how to teach and maintain a gifted class • Student counseling: counseling gifted students and fostering their holistic development • Curriculum: how to help gifted students research and excel and how to accommodate the course contents and cater for gifted students’ special educational needs • Communication: communicating with gifted students, their parents, other teachers and counselors and establishing a close relationship with them • Administration and research: conducting gifted research, taking further study, evaluating gifted students’ needs and talents, providing extracurricular learning activities, and getting support from school head and coworkers

Table 5 b. Participants’ mean scores of implementation in Scale on Teachers’ Role in Gifted Class at Time 1 and Time 2 and t-values

Positive Attitudes & Beliefs about Collaboration (Kochhar-Bryant, 2008) • Belief in the human drive for community and growth • Belief in the power of collective vision • Belief that collaboration is essential for educating the whole child • Belief in the value of self-determination • Belief that systemic change is rooted in individual change and learning • Belief in the participation of all who will be affected by the change

References • Tomlinson, C. A. , Coleman, M. R. , Allan, S. , Udall, A. , & Landrum, M. (2004). Interface between gifted education and general education: Toward communication, cooperation and collaboration. In C. A. Tomlinson (Ed. ), Differentiation for gifted & talented students (pp. 115). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press & the National Association for Gifted Children.

References • Cropley, A. J. , & Dehn, D. (Eds. ). (1996). Fostering the growth of high ability: European Perspectives. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Corporation. • Idol, L. , West, J. F. , & Llyod, S. R. (1988). Organizing and implementing specialized reading programs: A collaborative approach involving classroom, remedial, and special education teachers. Remedial & Special Education, 9 (2), 54 -61. • Israel, S. E. , Sisk, D. A. , Block, C. C. (2007). Collaborative literacy: Using gifted strategies to enrich learning for every student. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. • Kochhar-Bryant, C. A. (2008). Collaboration and system coordination for students with special needs: From early childhood to the postsecondary years. Columbus, OH: Pearson & Merrill Prentice Hall. • http: //www. edb. gov. hk/index. aspx? langno=1&n ode. ID=2377

Collaborative Effort in Child, Gifted/Talented Development • It takes a whole village to bring up a child • It takes many different villages to bring up the G/T potential in every child