Course in Gifted and Talented Education
- offered by IRSCA Gifted Education
Proud Founder and Initiator of EDUGATE- The Romanian Consortium for the Education of Gifted and Talented Children and Youth
Following the curricula guidelines estabilished by ECHA, The European Council for High Ability, IRSCA Gifted Education is pleased to invite you to follow our course in Romania to form Specialists in Gifted Education.
Is the course in Romanian?
Yes. The course will be taught predominantly in Romanian, partially in English.
How to register for the course?
New registrations are ongoing.
Please send an e-mail with your RESUME (CV) to cursuri.gifted@gmail.com
We will reply asap and let you know about further steps if you pass our short screening.
Prerequisites
This course is meant for persons working in the field of education, teachers and school employees who intend to specialize in gifted education.
Candidates must fulfill one of the following conditions:
- Bachelor degree, or equivalent, and nationally acknowledged as a teacher
- Employment in the field of primary or secondary education and/or in the field of teaching, or educational psychology
- A similar degree or profession (evaluated per individual by the supervisor), for example adults education.
Preferably also:
- Experience with gifted children or adolescents
When does it start?
The starting date for the new course is May, 12, 2007. The last date of the course was in the fall of 2006. The first module of the course develops over 8 week-ends, every Saturday, from 10 am- 12 every saturday, during school time and bi-weekly (information will be provided soon) over the vacation time. There are usually only 30 seats available and are offered based on the rule: "first come, first served". There's also going to be a waiting list for those who can't make it. The course in gifted education shall be followed from 1 pm- 3 pm by a couse in gifted education curricula formation.
Where?
The National College Mihai Viteazul, and virtually, as soon as possible, on a free e-learning platform- http://moodle.org/. This opportunity is currently under consideration.
Address - The National College Mihai Viteazul: 62, blvd Pache Protopopescu, Bucuresti.
Who is the trainer? The Course will be taught by Professor Florian Colceag.
Professor Florian Colceag
Very short resume: Mathematician with 20 years experience in gifted education and training of olympic teams for mathematics (his students won about 60 gold medals at international mathematics competitions); Utah State University, Education Department 2000-2001, M.A. in Education and Gifted education July 2001; International Representative for International Council for Gifted and Talented Education in Romania. Full resume available upon request. For a complete list of published articles please make a search on google with Florian Colceag as keywords.
How long is the course?
It's a week-end course (Saturdays) and it takes aprox 8 weeks to cover.
Cost
The total cost of the course is 200 RON over 8 week-ends (first module). We are working hard to get funding for this course and to offer it at minimum cost for the participants. Interested companies in supporting this course can write to office "at" supradotati.ro. The minimum cost would allow us to spread its availability. We want to encourage the best professors from all over the country to enroll in this course.
Those who cannot participate physically will benefit from the free online course.
Why train in Gifted Education?
Gifted Education Background today
Around 50,000 very gifted young students left Romania since 1990. We grow them, and we let them leave if we can't offer them anything here. The Romanian State subsidizes the western countries with exceptional brains, which cost normally to form millions in Euros.
Under these critical circumstances, one of the major aspects we promote today is the Brain Regain program. This assumes first hand the need to set up a gifted education program which absorbes the best children in terms of intellect and creativity, trains them and also, offers them the opportunity to return on key positions in Romania (see Piata de Competente Program in Romania, which is a program to attract and offer a market for our Brains in Romania at http://www.piatadecompetente.ro/ now under construction).
The education offered shall be at the highest international standards in the field, and will help the individuals develop at full potential, both humanly and intellectually, by providing them a rounded education, an individualized study track and a permanently offered assessment of the progress of personality.
Last, but not the least, to be successful, we need to train local specialists in gifted education.
Today Romanian teachers lack the knowledge of gifted identification and the strategies for gifted student education and mentoring.
Too many teachers have no knowledge of the different ways that gifted students learn or the different strategies of classroom management or the need for extra extension work for gifted child development. In addition, those teachers do not have access to suitable resources for professional development or support facilities to update their knowledge in this area.
Both current teachers and future teachers need a better understanding and working knowledge of factors and strategies of gifted student education. This education process includes gifted extension work, gifted acceleration and gifted socialisation areas.
Moreover, every school should have access to staff trained in gifted students in both educational and psychological factors. (Tony Nolan, Intelligence Analyst, Australian Government).
The whole gifted education system development, which IRSCA Gifted Education and its 25 Educational partners in the Educational Consortium promote in Romania, asks that every school should have at least one teaching staff trained in gifted extension work, gifted acceleration, and gifted socialisation areas.
Benefits for you
· This teacher training programme will award participants the IRSCA Gifted Education DIPLOMA which allows participants the following qualification: 'Specialist in Gifted Education'. Our teacher training programmes is currently being assessed and in the process of being recognized by ECHA.
- You will be able to teach in the gifted education system of Romania and train other trainers if your qualification at the end of the course allows you to do so.
- You will be able to better understand and suit your training for the gifted students you will councel, teach to or train
- You will be offered the opportunity to teach in the first estabishments of gifted education in Romania, which offers you a tremendous opportunity to develop professionally and humanly and moreover, a highly motivating environment, smart atmosphere, great students to even learn from, great collegiality, access to a pool of resources to support you in your educational performance (virtual libraries, full time Internet, e-learning platform, latest books and research etc) but also in terms of personal development and last but not the least, better salaries.
About ECHA, The European Council for High Ability
ECHA is an international organisation of researchers, teachers, school administrators, and parents who are concerned with giftedness, talent, and high ability. Its goal is to promote awareness of gifted children and to provide information to the public on the best development of gifted young people. ECHA is a private non-profit organisation. It enjoys consultative status as a non-governmental organisation (NGO) with the Council of Europe.
ECHA has been generated by an overwhelming demand for coordination from most European countries, both West and East. The major goal of ECHA is to act as a communications network to promote the exchange of information among people interested in high ability - educators, researchers, psychologists, parents and the highly able themselves. As the ECHA network grows, provision for highly able people improves and these improvements are beneficial to all members of society. See more at: http://www.echa.ws/.
Course in Gifted and Talented Education
Aims of the course
To acquaint candidates with:
Knowledge of the history of the gifted from both national and international perspectives. Knowledge of the relevant terminology as well as of the most important people and theories in the field. This includes a personal philosophy and a well-reasoned rationale for the encouragement of the highly able1 and problems concerning the development of criteria for the recognition of exceptional abilities.
Theories and taxonomies regarding intelligence characteristics. This includes critical thinking, creative thinking, lateral thinking, artistic thinking, etc. Knowledge of multiple intelligence theory. Deep study for psychological characteristics of creativity. Deep study for visual spatial- auditory sequential characteristics
Major approaches to the measurement and assessment of high abilities, commonly used contemporary criteria, local considerations, the practical application and use of observational procedures currently available. A particular point of interest must be the understanding and enrichment of the student as an individual with needs not only academically but also in the area of emotional and social growth.
Contemporary approaches to educating the highly able, including specific procedures and evaluation. Characteristics of flow.
The importance of creativity research and its influence on the potential development of the gifted; they are able to stimulate creative thinking and expression in gifted girls and boys. Applications in curricula development, and teaching procedures.
Knowledge of the specific developmental needs regarding peer interaction. In addition, they know the different aspects of personality development, like achievement motivation, social-emotional aspects and specific gender aspects.
Knowledge of the development of gifted individuals from a life span perspective. They know what can contribute to a successful development of gifted potential, so that giftedness during childhood may lead to adult life success.
The ability to counsel and develop gifted programs for schools, the family, and government agencies.
Assessment of gifted education activities.
Contents of the course
The program has a scope of approximately 500 hours. It consists of a theoretical and a practical part. During the course the educational and professional experience of the participants will be taken in account and their personal capacities will be strenghtened. Besides academic competence, social abilities are an important part of the course.
Theoretical part (approximately 250 hours)
The theoretical part consists of seminars regarding four thematic blocks and includes also meetings in groups to discuss the literature. The thematic blocks are structured according to the following contents:
CONCEPTIONS OF GIFTEDNESS
- Basic notions on human development, development stages, positive disintegration stages, asynchronous development for gifted children
- Nature and conceptions of human intelligence and creativity: models and theories, multiple intelligence model
- Theories and models on giftedness and talent: implicit, explicit, others
- Cognitive, affective, social characteristics of the gifted and talented
- Personality theories and motivation theories
IDENTIFICATION OF THE GIFTED AND TALENTED
- Fundamentals of the identification process
- Identification as a decision making process
- Instruments in the identification process
- Models of identification, learning styles
- Identification in practice: study of some research examples, types of gifted learners, three rings model
EDUCATING THE GIFTED: INSTRUCTIONAL MODELS AND PRACTICES
- Acceleration and enrichment
- Curriculum planning and development
- Learning environment characteristics
- Content, process and product modifications
- Curricular strategies, teaching thinking and developing mathematical thinking, teaching styles
- Acceleration
- Enrichment
- Ability grouping
- Programs for the gifted and talented
- Analysis of relevant institutions and programs worldwide
- Adapting the curriculum in the content areas, visual-spatial learners versus auditory- sequential learners
- Progress assessment
SPECIAL ISSUES
- Gifted and the family, councelling the gifted and the family, educational appraisal of exceptional learners, mentoring the gifted, Individual Education Plan (created at the start of each year and be re-assessed at the start of every school term), giftedness and cultural characteristics
- Social, emotional, and creativity needs of the gifted
- Learning difficulties of gifted
- Special groups of gifted: minorities, woman, underachievers, etc.
- Others
METHODOLOGICAL TOPICS
- Basic knowledge of educational research paradigms
- Notions of the psycho-educational research process
- Fundamentals of measurement and evaluation
- Program evaluation: basic notions
- Reading scientific literature, research methodologies
- How to carry out a small empirical research project
Funding and Placement Issues
- How to obtain gifted resource allocation
- How to apply on specific UE educational programs with gifted and talented
- Advanced Placement for Talented Youth
Information Techonology in Education
- Using the Internet to enable e-learning platforms and access to resources
- Councelling the gifted to get access to e-resources and how to critically analyze data available
- Obtaining materials for the gifted and strategies on how to integrate technology in the classroom and enhance learning; Instructional design models
- Learning methods with the aid of technology
- Leading research results to educational technology
- How to create a community of interests and how to purse colaborative and cooperative learning among gifted with the help of technology
Curriculum Leadership
- How to practice and include change in the curriculum and to train change agents to pursue new skills, growth and continuous learning
- How to seek opportunities and challenges in classrooms and schools and how to disseminate new curriculum opportunities
- Available differentiated Curriculum for the Gifted and Talented; planning and implementing Programs for the Gifted and Talented; evaluating educational programs
Performance Assessment
- Assessment methodologies (performance assessment, test development, portfolio use, continuous personality and progress assessment of the gifted and communication of student progress)
- The nature of assessment, Principles of sound assessment
- Understanding standardized tests and test scores
- Problem solving and decision-making based upon the individual needs of gifted
- Assessment Practicum
Introduction to Educational Statistics
- Statistical techniques employed in education, including descriptive statistics, correlation, simple regression, and hypothesis testing
Recommended literature (preliminary)
The students will have to study the literature for each of the five sections that is listed below. Literature may be replaced by texts in Romanian:
Mönks, F.J. & Mason, E.J. (2000). Developmental Psychology and Giftedness: Theories and Research. In: K.A. Heller, F.J. Mönks, R.J. Sternberg & R.F. Subotnik (Eds.) International Handbook of Giftedness and Talent (2nd Edition) (pp. 141-155). Oxford: Pergamon.
Sternberg, R. J. (2000). Successful Intelligence: A Unified View of Giftedness. In: C.F.M. van Lieshout & P.G. Heymans (Eds.) Developing talent across the life span (pp. 43-65). Philadelphia, PA, US: Psychology Press/Taylor and Francis.
Tannenbaum, A.J. (2000). A History of Giftedness in School and Society. In: K.A. Heller, F.J. Mönks, R.J. Sternberg & R.F. Subotnik (Eds.) International Handbook of Giftedness and Talent (2nd Edition) (pp. 23-53). Oxford: Pergamon.
Thompson, L.A., & Plomin, R. (2000). Genetic Tools for Exploring Individual Differences in Intelligence. In: K.A. Heller, F.J. Mönks, R.J. Sternberg & R.F. Subotnik (Eds.) International Handbook of Giftedness and Talent (2nd Edition) (pp. 157-164). Oxford: Pergamon.
Perleth, C., Schatz, T., & Mönks, F.J. (2000). Early Identification of High Ability. In: K.A. Heller, F.J. Mönks, R.J. Sternberg & R.F. Subotnik (Eds.) International Handbook of Giftedness and Talent (2nd Edition) (pp. 297-316). Oxford: Pergamon.
Riksen-Walraven, J.M., & Zevalkink, J. (2000). Gifted Infants: What Kinds of Support do They Need? In: C.F.M. van Lieshout & P.G. Heymans (Eds.) Developing talent across the life span (pp. 203-229) Philadelphia, PA, US: Psychology Press/Taylor and Francis.
Feldhusen, J.F., & Jarwan, F.A. (2000). Identification of Gifted and Talented Youth for Educational Programs. In: K.A. Heller, F.J. Mönks, R.J. Sternberg & R.F. Subotnik (Eds.) International Handbook of Giftedness and Talent (2nd Edition) (pp. 271-282). Oxford: Pergamon.
Gallagher, J.J., & Gallagher, S.A. (1994). Teaching the Gifted Child. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Chapter 2: Characteristics of Gifted Students
Chapter 3: School Adaptations for the Gifted
VanTassel-Baska, J. (2000). Theory and Research on Curriculum Development for the Gifted. In: K.A. Heller, F.J. Mönks, R.J. Sternberg & R.F. Subotnik (Eds.) International Handbook of Giftedness and Talent (2nd Edition) (pp. 345-365). Oxford: Pergamon.
Freeman, J. (2001) Gifted Children Grown Up. London: David Fulton. (Results of a 27 year follow-up of gifted and non-gifted children)
Freeman, J. (1998) Educating the Very Able: Current International Research. London: The Stationery Office. (Translated into Thai) (Free on www.joanfreeman.co.uk)
§ Freeman, J. (2000) ‘Families, the essential context for gifts and talents', (pp. 573-585) in K.A. Heller, F.J. Mönks, R. Sternberg & R. Subotnik, International Handbook of Research and Development of Giftedness and Talent. Oxford: Pergamon Press.
Freeman, J. (2000) ‘Teaching for talent: lessons from the research', in Lieshout, C.F.M. & Heymans, P.G. (Eds.) Developing Talent Across the Lifespan. (pp. 231-248) London: Psychology Press.
Colangelo, N., & Assouline, S.G. (2000). Counseling Gifted Students. In: K.A. Heller, F.J. Mönks, R.J. Sternberg & R.F. Subotnik (Eds.) International Handbook of Giftedness and Talent (2nd Edition) (pp. 595-607). Oxford: Pergamon.
Peters, W.A.M., Grager-Loidl, H., & Supplee, P. (2000). Underachievement in Gifted Children and Adolescents: Theory and Practice. In: K.A. Heller, F.J. Mönks, R.J. Sternberg & R.F. Subotnik (Eds.) International Handbook of Giftedness and Talent (2nd Editition) (pp. 609-620). Oxford: Pergamon.
Csikszentmihalyi, M., & Wolfe, R. (2000). New Conceptions and Research Approaches to Creativity: Implications of a Systems Perspective for Creativity in Education. In: K.A. Heller, F.J. Mönks, R.J. Sternberg & R.F. Subotnik (Eds.) International Handbook of Giftedness and Talent (2nd Editition) (pp. 81-92). Oxford: Pergamon.
Boulanger, M., Peters, W., & Hoogeveen, L. (2000). Help, mijn dochter is hoogbegaafd. Utrecht: Lemma.
Mönks, F.J., & Ypenburg, I. (1995). Hoogbegaafde Kinderen Thuis en op School. Alphen aan den Rijn: Samsom H.D. Tjeenk Willink.
Other authors included in bibliography:
o Silverman, L
o Dunn R.
o ben Perez, M
o Dabrowsky K.
o Piaget, J.
o Renzulli, J
o Urban K.
o De Bono, E.
Assessment
The following items belong to the theoretical part of the course:
- Independent evaluation of an article concerning the gifted.
- Candidates will have shown evidence that they have a good understanding of the literature of the course. This may be in the form of a written, oral or presentation submission.
Practical part and final thesis (approx. 250 hours)
The practical part will consist of three items:
- Internship: working with gifted boys and girls
Content: practical work with gifted students.
Requirements: under the guidance of a supervisor appointed by the local institution.
Duration: at least three months (including the empirical work for the thesis)
Conclusion: writing a paper that analyses and evaluates the project.
- Visits of schools, classes or institutions for the gifted
Participation in meetings, visitation of at least four schools or other facilities, that have some connection with the gifted enrichment. These visits must be arranged in conjunction with the supervisor. The activities connected with the excursion are concluded with a short critical essay.
- Thesis
The final thesis consists of a project of gifted education (in a school). In writing the thesis the Guidelines for the thesis must be observed.
Guidelines for the thesis
The thesis is the final part of the course. The thesis will prove clearly that participants are capable:
- to recognize, to analyze and to solve a problem of gifted education;
- to find the relevant literature for that particular topic and to incorporate it in the thesis;
- to develop a research design and to apply it (e.g. school-wide enrichment program; new didactics);
- to analyze the collected data, to present it systematically and to discuss it in the context of existing gifted programs. The
- thesis should also clarify to what extend the project contributes to new insights and what has to be done to put it into practice;
- to develop gifted education programs correlating with local needs of development, and to design curricula at school's decision, and select resources for these programs.
The paper must also make clear to what extent it contributes to new insights and what steps have been taken to develop the presented findings.
Length 30 to 60 pages, line space 1.5, one page containing approximately 200 words. No hand written manuscripts. Pages must be numbered.
Style and language must be understandable for the lay person. Foreign language terms and abbreviations must be avoided if possible, otherwise they should be explained.
If an abbreviation is used often, then it must be written in full or explained the first time it is used.
