implicit theories of giftedness

IMPLICIT THEORIES OF GIFTEDNESS

Jana Marie Havigerová& Eda HavigerFaculty of Education

University of Hradec Kralove

Let‘s try to start with a little experiment…

…prepare your pen and paper.

Implicit theories of giftedness

Take a comfortable position, try not to think about anything…When you are completely calm,

try to imagine

a g i f t e d c h i l d and describe your

imagination (use your own words, describe all the details)



This was • a demonstration how lessons on

giftedness start at our university• first instruction of the research of

the implicit theories of giftedness

Reseach is supported by Czech Science Foundation GAČR, project GAP407/11/0426 Ready to ask? Information behaviour of pre-literate gifted children

STUDY I: Research results

N = 58Age = 22 – 53 yearsLength of professional experience = 1 – 33 yearsGender = female

The same association experiment was done with daily and distance students of kindergarten teaching.


What gender is the child in your mind?


60%

33%

7%

BoyGirlNot sure, both

Did you see a specific or any child?


50%

22%

16%

12%

specific child historical or film figure unknown child

unclear vision

Historical figure is typically one of these two:


Did you see a specific child or someone like this?

In what situation was your child?

53%38%

9%

At schoolAt homeOnather place


What characteristics are in description of your child?

mental function

literacy

social characteristics

motor skills

other

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

76.7811.46

6.81

3.72

1.24


What is the main characteristic of that child?

inquiring

intelligent

communicative

self-dependent

creative

active

thoughtful

bright

rich vocabulary

skilled

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

Axis Title


Typology


Students of kindergarten teaching associate on of the five types :

1. Smartie2. Chatterbox ie3. Bob the Bui lder4. Dreamer5. Child with special talent• L itt le artist• L itt le sportsman

Type Smartie


• bright child• looks at the first impression as "intelligent”• searching for information• interested in things around • quickly finds contexts• quickly understands the essence of things

Type Chatterboxie


• very good speaker• knows a lot of words• is communicative• talkative• inquisitive (Pepping Tom)• always asks a number of questions

Type Bob the Builder


• smart kid• handy, manual skilled• concentrated (especially

in manual activities)• original (invents new

opportunities to work with objects)

Type Dreamer


a very creative childwith original ideas, visions and thoughts

sensitive, empathicintuitive child

living in a dream

Type Little artist or sportsman


with special talentfor

SPORTSor

ARTS

6. How well do you know how to work with such a child?

21%

76%

3%

I'm sureI guess I could knowI do not know


Summarising: kindergarten teachers implicit theories of giftedness


1. The guiding idea of imagination is based on experience with a particular gifted child (if it is) or on very well known historical or film characters (Mozart, Einstein, Rainman)

2. More frequently is gifted child imaginated as a boy than as a girl

3. Most frequently is gifted child imaginated at school, less at home

4. Gifted children are often described using mental functions (especially thinking)

5. The main characteristics of gifted children is typically attributed to inquiring (interested in things and asking questions about them)

6. Teachers are not sure how to work with gifted children

Conclusion: kindergarten teachers implicit theories of giftedness


What is good:• Teachers have useful ideas about gifted children• Most of associations and ideas corresponds to the

current knowledge of the giftedness

What is wrong:• Implicit concepts of gifted children are incomplete• Teachers don´t know how to identify a gifted child• Teachers don´t know what to do with them

Conclusion: what am I doing for?


In my work I do• uncover implicit theories of giftedness of

kindergarten teachers, • show current knowledge of the giftedness,• teach how to work with talented children,• especially how to ask good questions,• and how to teach asking good question,

• and subtly affect student‘s implicit theories of giftedness into explicit objective realistic one

STUDY II. CHARACTERISTIC OF GIFTEDNESS SCALEFOR KINDERGARTEN TEACHERS


Purpose


• Is this scale good tool for kindergarten teachers to gifted nomination?

Method

• Correlation study• Characteristic of Giftedness Scale * WISC• N=55 preschool children

Results


Conclusion

• Characteristic of Giftedness Scale is useful tool for kindergarten teachers

Descriptive Statistics N Minimum Maximum Mean St.deviation

CGS score 55 25 85 54,5 14,298WISC IQ 55 67 131 98,65 13,447

Pearson correlation r = 0,557** significant at the 0,01 level (2-tailed)

DO YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS FOR ME NOW?


[email protected]


Do you have questions?Do you want cooperate?Please contact me:

Thank you and have a nice day in Prague

APPENDIX I.WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR?




Word implicit is derived from the latin implico (to braid).

Implicit theories are subjective, tacit, lay, unexpressed, unspoken theories insight human mind. We usually don‘t know about them, but they subtly affect us!

Implicit theories are subtly influencing:• attention• memory• emotions• interpretation of facts• and behavior.



Implicit theories of giftedness can affect a number of educational processes and activities of teachers • searching and nominating gifted children,• educational leadership identified gifted

children,• working with a problematic talented child

or a child with dual exceptionality.



Implicit theories of giftedness can also affect the willingness of teachers to • work on themselves,• get new information about giftedness and

gifted children,• learn new methods and procedures,• be a good teacher for these children.

For the practical needs, rather than sophisticated theoretical definition of giftedness or gifted child, it is important to have a good description of the child or group of children I work with, information about special needs of that children, and to know how to work with them.


APPENDIX II.

Something practicalbefore the end…



Activate children to ask questions• Play question games with children

– 20 question task (What do I think about?)– Neverending story (6 times why?)– Interviewer Cornell notes (interrogative pronouns)– Bloom‘s daisy– Brainstorming game (What else?)– What would be if?

• Encourage children to ask questions• Praise children when they ask

Be a good model for your childrenImplicit theories of giftedness

Teachers asking top ten1. Ask questions of different levels - see

Bloom's daisy2. Ask open questions, rather than closed3. Ask open-ended questions4. Ask questions that support divergent

thinking5. Never be settled with just one answer!6. Ask questions generally the whole class7. Allow the interviewee time to answer8. Ask clear questions9. Ask only one question at one moment10. Do not answer your own questions

So do I


APPENDIX III.What is giftedness?Who is gifted one?

…some definitions for study…

Academic theories of giftedness

What is giftedness? Who is gifted?

1925 gifted child = child earning score greater than 120/130 on intelligence tests1959 but - parental socioeconomic status and academic performance predictedfuture success better than IQtest scores

Lewis Madison TERMAN (1877-1956)


What is giftedness? Who is gifted?Robert James HAVIGHURST (1900-1991)

1925 gifted child = gives consistently remarkable acheivements in any domain of human performance or endeavor- his ability can make him an outstanding contributor to the welfare of, and quality of living in society

Robert Frank DeHAAN (1925- )



Ellis Paul TORRANCE (1915-2003)

1974 gifted child= one who could identify problems or gaps in extending knowledge domains, generate new ideas or hypotheses, assess the ideas, and modify hypotheses and communicate results effectively



Joseph S. RENZULLI (1936 - )

1978 gifted child gifted behaviour= child produced gifted behavior that reflects an interaction among three basic clusters of human traits: above-average abilities, high levels of task commitment (motivation), and high levels of creativity.= and is applying them to any potentially valuable area of human performance


What is giftedness? Who is gifted?Robert Jeffrey STERNBERG (1949 - )

1986 giftedness = is a kind of mental self-management of one's life in a constructive, purposeful way. It has three basic elements: adapting to environments, selecting new environments, and shaping environments.

Intellectual giftedness includes three main processes: 1. separating relevant from irrelevant

information,2. combining isolated pieces of

information into a unified whole,3. relating newly acquired information to

information acquired in the past


What is giftedness? Who is gifted?National definition of US (1993)

1986 gifted child = children and youth with outstanding talent perform or show the potential for performing at remarkably high levels of accomplishment when compared with others of their age, experience, or environment. These children and youth exhibit high performance capability in intellectual, creativity, and/or artistic areas, possess an unusual leadership capacity, or excel in specific academic fields.

They require services or activities not ordinarily provided by the schools.


What is giftedness? Who is gifted?Conclusion (2011)

For the practical needs, rather than sophisticated theoretical definition of giftedness or gifted child, it is important to have a good description of the child or group of children and of the special needs of that children, which we work with.


implicit theories of giftedness

Documents

specific child

little experiment

main research

association experiment

g i f t e d c h i

children ready

research resultsn

special humor10what