Nurturing gifted and talented children at Key Stage 1

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What skills did teachers find useful in identifying children’s gifts and talents?

Gifts and talents may take time to emerge so assessing children’s abilities, aptitudes and talents is a continuous process. In the projects reported here teachers focused on improving skills in observing and questioning and identifying special abilities in young isolation and in understanding cognitive challenge. Many projects demonstrated the increasing understanding among teaching staff of the difference between ‘more able’ and ‘gifted’. Teachers expressed surprise at how these skills had helped them to identify talents and learning approaches which had previously gone unnoticed.

Approaches linked to improved identification included frameworks for observing children’s involvement in tasks, questioning grids for staff to improve children’s meta-cognition, improved understanding of behaviour and interests in the home and development of activities which were designed to help teaching staff reveal children’s special aptitudes.

In Dorset LA for example, teachers developed a ‘Thinking Kit’ which had six problem solving activities to be completed at home. The parents were guided on the best way to observe their child doing these tasks and to record these observations. In Sussex LA, questionnaires were used with children and parents to review the transition between Reception and Yr 1 and staff met to discuss children’s learning needs resulting in the identification of four gifted and talented children in the pilot schools.

In Warrington, a grid to support teachers and teaching assistants in questioning and challenging children to extend their thinking, was used to develop outdoor and role playing activities. This grid covered key questions such as ‘Why do we need..?’, ‘What are the good points…?’ and ‘How could we make the ideas better?’. The grid was also used for scaffolding children’s post activity evaluations.

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Research Home Themes \| Find digests \| About the digests resources glossary researchers contact TRIPS Introduction What skills did teachers find useful in identifying children’s gifts and talents? What helped children to demonstrate and develop their individual gifts? What do we know about successfully supporting gifted and talented children? What is gifted and talented? How was the study carried out? What are the implications? Where can I find out more? Send us your feedback Collated digests To find out more about collated digests click here Get Word Reader Nurturing gifted and talented children at Key Stage 1 This digest found in Gifted and Talented Send to a friend Word doc 70KB Printer friendly Collate for later What skills did teachers find useful in identifying children’s gifts and talents? Gifts and talents may take time to emerge so assessing children’s abilities, aptitudes and talents is a continuous process. In the projects reported here teachers focused on improving skills in observing and questioning and identifying special abilities in young isolation and in understanding cognitive challenge. Many projects demonstrated the increasing understanding among teaching staff of the difference between ‘more able’ and ‘gifted’. Teachers expressed surprise at how these skills had helped them to identify talents and learning approaches which had previously gone unnoticed. Approaches linked to improved identification included frameworks for observing children’s involvement in tasks, questioning grids for staff to improve children’s meta-cognition, improved understanding of behaviour and interests in the home and development of activities which were designed to help teaching staff reveal children’s special aptitudes. In Dorset LA for example, teachers developed a ‘Thinking Kit’ which had six problem solving activities to be completed at home. The parents were guided on the best way to observe their child doing these tasks and to record these observations. In Sussex LA, questionnaires were used with children and parents to review the transition between Reception and Yr 1 and staff met to discuss children’s learning needs resulting in the identification of four gifted and talented children in the pilot schools. In Warrington, a grid to support teachers and teaching assistants in questioning and challenging children to extend their thinking, was used to develop outdoor and role playing activities. This grid covered key questions such as ‘Why do we need..?’, ‘What are the good points…?’ and ‘How could we make the ideas better?’. The grid was also used for scaffolding children’s post activity evaluations.